Issues of relative long-term quality aside, the parallels between Fox's current target Buffy the Vampire Slayer and initial C & D poster child The X-Files are numerous. Both series premiered on then-struggling networks to little or no fanfare yet garnered great critical acclaim and a dedicated cult following by the end of their respective third seasons. More importantly, the fan base for both shows thrived within what was at the time of X-Files a relatively new medium: the Internet. For The X-Files, the passionate response of its online fan base indicated a level of devotion not reflected in the low Nielsen rankings; for Buffy, the internet was all that and more. By 1997 -- the year of Buffy's debut -- fan sites for sci-fi and horror series was standard practice, with even the briefest-running programs such as Space: Above and Beyond and American Gothic laying claim to as many as 30 or 40 websites apiece. Mere months after its debut, Buffy had over 100 websites, whether devoted to cast members, episode guides or fan fiction. The number would only grow rapidly from that point, and the official site -- where crew members such as Joss Whedon would occasionally post on the message boards -- only added to this feeling of community, similar to that of the still-cult X-Files three years before.

However, the similarities did not stop there. In 1996, as X-Files reached greater heights of popularity and series producer Chris Carter set out to launch a second genre series, Millennium, the then-three-year-old fan community was given a sudden command from the Fox legal team to terminate or remove their sites and page content. (Buffy is also an increasingly popular three-year-old show with a new spin-off series, Angel.) Most notable was the case of Gil Trevizo, then a University of Texas student who hosted a Millennium fan site through the school's server. Much like with Buffy Unlimited three years later, Fox did not bother to consult Trevizo beforehand; instead his site was eliminated prior to his knowledge of their complaints. The network went on to threaten legal action against a number of fan sites, some of which had been up for years raising nary a complaint. The corporation's actions this second time around have a familiar sense of timing; with a spin-off series set and an already established fan base firmly in place, the network can now afford to assert control over the very individuals who helped make the series a success.

"From a strictly legal standpoint, I cannot fault them," remarks AleXander (a.k.a. "The Slayer's Transcriber"), whose laboriously written Buffy episode transcripts once resided on the Slayer's Fan Fiction Archive. "But from a fan relations standpoint, I truly do not understand their motives. They cannot possibly be so naïve as to not realize that transcripts, particularly ones that are actually readable, can only help to increase their ratings, especially when the show has such a strong story arc that spans several seasons." Like the other Buffy site owners contacted for this article, AleXander created his website to provide information about the show's elaborate mythology to those who either started watching later in the series or don't have television access to the series; none of these Buffy websites have used the show for personal profit or have claimed ownership to the series' copyright. "A show such as Buffy needs a well-written resource where new fans can go to get backstory," AleXander points out, "and thus become that much more involved in it. Now new fans will have no place to go to catch up until syndication starts in two years."

Of all the many Buffy sites shut down over the past few months, AleXander's is especially significant, not only because of the sheer long-term effort involved (his site went live in July 1997 and was order to desist August 19, 1999), but because the transcripts were sanctioned by Whedon himself. "I met Joss at the first annual BtVS Posting Board Party, on February 14, 1998," recalls AleXander. "I naturally wanted to meet him, but I also wanted to ask him what his feelings were about fan fiction in general. After all, even back then I was well aware that there may be issues regarding copyrights and intellectual property rights that might need to be considered. But Joss was immediately receptive to the idea, as he had always been when asked about it on the official posting board, and poo-pooed all of my concerns." What AleXander did not yet realize was that Whedon did not own the copyrights, and despite the fact that many of the transcripts ultimately removed from the site were actually written by him, his approval was for naught.

AleXander's struggle also sheds light on a phenomenon many fear will be the network's next target: fan fiction. Whether in the form of short stories, screenplays or an entire virtual season (as has been created for the now-defunct Millennium at http://www.millennium-compendium.com/vs/) fan fiction has thrived in the age of the internet, and AleXander views the loss of his transcripts as a threat to a greater sense of both community and creativity. "I can understand Fox's desire to protect its copyrights, but fan fiction and transcripts are what make a show so much more meaningful to its online fans," he says. "They open up a whole new dimension to the show, and taking away the single best resource available to fan fiction writers is a severe slap in their faces. I speak from experience.

"I wanted to write," continues the site owner, who began transcribing the episodes as an exercise to help develop his own fan fiction. "But I needed a resource to do it well, and so I started writing transcripts, never even considering how it might change my life. Who would have thought? Now my life is completely different, better, much more enjoyable, and I have made wonderful new friends all over the world to share it with, and it's all because Joss had an idea and it made me want to write a story of my own. I never did finish it," he adds, "but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything."

Especially not for something like this: