You can’t stop the (fiber-based) signal…

[bodlon]

So Fox has contracted a company -- Ripple Junction -- to make licensed Jayne hats. You can get them on Think Geek and stuff.

My personal reaction is that it's nice to be able to get one that's "right" in the sense that it's a licensed piece designed to be accurate -- AbbyShot makes some things I'd really like to own, for example -- but I also like the option of obtaining handmade. Jayne hats, for example, tend to be made with nicer materials than the acrylic yarn Ripple Junction's using, and buying handcrafted means supporting people who do handicrafts as a hobby or livelihood.

Some Browncoats I've seen talking about this have a pretty strong attachment to the Ma Cobb ethic in that Jayne hats ought to be DIY and not mass-produced pieces of luh suh.

Well, now folks on Etsy are getting Cease and Desist orders.

So here's the thing:

Fox owns Firefly. They're absolutely entitled to market and license the manufacture of Firefly-related stuff. That's not up for debate. They're also allowed to defend their intellectual property, even if it's a property they mistreated pretty egregiously, then pointedly ignored for years.

That said, there's apparently a pretty good case to be made that Jayne's hat itself isn't a thing that Fox can stop people from making and selling. Calling it a "Jayne hat" might be problematic in terms of trademark, but if someone were to knit replicas and call them "cunning hats," for example, Fox would have (in my absolutely non-professional opinion as someone with a B.A. in English, informed by some lawyer's blog) less of a case. They've got even less of a leg to stand on with Jayne-style hats that are color-inverted, color-shifted, or mashed up with other things (like this Fourth Doctor Jayne hat).

And, of course, there's no way for Fox to stop anybody from making their own, teaching other people how to make their own, giving them as gifts, airdropping them, etc.

Of course, some of this may technically be moot for the poor knitter who can't afford to stand up to them, but I'd be surprised if the Browncoat community didn't pull together to raise money if Fox actually lawyered up.

Fans are going to make things, full stop. While property holders do have some rights in terms of controlling works based on media, those powers aren't total and complete. Fox is very big, and throws its weight around, but fandom isn't powerless, and telling a bunch of creative people working in community to stop doing that simply doesn't work.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com

Comments

[stardreamer]

Hell, I've seen hats like that (though in different colors) at Wal-Mart. IMO, any knitter who isn't selling them specifically as "Jayne hats" should send Fox back an FOAD.