Fanficcers have no problem routinely infringing on the copyrights of books, movies and TV shows…but don’t you dare copy their work.
Someone emailed me this excerpt from the fanfiction.net user agreement (the bold-facing and italicizing of the most blatantly hypocritical/outrageous statements are mine):
9. COPYRIGHTS and COPYRIGHT AGENTS
FanFiction.Net respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, there are two methods of recourse depending on the nature of the infraction. If you have a copyright abuse complaint based on theft of your piece by other fan authors, please see Section Ten: Domestic Copyrights. Else, please provide FanFiction.Net with the following information:
(1) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
(2) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
(3) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
(4) your address, telephone number, and email address;
(5) a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
(6) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.
After this has been received, FanFiction.Net administrators will seek to determine if the piece in question is in violation of your copyright and then respond accordingly.
10. DOMESTIC COPYRIGHTS
FanFiction.Net respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. If you feel that your writing was copied with out permission and in violation of your copyright by another writer on FanFiction.Net, please provide FanFiction.Net administrators with the following information via e-mail:
(1) Pen name and e-mail address.
(2) Contact information for the author you feel is violating your copyright. This information should include the author�s pen name, e-mail address, and author profile url.
(3) The url of the piece that you have the copyright for, the date that the story was posted, and the title of the piece.
(4) The url of the piece that you feel is in violation of your copyright, the date the alleged infringed piece was written and the title the alleged infringed piece.
(5) Supporting and collaborative evidence that demonstrates copyright infringement.
(6) A short message detailing the nature of the copyright infringement.
After this has been received, FanFiction.Net administrators will seek to determine if the piece in question is in violation of your copyright and then respond accordingly.
Unbelievable.
I have to confess that I was giving fanficcer’s the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they either didn’t understand copyrights, or that they didn’t believe in them. (I’d disagree with them, but they would at least be consistent.)
Given the above post, however, it’s clear that I was being far too generous in my assessment. It seems that they believe it’s ok to “steal just a little bit”, at least as long as they’re the ones doing the stealing.
Giggle of the Day: How WEIRD is this?
Good grief… had to laugh out loud when I read the extract on Lee Goldberg’s “Hypocrisy 101”: FanFiction.Net respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Oh, please. What planet do these
Fanfic rules!!!
You will wither and die under our power!!!
Yeah it’s great work if you can get it. Except for the fact it isn’t worth anything in the market.
Copyright
I saw this over at Lee Goldberg’s site.
Unbelievable.
FanFiction.Net respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same.
They have very strict rules about stealing from them (i.e. “If you steal from us, y…
At one SFARWA meeting (San Francisco Area, Romance Writers of America btw) a guest speaker spoke about the dangers of fan fic. Basically, writers who have fans writing fiction based on their work should never read it. If, by chance, the writer creates a work that in some way resembles a piece of fan fic (say it was written on the message board of said writer’s webpage) then the fan can sue the author for plagarism and, if the fan fic has been authorized (aullowed/encouraged) on any level, the fan can win the case and the writer’s career destroyed. One of the most interesting things I have come across is the disturbing amount of “Fan Trauma” that writers have to share.
Like I tell my friends, “There is a reason Stephen King wrote Misery!”
I don’t see the hypocrisy here. Fanfiction.net does respect the right of the creators – they refuse to archive works from creators who have asked that people do not write fanfiction based on their work.
Also, many fanfic writers are aware of copyright laws. They are also aware that fanfiction is not illegal. Yes, there is reason to believe it is in violation of copyright law. There is also reason to believe that it falls under the category of fair use. Until it’s taken to court and a precedent is established, no one knows for sure.
“I don’t see the hypocrisy here.”
*sigh* Fanfiction.net is basically taking the position that it is NOT copyright infringement when fanfic writers write stories based on the works of professional authors–but it COULD BE copyright infringement if fanfic writers write stories based on the work of other fanfic authors.
Sorry, you can’t have it both ways.
Fanfiction IS illegal…but only if you try to sell it. What fan fiction is is basically taking someone else’s intellectual property (the fan ‘writer’ being too lazy to bother constructing original characters and situations of his/her own) and trying to make a buck off of someone else’s hard work. If said fiction is posted on the internet for free then it falls in the grey area of fair use, basically due to the fact that most creators don’t have the time or resources to track down and demand the Intellectual Property stealing stop. While it is ‘okay’ (until told otherwise) to steal a pre-existing character, it is wrong to steal from someone who has done a better job at stealing. Actually, that twisted sentece sounds like a plot description to dozens of crime/murder mystery stories I read/seen (i.e. thieves stealing from one another after all the hard work has been done). Maybe they can do a Fanfic Variant of it, call it Hypocrisy Among Thieves.
Fanfiction.net is basically taking the position that it is NOT copyright infringement when fanfic writers write stories based on the works of professional authors–but it COULD BE copyright infringement if fanfic writers write stories based on the work of other fanfic authors.
No, they’re saying it is copyright infringment when fanfic writers plagiarize from other fanfic writers. I know some people think fanfiction is plagiarism, so let me be more specific. Fanfiction.net does not allow fanfiction that has stolen phrases or entire stories from other writers.
What fan fiction is is basically taking someone else’s intellectual property (the fan ‘writer’ being too lazy to bother constructing original characters and situations of his/her own) and trying to make a buck off of someone else’s hard work.
I think you’re confused. It’s tie-in writers that are too lazy to construct original characters and try to make a buck of someone else’s hard work.
Fanfic writers are too lazy to construct original characters and too lazy to submit their fanfiction to publishers and elevate it to actual derivative fiction.
I think you’re confused. It’s tie-in writers that are too lazy to construct original characters and try to make a buck of someone else’s hard work.
Fanfic writers are too lazy to construct original characters and too lazy to submit their fanfiction to publishers and elevate it to actual derivative fiction.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Professional writers are hired by licensors to write books for them. Lee Goldberg, Peter David, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and countless others were all hired by licensors to write books. Writing media novels is by invite only, you will need an agent and a track record of being able to write to deadline, for market and, most importantly, to the demands of licensors. More than one writer has had to rewrite (or has had books rewritten for them) because they did not deliver the product that the licensors wanted. I’ll note that Troy Denning talks about how the book Tatooine Ghost, which he wrote, was a project that was pitched to him and Matthew Stover had to practically start over from scratch with his Clone Wars novel Shatterpoints, because it was not the kind of book LucasBooks wanted. Also, Mr. Goldberg has stated that he would not be writing Diagnosis Murder books if he had not been specifically asked to do so.
Now if a fan submitted a book to a publisher featuring characters that said fan was not legally authorized to use, the publisher would quickly inform him/her that said work was plagarism (and all fan fic is plagarism)…that and to warn him/her to not let the door hit his/her rear end as he/she exited the building.
Tie in writers are NOT lazy. They are hired to write for the owners of the characters. Writing a good story based on established characters is still hard work, even if you dind’t build the universe
And there are also Fan fiction writers who DO cross the divide into legitmate publishing with their original ideas.
There are shades of gray here, people.
I was being facetious. I don’t actually think that tie-in writers are lazy or that all fanfic writers could publish tie-in novels. I do know that some tie-in publishers will look at writing samples from unpublished writers, so a good fanfiction writer could possibly make the jump to pro via tie-in novels.
Writing a good story based on established characters is still hard work, even if you dind’t build the universe.
Exactly. And it doesn’t stop being hard work if you aren’t being paid for it. It’s true that a large portion of fanfiction is utter crap, but that’s true of any unfiltered writing samples. Trying to find good fanfiction has made me appreciate the need for editors, agents, and all the other “barriers” to publishing.
It is, with a few modifications, very much modeled on the copyright TOS for yahoo/geocities.
Now if a fan submitted a book to a publisher featuring characters that said fan was not legally authorized to use, the publisher would quickly inform him/her that said work was plagarism (and all fan fic is plagarism)
I’m a little late to the game here, but we lowly fanfic writers have a rule: if you can’t spell plagiarism, you can’t accuse someone of doing it.
The anti-fanfic group seems incredibly confused. Copyright infringement occurs primae facie where someone claims ownership of another’s work, ie – without crediting another’s efforts. The very nature of fanfiction admits to borrowing (or as anti-fanficcers claim, ‘trespassing’), and authors consistently admit that the characters and creations are not theirs.
Believe me, if anyone here (or anywhere) felt that their copyright was being breached in anyway, regardless of their stance of fanfiction, they would have support from the majority of fanfiction writers (sorry, ‘writers’ 😉 ).
Fanfic writers are too lazy to construct original characters
Actually we are. Or, we write fanfiction when we are too lazy to construct original characters (and universes, I should add). That is the nature of fanfiction. It is a lazy form of writing. It does take effort to write a good one, yes, but not as much effort as an original peice does. That doesn’t make fanfiction wrong however 🙂
One last thing, sorry for the continuous postings:
the fan can sue the author for plagiarism
No. They. Can’t. The characters are owned by the original author to begin with. The fan borrows them for fun. The original author still has the right to do what they like with them – if it just so happens that that is exactly what the fan is doing with them.. so? The fan has no recourse.
Besides, what damages would the fan sue for? It would be: the amount they would have made had the breach not occurred. Which would be.. uuum, *counts on fingers*… Nothing.
I’m not saying that no fan will try it. But I can tell you that the dipshit will be all on their own (especially when they’re made to pay costs for a frivolous and vexatious claim).
You cannot accuse anyone of plagiarism when the original author does not object to the derivative work in question.
Fanfiction.net does not archive any fiction derived from the works of authors who object to fanfic. If you post such a story there they will delete it as well as, most likely, your account.
There is no hypocrisy in this whatsoever. No one is plagiarizing Buffy the Vampire Slayer because Joss Whedon has said time and again that he loves and encourages the fanfic institution. However, when one moronic person steals a btvs fanfic from another and posts it as his own work that is plagiarism.
Incorrect on all counts. Trademark dilution is also an angle to consider. Judges will.
/Trademark dilution is also an angle to consider. Judges will./
If and only if there is a serious and credible threat of a financial nature ie. the work will change people’s perceptions of the product and affect the bottomline.
Since fanfics reach a very small and selected audience, there isn’t any credible reason to go forward with such a suit.
The Plagerisim issue on Fanfiction.net is more when authors steal whole chunks of fics and stick it in the middle of their work and claim its their own work. Fanfiction in itself can be classed as stealing technically, however I think with most authors they take the characters from a univers like stargate and write them in a whole different way. one in which the owners of the characters never would. Fanfiction is used so fans can see their Fave characters in situations that would never happen on the show. Or cross several fandoms together. You can’t look at fanfiction as black and white. It’s not, there is always going to be a grey area.
I don’t see the problem here, although part of it could be that you are referencing ff.net, which is a joke in the fanfic community. It’s well known that the majority of ff.net writers are 13-year-old idiots who can’t string a sentence together. There is good stuff, of course, but I know that a lot of fanfic fans can’t be bothered trawling through the dross to find it. I think something a lot of people are missing is that when a fanfic author steals another fanfic author’s work, they are claiming that they wrote it themselves…whereas fanfic authors always say: This universe/characters don’t belong to me, all hail -insert creator’s name here- for being so unutterably brilliant as to come up with this concept.
Fans write stories based on their favorite book/movie/tv show/whatever as a tribute, because they love the book/movie/show. What’s the problem? You don’t like people enjoying your work so much that they get inspired?
Finally, I can think of at least ten fandoms I have become a part of because of fanfic. I read a fan fiction story based on a book I’ve never heard of before, think that the story is good, so the book must be better, then go out and get the book. Hooray for fanfiction, spreading the news to those who might not otherwise hear it.
Please. Fanfiction is meant to be fun; stop being so serious about it.
Sorry for the double post…
After posting the above comment, I went back and read a lot more of this blog…and you’ve given me something to think about. I’m not a fanfic writer, although I read a lot…newspapers, books, encyclopaedias…fanfiction. I was peripherally aware that fanficcers are violating copywrite, although I didn’t know that published authors felt so strongly about it. That said, I don’t think I can stop reading fanfiction. The useless Mary-Sue, poorly-written garbage I have never read anyway. I like well-crafted stories that expand upon something that might have only been touched upon in the original work. One thing I should point out…fanfic writers, I believe, really do think that what they do is flattery, for the most part. You say that it is disrespect…and I understand your point of view. Fanfic writers don’t see it that way. Guess it’s one of those po-tay-to po-tah-to things :).
So, given that I’ve established that I don’t really know what I’m talking about, I’ll go away now.
Two words: Cassie Claire.
I’ve Been Fanficced
I was a writer/producer on SEAQUEST 2032, which was cancelled mid-way through production of its third season, though scripts were ordered for several more episodes. William Rabkin and I wrote one of those scripts, which was entitled About Face, and