First, on intellectual property. My point is that not all intellectual property violations are harmful. In fandom, they are often beneficial to the artist. When they are (for example: unauthorized sales of copyrighted material), there’s every right to go after the violators. When they are not (for example: sharing lyrics or tabs on fan sites, posting pictures of the artist, sharing unreleased bootlegs), the fans are best left alone.

Second, on defamation. If defamation is occurring in any venue, the artist has recourse by suing for defamation. It’s important not to entangle the issues of agendas to damage a person’s reputation and agendas to profit from others’ intellectual property.

I’d suggest that a “fan group” that has an agenda of defaming is not a fan group, though even anti-fan groups are often best left alone as attacking only brings publicity.

Distribution of materials is not intrinsically harmful to those who hold the copyright and I believe legal recourse should be saved for those occasions on which it clearly is.