I suppose it's certainly true that if you're dying to prevent people from writing certain things (I imagine J K Rowling, for one, must avoid noticing fanfic trends like the plague, because damn HP fandom), a blanket discouragement of fanfic in general is probably going to be the only logical way to attempt it (rather than, say, prohibiting anything centred around the BDSM world, or whatnot). Though it's never going to completely stop it, of course. But while I do understand what you're saying about particular authors' aversions to certain aspects of fanfiction, I personally am going to stick with telling them to suck it up and ignore it. If nothing else, they need to consider that pretty much anything that can appear in fanfiction can also appear in general discussion, and there's no way to outlaw that.
As for copyright, it's hard to tell with the internet involved (every country has different laws, obviously, so it's going to depend which countries the people in question originate from). But, though I'm not a copyright lawyer, I'd be stunned if any copyright law anywhere would count posting a story that explicitly accepts that it's based on someone else's work online (e.g. to a fic archive) as the publication of something capable of being protected by copyright laws in its own right. On the other hand, as I said on my own journal, something that went as far as demanding money for the work or similar would be a very different issue indeed, and one that should be treated far more seriously than posting something to LJ or FF.net or whatever.
But while I do understand what you're saying about particular authors' aversions to certain aspects of fanfiction, I personally am going to stick with telling them to suck it up and ignore it. If nothing else, they need to consider that pretty much anything that can appear in fanfiction can also appear in general discussion, and there's no way to outlaw that.
I generally agree; my point was just that there are other reasons for the decision to prohibit fanfic besides "I musn't let my fans visit my sandbox; they might build a prettier sandcastle than mine." (I've never read the authors you mentioned on your post; you could be right about their motivations.)
On the other hand, as I said on my own journal, something that went as far as demanding money for the work or similar would be a very different issue indeed, and one that should be treated far more seriously than posting something to LJ or FF.net or whatever.
Right. I just think that some authors (particularly older ones, who were successful and published before the "fanfic" wave really hit) are afraid that if they open that door even a crack they'll end up with a catastrophe on their hands. I'm not saying it's justified (I'm not sure whether it is or not, as I don't know how common it is to have a fan cause significant trouble), but they're not bad people for thinking that way.
As I said before, I love fanfiction, and I agree that there are definitely huge benefits to both the fan and the author. I'm just a chronic devil's advocate. Whenever I see bashing with no one defending the bash-ee, I get this incredible urge to analyze potential motives until I can understand both sides of the argument. (And then I bite my tongue 85% of the time, because I've learned that people who are ranting are very rarely interested in actually diffusing the issue. I didn't this time because I hoped that the response would be peaceable. Thanks for proving me right!)
There should always be a devil's advocate. ;) But the people I think might need defending here are perhaps the ones that express doubt about the idea of fanfiction, or the specifics of it when applied to their material (e.g. in some fandoms, particularly those where canon is focused at children, it would be fair for the creator to have all sorts of censorship concerns at the very least, though that's really sort of another issue). I absolutely believe that it's logical to have misgivings about such a thing. It's clearly a complicated issue. But there's also clearly a reason why, despite decades of fanfiction being popular in one form or another (more so recently with the internet, of course), authors haven't banded together and claimed copyright to stop it. If there was any kind of risk to their own interests that was more than fleeting, you can bet they would have acted en masse. Instead, most of them are content (or at least grudgingly willing) to let their fans do as they will in this matter, as long as we don't escalate the issue by demanding money for our efforts or by infringing on the freedom of the authors themselves.
For those few authors, though, that choose to distinguish themselves by completely outlawing fan contributions out of hand (and, more particularly, for those that kick up a massive hissy fit every time the issue comes up in any way instead of even considering any arguments contrary to the way their mind is set), I don't think the same defences necessarily apply. I might have missed something, but from what I've seen their experience is no different from the vast majority who don't feel the need to isolate their fans over this. There seems to be a level of irrationality in the way some of them kick their heels in so completely on this issue. And maybe that overlooks one or two authors whose history with the issue is a little different (who might have had enough personal experience with fandom somehow causing them as an individual actual harm in some way), but I'll freely admit that I'm dealing in generalisations here, so that's a flaw that I'll concede.
As for copyright, it's hard to tell with the internet involved (every country has different laws, obviously, so it's going to depend which countries the people in question originate from). But, though I'm not a copyright lawyer, I'd be stunned if any copyright law anywhere would count posting a story that explicitly accepts that it's based on someone else's work online (e.g. to a fic archive) as the publication of something capable of being protected by copyright laws in its own right. On the other hand, as I said on my own journal, something that went as far as demanding money for the work or similar would be a very different issue indeed, and one that should be treated far more seriously than posting something to LJ or FF.net or whatever.
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I generally agree; my point was just that there are other reasons for the decision to prohibit fanfic besides "I musn't let my fans visit my sandbox; they might build a prettier sandcastle than mine." (I've never read the authors you mentioned on your post; you could be right about their motivations.)
On the other hand, as I said on my own journal, something that went as far as demanding money for the work or similar would be a very different issue indeed, and one that should be treated far more seriously than posting something to LJ or FF.net or whatever.
Right. I just think that some authors (particularly older ones, who were successful and published before the "fanfic" wave really hit) are afraid that if they open that door even a crack they'll end up with a catastrophe on their hands. I'm not saying it's justified (I'm not sure whether it is or not, as I don't know how common it is to have a fan cause significant trouble), but they're not bad people for thinking that way.
As I said before, I love fanfiction, and I agree that there are definitely huge benefits to both the fan and the author. I'm just a chronic devil's advocate. Whenever I see bashing with no one defending the bash-ee, I get this incredible urge to analyze potential motives until I can understand both sides of the argument. (And then I bite my tongue 85% of the time, because I've learned that people who are ranting are very rarely interested in actually diffusing the issue. I didn't this time because I hoped that the response would be peaceable. Thanks for proving me right!)
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For those few authors, though, that choose to distinguish themselves by completely outlawing fan contributions out of hand (and, more particularly, for those that kick up a massive hissy fit every time the issue comes up in any way instead of even considering any arguments contrary to the way their mind is set), I don't think the same defences necessarily apply. I might have missed something, but from what I've seen their experience is no different from the vast majority who don't feel the need to isolate their fans over this. There seems to be a level of irrationality in the way some of them kick their heels in so completely on this issue. And maybe that overlooks one or two authors whose history with the issue is a little different (who might have had enough personal experience with fandom somehow causing them as an individual actual harm in some way), but I'll freely admit that I'm dealing in generalisations here, so that's a flaw that I'll concede.
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