Fanfic

Getting off to See the Wizard

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Dorothy rolling in the hay with the Scarecrow? C’mon, we all know they wanted to get naked together. That’s just one of the bizarre, fanfic couplings that Fleshbot has , um, uncovered on LiveJournal.

"D-Dorothy?"

Dorothy looked quickly over her shoulder, but her
own movement against her hand caused to moan loudly again as her eyes
met the Scarecrow’s.

Without a conversation, or her needing to persuade him, he came over between her thighs and kissed her thoroughly.

Dorothy
was surprised to feel his cloth mouth feeling rather erotic on her
mouth, making her even more wet than she was before he walked in.

She grinded her hips against his straw structure, and even that felt right.

She looked up at him with frustrated eyes, "I want you inside me."

Potter’s Literary Eco-system

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The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about the "the whole literary eco-system spawned by the series" and briefly touched on the fan fiction.

At least a dozen new or updated Harry Potter-related titles will likely
be published this year, according to Cambridge Information Group Inc.’s
R.R. Bowker. These aren’t the kind of faux Potter fantasy tales that
are posted on the Web, though there are plenty of those. (One site,
harrypotterfanfiction.com, says it holds more than 34,000 stories and
receives in excess of 40 million hits a month.)

[…] There are limits. Copyright law will prevent other authors from
offering new titles using Ms. Rowling’s characters and settings unless
they’re obvious parodies. “Boundaries exist,” says David S. Korzenik, a
publishing attorney with the firm Miller Korzenik Sommers LLP.
“Characters can be copyrighted, and settings can be protected,” he
says. “But if you are doing a parody you can go forward with the
understanding that the parody won’t be book eight or nine of the series
but rather is trying to deliver something very different or
transformative.”

Most authors don’t challenge amateur authors who write tales about
favorite characters as long as it’s not commercially distributed, he
says. While it’s technically a copyright infringement, “fan fiction” is
usually perceived as a way for fans to enjoy themselves while creating
further interest in the original work. “Nobody views it as a
substitute,” says Mr. Korzenik. Guidebooks and predictions of future
events are protected as well, as long as authors don’t borrow too
heavily from Ms. Rowling’s work.

You’ve Got to Love The Hypocrisy

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I got this email from Penny today:

I recently discovered your website while looking for information on fan fiction
and copyright law.  I was extremely interested in your views and the dry wit
with which you describe the fan ficcers that you have encountered.  One aspect
of your site which particularly interested me was your reference to plagarism
within fan fiction communities. […] I came across this community where fan ficcers "name and shame" those who are found to be
"plagiarising" their creative exploits.  It really does take hypocrisy to a
whole new level.
It certainly does. The site is called "Stop Plagiarism: Investigation into and Condemnation of Plagiarists." These fanficcer plagiarism vigilantes don’t have a problem with people who steal the characters, ideas and worlds of original authors, just those who steal from the intellectual property thieves. The hypocrisy is really quite astounding…and, sadly, all too typical of the fanficcer mindset. Here’s an example of one of their  "investigations" :

On the 20th and 22nd February 2007 respectively, Jabri uploaded the two RPS fics
‘A moment in time’ and ‘I Just Called Him "Love"’ to her LJ. It became apparent
that these were in fact close copies of the two fics ‘Afterglow’ by Melly (loopy_1981),
published on LJ on the 22nd February 2005, and ‘Ya Wanna?’ by Mouse, published
on boundbyblood.com and last modified on the 22nd August 2002.

In both
instances the only fundamental changes to the fics were to make them fit JM/DB
slash – ‘Afterglow’ being JM/NB and ‘Ya Wanna?’ not being RPS at all, but in
fact Spike/Angel slash. Apart from this the structure and majority of the
content was the same in both. Jabri’s fics were clearly recognisable replicas of
Melly and Mouse’s, and for this reason her actions appeared to be
plagiarism.

Jabri deleted her LJ on the 23rd February 2007. I contacted
her on the 28th February, but have yet to receive a response. I informed her
that if she did not respond we would assume her to be guilty, and so I shall now
be adding her to the list of plagiarists on the information page.

Many
thanks to all involved in this case!

My favorite part these "investigation" reports is the bit where they find someone "guilty" and add them to The List.  Funny stuff!

Fanfic vs Profic

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Author and editor Keith R.A. DeCandido discusses the differences between fanfic and what he calls "profic."

First off, fanfic is illegal and profic isn’t. This is not an irrelevant concern — we’re talking about the theft of intellectual property. Does that mean fanfic shouldn’t happen? Of course not — I’ve written fanfic, read fanfic, enjoyed fanfic. But then, I also enjoy driving very fast, and sometimes state police have something to say about it, and I have to pay a ticket. Of course, most of the owners of those intellectual properties turn a blind eye, mainly because no money is being made off the fanfic, and since money is the primary reason for protecting your IP…

Hey, Did You Know That if Fanfiction Went Away, There Would Be No More Gays or Lesbians? What would we watch late at night on Cinemax?

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I got a long email the other day. It turns out it’s from the same blogger who thinks I’m a sad little man who longs to write fanfiction.  She writes, in part:

I am a fanfiction writer, a slash fanfiction writer at that, I am not as illustrious or ambitious or zealous as some but I am glad to be one. I am as proud to be a slash fanfiction writer as I am to a lesbian and let me tell you it is very much the same feeling.

[…]At fifteen I bumped into my very first piece of fanfiction and it was like a bolt of lightening and then a few weeks later when I read my first piece of slash- its was very much like the first time I ever consider that I might be gay. It’s that monumental feeling of freedom, of knowledge; you finally know why the world seems a little off.

[…]My point is that fanfiction to you and (I’ll be presumptuous and say) I get the impression writing is too, nothing more than a hobby or a job and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you have to understand that for a lot of fans this writing helps shape who they are.

[…]Do you hate gay people Mr. Goldberg? I don’t think that you do, even if you just objected to slash fanfiction, I still would not think that. But what is the difference between what you do and a father who tells his 15 year old son it’s not okay to be gay? If there is one I can’t see it and you can hide behind all the copyright laws that you wish, but I assure you it will be no different then how the church hides behind over-zealously translated bible script.

Why is it that the people who write & publish fanfic feel that if I oppose what they are doing I must be either homophobic or have no passion for writing myself?

I love writing and am passionate about it.  I’m extremely fortunate that it’s also how I make my living and support my family, too. But believe it or not, loving to write…and making money doing it…aren’t mutually exclusive. 

But now by opposing fanfiction, I’m not just a passionless hack who writes only for the money…I am also preventing people from discovering their sexuality.

Call me crazy, but I think there are lots of ways you can discover and explore your sexuality without taking  characters you didn’t create or own, writing stories about them, and publishing them on the web without the author’s permission. It’s one thing to write fanfic for yourself to fantastize about or as a writing exercise, it’s another when you publish and/or post the stories on the web without the original authors’ consent. 

I believe it’s theoretically possible that women will still discover that they are lesbians without writing and publishing/posting stories about Buffy and Xena exploring the joys of sapphic love together…and that men might continue to discover their gay selves without writing and publishing/posting stories about Harry Potter giving Ron blowjobs…

“Oh, my naughty love, Tod thought. Where could you be?”

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My Brother Tod is having lots of fun messing with the fanfic crowd over at Fandom Wank:

Just wanted to pop in to say that, no matter how much you hate Lee or
me, I’ve enjoyed reading all of this and several other posts beneath
this one. You guys are exceptionally funny. That you point out the
general fucktardery of your particular world is something I can get
behind. I’m hooked. Now, will someone write something about me where
I’m involved with Dave Navarro, Carmen Elektra and a dagget from the
original BSG? Seriously. You write it, I’ll put it on my blog. Just
make me skinnier and more handsome than I am.

And they’ve done it.  Tod is brilliant.

They Hate Me, They Really Really Hate Me

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My brother Tod stumbled on a seething horde of  people who really, really hate me and he couldn’t be happier about it.

They are fucking hysterical. I mean this. I laughed my ass off reading
about their hatred of Lee, their dubious thoughts on me (they are
particularly upset with my poor grammar and word choice and misogyny,
which is basically what Wendy is upset with me about on a fairly
regular basis, but someone liked "Simplify" which thrilled me, as that
is, and always has been, my favorite story)  and then their rants on
other topics happening in and around fandom. I spent about thirty
minutes reading this website and I about pissed myself. I’ve actually
bookmarked it.

UPDATE (2-19-2007): Tod only scraped the surface. There’s much more Lee-hating to enjoy.

Misrepresented

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There’s an interesting article in Reason Magazine about fanfic. The only problem with it is that the writer Cathy Young completely misrepresents my views on the topic.

The vehemently anti-fanfic writer Lee Goldberg, who blogs at
leegoldberg.com, is the author of several authorized novels based on
the TV shows Monk and Diagnosis Murder—a contradiction he defends on the grounds that he does it only for the money.

So I wrote a letter to the editor:

A number of people have sent me Cathy Young’s thoughtful and
interesting article
about fanfiction.  I have written extensively on my blog about
fanfiction, particularly my view that the practice of publishing it in
print and on the Internet infringes on the original author’s creative
rights (not to mention the trademark and copyright issues). I’ve argued
that fanfiction writers should get the permission of the author or
rights holder before distributing their work. If the original author or
rights holder  has no problem with fanfiction based  on their  work,
then I don’t either. I have also said that licensed tie-in fiction,
which I have written, differs significantly on ethical and legal
grounds from
fanfiction because it is done with the consent, participation and
supervision of the original author or rights holder. At no point have I
*ever* expressed the views that she incorrectly (and I have to assume
deliberately) attributed to me. It’s a shame, because her article would
have been far more informative, and fair, if she’d bothered to
accurately reflect my actual opinions on the subject.

I look forward to seeing a correction in the next issue of REASON.

Do you think they will have the journalistic integrity to run a correction? Or should I assume that they have the same standards for accuracy as  Cathy Young?

UPDATE 2-8-07:  Cathy Young has responded to my email and still misses the point.  I’m not surprised.  She argues that because I said I wouldn’t have written the MONK books unless I was hired to do so proves her argument that I believe the only difference between fanfic and  tie-in work is that I’m getting paid for it.  I replied:

I want to thank you for your lengthy follow-up to my email. While I
stand by everything you’ve quoted this time (accurately, I should say),
I still take issue with your statement above. I have never said that I
write them only for the money. While it’s true that I’ve said I
wouldn’t have written the MONK or DM novels unless I was hired to do
so, I don’t think getting paid is what separates fanfiction (the theft
of an authors’ work without his or her permissions) from licensed
tie-ins or other derivative works that respect the original authors
creative and legal rights. It’s not PAY that is the defining element —
it’s PERMISSION. Fanficcers routinely and blithely disrespect an
author’s creative and legal rights on the grounds that they aren’t
getting paid for their work.

She also makes the same old, weak excuses for not seeking permission before publishing fanfiction. Like other fanficcers, she takes no responsibility for violating the  creative and legal rights of authors and rights holders — instead, she believes the  burden should be placed on authors or rights holders to issue a blanket approval or disapproval of fanfiction (not that fanficcers would honor such a statement anyway).  Sadly, her bitter disrespect for creative rights, trademark and copyright are all-too-common among the fanfiction community. 

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