★★☆☆☆ Infringement, by Seanan McGuire
I'd like this better if I knew what it is really about
Infringement
Seanan McGuire
I’d like this better if I knew what it is really about
Infringement is Seanan McGuire’s December 2025 Patreon reward. She introduces it as follows:
(Image: A beige cat tree occupied by an orange tabby in the front and a blue classic tabby in the back. Both are very fluffy, and look content.)
This month we have a science fictional look at a possible outcome of the copyright wars, and a reminder that things worth protecting will always have people looking to snatch them away. Stressful to write, hopefully cautionary but less stressful to read!
It’s frustrating, because it seems to be something other than what it pretends to be. It’s a story about Melody, the granddaughter of an author of a beloved series of children’s books. Grandfather, the author, has just died, and Melody is concerned about how to keep his creations out of the hands of those who want to adapt them for commercial exploitation.
Most of the story is a rather detailed explanation of Melody’s legal situation, in the light of the new copyright laws that have apparently been enacted between now, 2025, and the year in which the story takes place. This is pretty dull stuff. And what makes it really dull is that it feels like a long complaint about Intellectual Property Law. About current law, I mean. But it never says that, and since I know very little of these “copyright wars” of which she speaks (aside, that is, from the issue of scraping for feeding AI models, which does not appear to be at issue in this story).
To the extent that I can figure it out, the complaint is about the adaptation of the works of authors who have died, and whose work has entered the public domain.
I do, in fact, have opinions on that. I think it’s a GOOD thing that after an author has been dead for 70 years, or whatever the current number is, other artists are free to make use of their work. Even when those other artists do things like make changes and make movies.
As an example, take Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes series. I am a fan of the books, less so of the movies. The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle sued Springer for copyright infringement. As Wikipedia describes it:
On June 23, 2020, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought a lawsuit in New Mexico against, among others, Nancy Springer, Legendary Pictures, PCMA Productions, and Netflix, citing both copyright and trademark infringement. This is in regard to the final ten stories produced by Doyle, which had not yet entered the public domain, although at the time of filing four actually had. The lawsuit specifically references Holmes’ becoming more emotional in the final ten works, presenting a more “human” side to Sherlock, something that he was not known to present in the original works prior to the character’s resurrection after The Final Problem. According to the suit, The Enola Holmes Mysteries and adaptations violate the trademark and copyright on this particular depiction of Holmes, as the stories are still in a time of transition between copyright and the public domain.
I don’t know how you feel about that, but I think it is some bullshit, and that the folks in charge of Conan Doyle’s estate should be ashamed of themselves. (I’m happy to report that the lawsuit was dismissed.)
So, I freely admit that I don’t understand what point McGuire is trying to make in this story. But, to the extent I can make it out, I am entirely out of sympathy with her. It is possible and even likely that if she had deigned to explain what she was on about, I would have more sympathy.