Copyright and Fair Use Questions about World War Z.

[roebeast]

Hi everyone,

Being a huge fan of Max Brooks's World War Z and having listened to the audiobook far too many times already, I'm considering getting some of my friends around the world to record the remaining stories from the book. Some of the most chilling stories were not recorded and I'd really like to hear them performed aloud.

My question is would it be acceptable to post these online much like a fan film? Or is any recording of the work at all going to be seen as copyright infringement?

It seems the clearest way around this is to just trade recordings amongst friends but I would also like to share these with other fans. I do however realize that the rights to share someone else's core work is not mine to assume.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you,

Brian Roe

[Talia]

Yeah a recording of the work may indeed be an infringement. Fan films are at least largely original. A recording is keeping the content the same, just moving it into a different format.

I would personally either just keep it between friends, or e-mail the author and see what he thinks.

[goatkeeper]

BMG can't take you to court for burning a Sex Pistols CD for your grandma.  But if you plan on putting these Max Brooks stories anywhere online that the public can access, you definitely need Max's permission. 

The non-commercial nature of your idea should come across as nonthreatening to him, so you have that going for you.  Also, agreeing on particular CC license protections would help.   But you still may get a flat out "no".  There may be a reason he hasn't released those stories in audio book form yet, who knows?

If he says no, you could go ahead and share the recordings with friends (like you do with your punk rock loving grandma), or read 'em to your kids for bedtime stories, but respect his wish to keep them from splashing the net. 
It doesn't really work as 'fan fic' because you'd just be reading stories from his book, not building upon them as derivative works. 

Another approach:  Money talks.  Ask him if you can buy the nonexclusive audio rights for the stories you want to run.

It's easy to steal creative content in the digital age, but stealing's bad, mmkay?   Paying authors or at least asking permission mmkay, that's a good thing.

[roebeast]

Thanks for the feedback. This reminds me somewhat of my tape trading days.

Now to find someone with a good French accent.