This is a question that has been nagging at the back of my mind for over 2 years. Sometimes the nagging gets enough for me to actually take some action (my sourceforge project Trident Rising is the initial [and admittedly poorly updated] first attempt at trying to realise this ideal).

The project is far from dead, I have been doing a lot of work on my own systems to try and realise this dream. Hopefully I will be able to unleash the fruits of my labour on an unsuspecting world in July (I'm waiting for my ADSL connection to be installed).

Now, my biggest concern is the level of collaboration I can expect to see. Would you (as an author) be willing to write a short story or novel based in a universe not developed by you? Would you be willing to contribute parts of that work (such as major characters, significant environmental or technical devices) to anyone else who chose to use them in their pieces?

There are also significant legal issues to be overcome. I would like to see all contributed work become available under a license similar to the Open Content License (a GNU based license). All copyright of course would remain with the original author. In a 'blue-sky' future I would even like to see anthologies of user submitted fiction published - the appropriate royalties going to the appropriate authors but all content still freely available. How many authors would be willing to contribute under these restrictions? What sort of legal hurdles would need to be overcome to support these ideals?

Does anyone here have any ideas/suggestions/comments on this matter? I would love to hear your feedback.