History Main / IDoNotOwn

The point is, this kind of disclaimer does not really improve your legal situation -- A copyright-infringing fanfic with a disclaimer is still copyright-infringing. However, a vast number of rights-holders are generally tolerant of FanFic authors simply because (1) having fanfic written helps consolidate the fan community for the original work, or at least (2) most fanfics are not popular enough that they dent revenues several orders of magnitude less than the bad press of going after a fanfic author would. Being "not worth suing" saves more fanfic authors from legal troubles than the disclaimer does.

The origin of this kind of disclaimer comes from a misunderstanding of the reason for copyright law as being concerned with someone taking credit for someone else's work, and that so long as a fanfic author is explicitly making clear that [[MostFanficWritersAreGirls she]] did not create the characters or setting, then she is not taking credit so not doing any harm. Actual copyright law is concerned with potential loss of revenue to the copyright holder due to the fact that some use of their material is not generating revenue for them. Even if you don't charge for your fanfic, the rights holder can argue that they could have written your story and then charged people for it if your free version wasn't there, so you've still damaged them monetarily.

* One [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/2/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality chapter]] of ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' begins "#include "stddisclaimer.h".
** In fact, the first 33 chapters include a variety of humorous disclaimers, often with shoutouts to various fandoms.

->-- ''@/{{Micah}}'', who launched but didn't suggest this trope

-->''"I do not own this trope. It and any characters that may appear in it are the intellectual property of {{Tropers/UnknownTroper}} @ 208.110.194.128. Please don't sue me."''
-->-- @/{{Micah}}, who launched but didn't suggest this trope

->''I do not own this trope. It and any characters that may appear in it are the intellectual property of {{Tropers/UnknownTroper}} @ 208.110.194.128. Please don't sue me.''

FanFic writers frequently see the need to begin their fiction with statements that look sort of like the page quote. These disclaimers are not only completely useless from a legal point of view[[hottip:*:If what you are doing counts as copyright infringement, then all a "I do not own" disclaimer does is indicate that you ''know'' you are infringing]] but also generally redundant, especially if posted on a website like [[{{Ptitle2ugbrwb8sjn4}} Fanfiction.net]] which already includes its own well-written legal disclaimers. It should also be noted some sites require the disclaimers on individual stories in addition to the site-wide disclaimers for some reason.

FanFic writers frequently see the need to begin their fiction with statements that look sort of like the page quote. These disclaimers are not only [[http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/free-expression/tsol.php completely useless from a legal point of view]][[hottip:*:If what you are doing counts as copyright infringement, then all a "I do not own" disclaimer does is indicate that you ''know'' you are infringing]] but also generally redundant, especially if posted on a website like [[{{Ptitle2ugbrwb8sjn4}} Fanfiction.net]] which already includes its own well-written legal disclaimers. It should also be noted some sites require the disclaimers on individual stories in addition to the site-wide disclaimers for some reason.

FanFic writers frequently see the need to begin their fiction with statements that look sort of like the page quote. It should be noted that these disclaimers are not only [[http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/free-expression/tsol.php completely meaningless from a legal point of view]] but also generally redundant, especially if posted on a website like [[{{Ptitle2ugbrwb8sjn4}} Fanfiction.net]] which already includes its own well-written legal disclaimers. It should also be noted some sites require the disclaimers on individual stories in addition to the site-wide disclaimers for some reason.

At this point, these disclaimers are more of a tradition than an attempt at actual legality (and indeed, the "I do not own" disclaimers have all the legal strength of a soggy paper towel). They often are used now to show gratitude for the work of the original creators; some compare them to Homer's invocation of the muse. Some authors also use them to clearly demarcate which elements of their story are canonical and which are invented (e.g., by having a disclaimer that says "I don't own any of these characters, except AuthorAvatar"). Still others use them to (fallaciously) point out the futility of suing them for infringement damages by indicating that they have little, no, or ''negative'' assets. (A note to whoever may actually think this would dissuade anyone from suing: companies sue in order to protect their ''own'' assets, not to acquire someone else's.)

* The disclaimer at the beginning of almost all [[TheAbridgedSeries Abridged Series]] goes thusly: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. [Franchise name] is/are owned by [Companies who own rights to show]. Please support the official release.
** Admittedly, most of these are added in the desperate hope that [=YouTube=] won't pull down their presumably Free Use-protected parodies with accusations of copyright infringement.

*** Actually those disclaimers have legal power since parodies are legally protected. They make it clear that those works were intend as parodies and thus it helps the defense against any potential lawsuits.

* NarutoTheAbridgedComedySpoofSeriesShow narrates its disclaimer with a different character each time (as well as referring to itself as a "fan-based parody of a fan-based parody"), and Kaikisimoto's Digimon Adventure abridged series encourages viewers to "[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes support the non-existent official release.]]"

* On one fic for TheMovie of ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', the author claims to own nothing except for the personality of the OC protagonist, "who says that she is perfectly capable of owning that herself, thank you very much."

** Some ''Death Note'' disclaimers have something on the lines of "If I owned Death Note, X would still be alive,"
*** The first and only disclaimer of ''[[FanFic/KiraIsJustice Kira is Justice]]'' ends with ,"And remember, this will be the last time you'll be seeing this,"

* One ''DeathNote'' fic starts with something like "I do not own Light, but he probably owns me".

->''I do not own this trope. It and any characters that may appear in it are the intellectual property of UnknownTroper @ 208.110.194.128. Please don't sue me.''