Hey Cory, thanks for linking to Steve's book.

First off I want to let everyone know that I'll be fixing the typos readers have sent in and updating the files on the website. With luck by Wednesday there should be a corrected version of the files on the site, as well as some new versions in other file formats including several for mobile devices.

The origins of this novel are that Steve had heard that Firefly tie-in novels might be published. He was never approached by any publisher, but wrote the entire book 'on spec' because it just had to be written. When it became clear the Firefly tie-ins were never going to see the light of day and his agent had no luck getting the book in front of Joss, we encouraged Steve to post the book online for free under a CC license.

I have seen other fanfic authors release their work under a CC, though I acknowledge it is unusual. Our reasoning was that a CC license makes it clear that sharing is encouraged as long as the book is left intact and that though it is free for noncommercial use, the writing still belongs to Steve and if someone were to officially publish it someday they'd have to pay him money, just like any other book he's written.

Steve doesn't care if you write a sequel to this book, or other fanfic related to what happens here. That is a derivative work, but unfortunately there is no CC license which says 'you can't change this work but you can create something else based on it.'

As for fanfic of Steve's work, it exists and Steve is aware of it. He doesn't feel he can "officially" condone fanfic for fear of losing rights to his own work, but he will happily look the other way when people write it.