In recent months, 20th Century Fox has demanded that webmasters of unofficial X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer sites remove materials related to the shows from their sites, but now the fans are striking back.

Fans of these and other science fiction series -- including Roswell and Star Trek -- have announced "Fanstock," an outdoor protest scheduled for June 17-19 at the 20th Century Fox's company headquarters in Los Angeles.

At the heart of this fight are thousands of pictures, sound files, video clips, logos, artwork and transcripts that exist on fan-run web sites throughout the Internet.

Fox, which did not respond to SPACE.com requests for comments, contends that this practice violates copyright law.

Fox has the right to defend their copyright, right? So why the fuss?

Solo84 -- a young woman from L.A. whose "Buffy Bringers" website has become the focal point for the organized fan backlash against Fox -- agrees that Fox does have rights. However, she feels that Fox is being unreasonable and unresponsive to the needs of their online fans.

"They aren't living in the now," she says. "Big corporations are going to have to learn to function within this new world of broad-sweeping technology."

"Many fans are becoming and have already become webmasters, expressing their love for the art they see in a far more creative manner than before."

Fan webmasters maintain they do no harm to Fox's products, and are actually building support and free publicity for the shows.

But does the law agree?

"In this case, the law appears to be on Fox's side," says Jeffrey Reyna, an intellectual property and Internet law attorney with the Palo Alto office of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown and Enersen LLP.

"Copyright law grants authors and copyright owners the exclusive right to copy, distribute, etc. their original works of authorship," he says. "Therefore, posting clips of a show, or portions of a script, or even still images from an episode, when done without the copyright owner's authorization, is technically copyright infringement."

But, of course, nothing about the law is that straightforward. The copyright act does recognize the need for balance between the rights of the copyright owner and the rights of the general public to access copyrighted information. Enter "fair use."

"Fair use" is a provision in the copyright act that allows the public to use copyrighted materials under certain circumstances. Whether use is "fair" depends on the nature of the copyrighted work, the purpose of the use, the amount of the work used in relation to the copyrighted whole, and the effect of the use on the market.

For example, if a webmaster made entire X-Files episodes available for download, he would not be able to claim "fair use", since he was not using just a portion of the whole. And making money off materials that belong to someone else is definitely not "fair use."

On the other hand, "if a fan site only posts still images and portions of scripts, for example," Reyna says, "and does so for a non-commercial purpose, then a court looking at [the purpose of the use and effect on the market factors] might be more inclined to find that a fair use exists.

"Bottom line, however, 'fair use' is a defense to a claim of copyright infringement," he points out. "So, it is up to the fan sites, if they are ever taken to court by Fox, to prove that their use of the copyrighted materials amounts to a fair use."

Still, Reyna says he's surprised by Fox's actions. "Most media companies should realize that fan sites help perpetuate a show's appeal and, ultimately, also probably help the media provider's bottom line by expanding the loyal fan base."

Whatever the legalities, fans are not taking kindly to the cease-and-desist orders, and Fanstock will take the issue offline and into the real world.

"We're hoping to get all of the fandoms involved," Solo84 says about the planned protest, which will bring outraged Buffy and X-Files fans together with sympathetic followers of other shows. "We're picketing them, dressed in full fan regalia."

It’s a clever way to gain attention for a cause. Even in L.A., Slayers, Spocks, and Scullys armed with picket signs is an unusual sight.

Solo84 claims that ultimately webmasters would like to see changes to the Copyright Act that make allowances for the Internet and its new technologies, as well as concessions that will allow fans to worship their favorite programs in peace.

"This, I believe," says Solo84, "is as much a fight to change copyright law as it is to save freedom of expression."