A new focus for my dissertation...
I had a really good meeting with my dissertation supervisor today, and on the strength of that I've decided to shift the focus of my study somewhat. Rather than focusing specifically on the law as it relates to fanfiction, which would end up being a bit dry and legalistic, we're shifting the emphasis more onto the perception of ownership - emotional ownership in the case of the fans, actual and legal in the case of the authors, creators and corporations - and how that informs their actions in relation to fanfiction. And by its very nature the idea of ownership brings up the issues of copyright and intellectual property rights that I was going to focus on before, but from a different angle.
I think we as fans do feel somewhat proprietary over our fandoms. Hell, you only have to look at the ship wars in the Harry Potter fandom to see how passionate people can get about ‘their’ ships and ‘their’ characters! It might not be remotely logical, but how people feel. Without a solid hardcore fan base where would most TV shows or movies be? Would Star Wars have run to six movies without a fan base behind it? Would there have been five Star Trek series and ten movies without fans? Would Serenity ever have been made without the fans?
And if that’s the case, if fans feel they are the primary reason not only for the success but the very existence of the end material, doesn’t that give them certain rights? Not legal rights, of course - at the end of the day George Lucas owns Star Wars and has the final say, and I don't think most fans much care whether they have legal rights over the characters, bearing in mind that fanfiction is by its very nature unofficial and underground, which is where most fans want it to stay - but emotionally Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and sadly even Jar Jar Binks belong as much to the fans as they do to George. And what George Lucas does with the characters is almost immaterial. That's what fanfiction is for - to explore things that aren't explored by canon, to focus on the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes'. I'm sure we've all had ships that we would never really want to see in canon. I love reading Snape/Hermione but I'd be seriously squicked if it ever happened in the book or onscreen. Ditto with the Wincest. I love reading it but that doesn't mean I want Sam and Dean to start getting it on in the next series.
Well, actually...
I don’t just mean this in a ‘oh, there’s an audience for this shit’ kind of way, not in the way interminable sequels get ground out because the box office numbers look good and then immediately forgotten. You can make Snakes on a Plane 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 because the money’s good, but you can’t make the material live on as a living breathing part of culture in the way that Harry Potter or Star Wars has. And that’s because you need fans to love the material to such an extent that it becomes part of their own personal culture, which is expressed in their fanfiction. And if it’s that incorporation in our own personal world culture that makes material such a success, you can understand the fans feeling that to a certain extent they own the material as much as the corporations do.
Most of us feel that we're not doing any harm by writing fanfiction - we're not compromising the original product, we’re not making any money from it, and in the best of cases we’re promoting the original product and raising awareness of it. How many of you have had people say ‘I’ve never seen this show but your fic has made me want to?’ How many of you have bought DVDs or CDs that you could have downloaded for free, but you wanted to feel you were giving something back to the people who made this material that you love to play with? Look at the organised purchases of Serenity DVDs on particular days. The movie only got made because of you, but you still feel you have to give something back? I love fandom for that. And I'm the same - I can copy DVDs if I want, but 'my' shows I always buy - Supernatural, House, Firefly and the like. And because buying this merchandise sends out a message to the corporations - ‘we’re here and we love your show and you can make money from us to keep making it’. And fanfiction does just the same thing. Except there’s no money to be made from it. Hence the problem. I bet if George Lucas or Anne Rice could find a way to make money from Star Wars or Interview with a Vampire fiction they’d be all over the fic writers so fast your head would spin.
I don’t know. Am I blathering? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is this all bollocks? This is what I as a fan feel about ownership, but is it what other people feel too? That's what I want to find out.
I think we as fans do feel somewhat proprietary over our fandoms. Hell, you only have to look at the ship wars in the Harry Potter fandom to see how passionate people can get about ‘their’ ships and ‘their’ characters! It might not be remotely logical, but how people feel. Without a solid hardcore fan base where would most TV shows or movies be? Would Star Wars have run to six movies without a fan base behind it? Would there have been five Star Trek series and ten movies without fans? Would Serenity ever have been made without the fans?
And if that’s the case, if fans feel they are the primary reason not only for the success but the very existence of the end material, doesn’t that give them certain rights? Not legal rights, of course - at the end of the day George Lucas owns Star Wars and has the final say, and I don't think most fans much care whether they have legal rights over the characters, bearing in mind that fanfiction is by its very nature unofficial and underground, which is where most fans want it to stay - but emotionally Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and sadly even Jar Jar Binks belong as much to the fans as they do to George. And what George Lucas does with the characters is almost immaterial. That's what fanfiction is for - to explore things that aren't explored by canon, to focus on the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes'. I'm sure we've all had ships that we would never really want to see in canon. I love reading Snape/Hermione but I'd be seriously squicked if it ever happened in the book or onscreen. Ditto with the Wincest. I love reading it but that doesn't mean I want Sam and Dean to start getting it on in the next series.
Well, actually...
I don’t just mean this in a ‘oh, there’s an audience for this shit’ kind of way, not in the way interminable sequels get ground out because the box office numbers look good and then immediately forgotten. You can make Snakes on a Plane 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 because the money’s good, but you can’t make the material live on as a living breathing part of culture in the way that Harry Potter or Star Wars has. And that’s because you need fans to love the material to such an extent that it becomes part of their own personal culture, which is expressed in their fanfiction. And if it’s that incorporation in our own personal world culture that makes material such a success, you can understand the fans feeling that to a certain extent they own the material as much as the corporations do.
Most of us feel that we're not doing any harm by writing fanfiction - we're not compromising the original product, we’re not making any money from it, and in the best of cases we’re promoting the original product and raising awareness of it. How many of you have had people say ‘I’ve never seen this show but your fic has made me want to?’ How many of you have bought DVDs or CDs that you could have downloaded for free, but you wanted to feel you were giving something back to the people who made this material that you love to play with? Look at the organised purchases of Serenity DVDs on particular days. The movie only got made because of you, but you still feel you have to give something back? I love fandom for that. And I'm the same - I can copy DVDs if I want, but 'my' shows I always buy - Supernatural, House, Firefly and the like. And because buying this merchandise sends out a message to the corporations - ‘we’re here and we love your show and you can make money from us to keep making it’. And fanfiction does just the same thing. Except there’s no money to be made from it. Hence the problem. I bet if George Lucas or Anne Rice could find a way to make money from Star Wars or Interview with a Vampire fiction they’d be all over the fic writers so fast your head would spin.
I don’t know. Am I blathering? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is this all bollocks? This is what I as a fan feel about ownership, but is it what other people feel too? That's what I want to find out.