Fan fiction differs from other creative products… how?
miriam_heddy has put up a poll to take fandom's temperature regarding fannish activities and profit.
The results are most interesting. At this moment,
28% say it's ethical for a fan to profit from Publish and sell zines they edited for profit if the fans contributing stories get a cut and
Self-publish your fannish stories, bind them, and sell them for profit? is considered ethical by only 23%
while
Sell jewelry you made at cons for profit? is ethical according to no less than 94.6%,
Sell clothing you made at cons for profit? to 91.1% and
Sell handsewn, costumed fannish teddy bears at cons for profit? to 89.3%.
Can someone explain away the difference between those two categories*?
What's the difference between creating a written story and sell a copy of that, or creating a costume/jewelry/teddybear and sell copies of that? Is the one less "legal" (for lack of a better term) than the other? Is it because it's easier to make new copies of a story once it's written, while a piece of jewelry can only be sold once? Is it because one is something you can actually hold in your hand (jewelry, teddybears) while the other is more intangible**? Or are we seeing a kind of Pavlovian reaction in play that OMG Selling fanfic is badbadBAD?
I'm just curious what people think.
* And why is self-publishing worse than contributing to a zine, and is jewelry more ethical than teddybears??
**Copyright/trademark holders seem to a clear idea on this. I remember a story not too long ago about someone who made knitting patterns based on Dr. Who (I think...I'll have to see if I can find the original article again). The PTB's kept a blind eye, until someone else started using those patterns to sell stuff on eBay. Then they came down like a ton of bricks.
Comment...
The results are most interesting. At this moment,
28% say it's ethical for a fan to profit from Publish and sell zines they edited for profit if the fans contributing stories get a cut and
Self-publish your fannish stories, bind them, and sell them for profit? is considered ethical by only 23%
while
Sell jewelry you made at cons for profit? is ethical according to no less than 94.6%,
Sell clothing you made at cons for profit? to 91.1% and
Sell handsewn, costumed fannish teddy bears at cons for profit? to 89.3%.
Can someone explain away the difference between those two categories*?
What's the difference between creating a written story and sell a copy of that, or creating a costume/jewelry/teddybear and sell copies of that? Is the one less "legal" (for lack of a better term) than the other? Is it because it's easier to make new copies of a story once it's written, while a piece of jewelry can only be sold once? Is it because one is something you can actually hold in your hand (jewelry, teddybears) while the other is more intangible**? Or are we seeing a kind of Pavlovian reaction in play that OMG Selling fanfic is badbadBAD?
I'm just curious what people think.
* And why is self-publishing worse than contributing to a zine, and is jewelry more ethical than teddybears??
**Copyright/trademark holders seem to a clear idea on this. I remember a story not too long ago about someone who made knitting patterns based on Dr. Who (I think...I'll have to see if I can find the original article again). The PTB's kept a blind eye, until someone else started using those patterns to sell stuff on eBay. Then they came down like a ton of bricks.
Comment...