pookha wrote:different studioes actually have different policies on how they see things like fan fiction in fanzines ect..
This is true, and we even had a panel about this at the con. Different studios do have different policies, however not too many hunt writers and publishers down with cease and desist orders any more. Generally you find the most anti-fanfic hostility from literary authors; Anne Rice, for example, is categorically against it and is more than happy to send a lawyer after you and has done it before, whether you're profiting from using her characters or not.
On the other hand, you've got writers and producers like Joss Whedon who think fanfic is one of the greatest things in the world because it keeps the fans excited. In fact, if you check out the Buffy communities at fanfiction.net, look at the ads and you'll see that he has gone so far as to advertise his Buffy Season Eight comics there--because he knows that people who go there to read and write Buffy's continuing adventures are also very likely to spend money on his comic books.
In general, people like Anne Rice are the exception. George Lucas was going after people with cease and desist orders like crazy in the 90s, but after realizing a couple of things like A) the people he was suing didn't have any money so there was financially no point to it, and B) the bad press and word of mouth among fans hurt more than it helped anything, he finally got a clue and backed off. Regardless of individual studios' policies, mostly they realize that it isn't worth it to bug us, and would only really launch a serious investigation if they thought money was being made. Zines have been around since the 1930s, so by now most of those studios understand how the whole thing works, and that fandom is generally pretty good at policing itself when it comes to this sort of thing. Think about it: in retail, in order to be "profitable", things are usually marked up around 100%, right? Well, no one is going to buy a zine for $50-$75; such a price point is way beyond what the average fan can afford in the first place, and higher prices also create the suspicion that a profit is somehow being made, at which point the fans take it upon themselves to dig up the necessary dirt and if they come to the conclusion that the dealer or publisher is being dishonest and ripping people off and profiting from the zne, they'll pretty much never sell another zine again because their reputations will be ruined and word will get around to never buy this person's work again. It's happened, but not recently, because of the few who had been made an example of by their peers.