It's illegal! - Laws don't kill me people, people kill people Laws don't make people, people make laws. Sometimes the world changes and new laws are needed / old laws need to die. Prior to the changes in the real world getting recorded and registered in The Law, there is always a moment where a fraction of a population is "committing illegal acts".
(doing one at a time, taking breaks from work, yes?)
For 1 and 2 - the internet is international. Fanfiction is not illegal, or copyright infringement, in all countries. It's not illegal in the UK, where characters themselves are not counted as copyrightable works. (I can provide sources for this if anyone wishes.) This also covers 3, really.
Books shipped to the UK are subject to UK libel laws. Infringements (for lack of a better word) that find their way to the US are subject to US copyright.
Someone in the US could sue me for copyright infringement in the US, under US law, but since I'm not in the US and have no assets in the US, it wouldn't do them any good.
To get anything out of me, they'd have to have a UK court enforce the ruling of the US court, and the UK court would be interested in whether I'd done anything wrong under UK law, not US law.
So basically Anne Rice could waste lots of money suing me if I wrote Interview with a Vampire fanfic, and all she'd get out of it would be a ruling in her favour and a huge bill from her lawyers, while it would have no effect on me whatsoever.
Nobody can say anything about my characters but me, the original writer.
Once you've published, your story is open for people to think about it. Their thoughts may not be the same as yours. Their view of the characters may not be the same as yours. This is the way the world works. No two people have exactly the same thoughts, viewpoint, or story.
This is one of the things that boggle me. It's like, do these authors think that if people aren't writing horrible misinterpretations of their characters, that they won't still be misinterpreting their characters? People are going to misinterpret what you've tried to say, whether they write stories based on their misinterpretations or not.
For 4 - They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. One would not create fan fiction if one were not a fan; in fact, fan-fiction is one of the many ways fans express admiration for a work. How can admiration be an insult?
I beg to differ. I've written a few pieces of what I call "anti-fanfic," in which I respond to having read or watched something really stupid and wanting to write the story the way I think it should have gone.
1 + 2: Says who? AFAIK, there hasn't been a court decision either way concerning fanfic yet. Until there is, it's open to debate in which there are as many opinions as there are people (not to mention: different countries, different laws).
3: For what, exactly? Writing a story set in their verse and posting it publicly on the internet? Writing a story posted in a member-only archive? Writing a story and e-mailing it to a couple of friends? Post it in IM during a chat with a single friend? Write it and put the file in my desk drawer never to be seen again? Write it in my head? Where do we draw the line?
4: That's up to each individual writer to determine, whether they feel insulted, isn't it? One person's insult is another's compliment. And if I did insult any writer with my fanfic story, sincere apologies, that wasn't my intent.
5: Guess we better not talk about your story in any way, then, had we?
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(doing one at a time, taking breaks from work, yes?)
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Books shipped to the UK are subject to UK libel laws.
Infringements (for lack of a better word) that find their way to the US are subject to US copyright.
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To get anything out of me, they'd have to have a UK court enforce the ruling of the US court, and the UK court would be interested in whether I'd done anything wrong under UK law, not US law.
So basically Anne Rice could waste lots of money suing me if I wrote Interview with a Vampire fanfic, and all she'd get out of it would be a ruling in her favour and a huge bill from her lawyers, while it would have no effect on me whatsoever.
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Once you've published, your story is open for people to think about it. Their thoughts may not be the same as yours. Their view of the characters may not be the same as yours. This is the way the world works. No two people have exactly the same thoughts, viewpoint, or story.
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Think all you want, but if you make money off of someone else's characters that is a problem.
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Making money is a non sequitur/red herring. That's a completely different argument from the act of writing or even talking about characters.
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1 + 2: Says who? AFAIK, there hasn't been a court decision either way concerning fanfic yet. Until there is, it's open to debate in which there are as many opinions as there are people (not to mention: different countries, different laws).
3: For what, exactly? Writing a story set in their verse and posting it publicly on the internet? Writing a story posted in a member-only archive? Writing a story and e-mailing it to a couple of friends? Post it in IM during a chat with a single friend? Write it and put the file in my desk drawer never to be seen again? Write it in my head? Where do we draw the line?
4: That's up to each individual writer to determine, whether they feel insulted, isn't it? One person's insult is another's compliment. And if I did insult any writer with my fanfic story, sincere apologies, that wasn't my intent.
5: Guess we better not talk about your story in any way, then, had we?
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