The protocol for updating fanon has never really been established. However, let's make the assumption that the original author(s) cannot be contacted and the new author wants to update what's already there, not provide something totally new.
I see nothing wrong with updating the article to whatever you think it should be. The previous fanon authors own the copyright on the pieces they wrote, just as NRC's estate owns the copyright on the original material. So the new Kobing article would be subject to the same rules as the original fanon article; you have permission as long as you acknowledge ALL copyright holders.
My advice would be that you make best efforts to contact the orginal fanon authors for their permission, but failing that, write what you want to write. Just be sure to acknowledge their contributions in the copyright notice, and make it plain to the reader that your work is an extension of an existing fanon article, which itself is based on existing original material developed by NRC.
My suggestion would be that the copyright notice on every page read something like this:
Code:
(c) YYYY, N. Robin Crossby, <primary orginal fanon author> et al, <your name here>
{NB, you might also include CGI here if you wish, as well as in the following notice}
Then, on the first page you have some text box that read something like this:
Code:
This work is derived from original work owned by N. Robin Crossby {and CGI}, and from material written by <all original fanon authors>, also derived from that original work. The author of this work acknowledges the contributions of those authors and does not wish to challenge their ownership of their work.
However, the question might be, is the new version sufficiently different to warrant copyright protection of the new author's work. From Wikipedia:
Quote:
When does derivative-work copyright exist?
For copyright protection to attach to a later, allegedly derivative work, it must display some originality of its own. It cannot be a rote, uncreative variation on the earlier, underlying work. The latter work must contain sufficient new expression, over and above that embodied in the earlier work for the latter work to satisfy copyright law’s requirement of originality.
So that question has to be answered, too. And probably can only be answered AFTER the updated fanon work is written.
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