Well, Jenny Everywhere (A.K.A. The Shifter) was created in 2002-2003 by Steven Wintle and members of the Barbelith.com forums as an open source character. As an open source character, Jenny is available to be used by any one in any way they want. The only stipulation that her creators have placed on her use is that the writer/artist/film maker etc. include this paragraph in the work:
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
Jenny was created with the intent to add to the collective culture that we all share, represented quite well by the public domain, which is where are Oz pals can be found. Jenny, like Dorothy and Ozma, is not owned by anyone. Unlike the Oz folks, Jenny did not have her copywrite status elapse. Instead, she was created to belong to the world.
The result has been that Jenny has been used by creators in a wide variety of stories. Some of them are straight ahead sci-fi adventure tales and others are tongue in cheek "naturalist" nudey comics. She has proven to be the source of some wild and often very entertaining art. She is a sterling example of the importance and benefit of a common, shared cultural resource of ideas.
Since Jenny has the ability to "shift" from one reality to the other, as well as existing simultaneously in every reality, it only made sense that she would drop in on her fellow public domain figures in Oz. If Oz and Jenny were owned by some media conglomerate, like say Spiderman and Batman are, the meeting of the two concepts would be full of legal trip wires.
To learn more about what Jenny has been up to check out the excellent Shifter Archives.
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