User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-92.232.180.244-20130427095100/@comment-188432-20130428155126

I vigorously dispute your assertion that we accept other unlicensed DW-related releases by the BBV. We accept only those that have permission by the relevant copyright holders. It's just that not all of the DWU is owned by the BBC.

The Killing Stone involves characters wholly owned by the BBC, like Mike Yates, the Master and the Doctor, for whose use the BBC did not give license. It's a very different situation from P.R.O.B.E., where we have a record that BBV asked for and received permission to use the character of Liz Shaw.

We know the legal situation of Stone is precarious, because its author, Richard Franklin, directly said so in Radio Free Skaro episode 297 at roughly the 55'00" mark. He notes that in his expanded sequel, called Operation: Hate (The Truth About The Killing Stone), which wholly includes the events of the original Killing Stone, he was forced by the BBC to change the names of all the characters.  So the new version of the story — which Franklin is still trying to somehow sell as Doctor Who-related — doesn't even include the character of Mike Yates.

We also know that BBC Books officially rejected the manuscript on which the audio was based. So it's kinda "double-rejected" by the BBC.

In short, the legal situation of The Killing Stone is an absolute nightmare. It's fan fiction written by an ex-guest star that illegally snuck onto audio when the BBC had their backs turned. They aren't happy about what Franklin did before, so they're withholding permission for him to do anything with the story now.

We're not touching it with a ten-foot pole.