I've read with interest some really heated threads on some other writers's blogs about fanfiction.  Some authors think it is just evil, and some fanfiction writers think it is an unassailable right.  It seems like every time the two sides meet in one place, things degenerate from civil discussion to blatant argument to nasty namecalling.  One author, in an attempt to secure the moral high ground, even made an implication that sci-fi/fantasy writers aren't "real" writers.

Okay, so I had to walk away from the computer at that point.    Speculative fiction has long suffered under the tag "ghetto literature", and I still think it's unfair.  Progress is being made, but apparently the old guard will never change their minds.

Sci-fi and fantasy do tend to inspire more fan fiction than other genres.  Maybe because imagination is such a large part of it, for reader and writer?  I don't know.  But I know that a lot of writers feel really strongly that fan fiction is bad.  I saw one author use the word "soulless".  Ouch! 

I don't know that I'd go that far.  I can see arguments on both sides.  Most fanfic writers say that they do it for their own enjoyment, to help learn about writing, what works and what doesn't, to exercise the imagination, not to publish or profit from.  Most authors say that they dislike the unauthorized use of their characters and settings, sometimes in ways downright contrary to their intentions (esp in slash fanfic).  Both arguments make sense to me.  And you can't copyright an idea, only the expression of the idea.

But fanfic is inherently a derivative work--it could not exist without the author's original work.  And if you look at copyright law, it is very plain:

Who May Prepare A Derivative Work?

"Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work."  (For more information, see  US Copyright Office Circular 14, "Copyright Registration For Derivative Works".) 

This means that fanfic is technically illegal.  Just writing it is illegal. 

In practice, it is probably the issue of money that determines how much trouble you can get into for fanfic.  How much money you're making off of it, how widely distributed it is, and how much it stands to cost the author and publisher.

For fanfiction writers doing it for their own personal enjoyment, as in the arguments above, I personally don't have a problem with that.  How's anybody going to stop you, or even know?  For me, the problem comes when writers of such material decide to share it.  The internet has made truly wide distribution of copyright-infringing material possible in a way never before possible.  POD services have made it possible for anybody to sell anything they write--and I have even seen fanfiction authors using these services to sell copyright-infringing, technically illegal fanfiction.  That does bother me.

These days, even posting something on a website is considered publishing.  Don't believe it?  Many magazine and book publishers actually have clauses in their guidelines and contracts specifying that if the work has appeared on the internet, even on a personal webpage, it is considered previously published.  So yes, I consider posting fanfic on the web, on newsgroups and message boards, to be publishing.  And no, I don't think publishing fanfic is right.  I understand the love fanfiction writers have for the characters and settings they are using, but I don't buy the common argument that they somehow love them more than the author who created them, who sometimes spent years working on the backstories, the world building, the society rules, writing the story, dealing with the inevitable rejections, just to get this book into print because they really believed in the story they were telling, and the characters it was about.

So there you have it.  No definitive answers, but then I don't think there can be any defninitive answers until the courts get to hand down a verdict on it, and I don't think that will happen anytime soon because there just isn't enough money in it to get the cases before a court.  But I've muddied the waters still further with my opinions.

And hopefully encouraged you to think about the issue as well.

Well truthfully, mimicry is the highest form of praise. I would think it would benefit the author more than anything. It creates a greater interest in their work, the origional more than anything else.

FWIW, I agree with you; imitation is, after all, the highest form of flattery. A lot of authors kind of foam at the mouth when you bring up fanfiction though; it seems a few bad apples have spoiled the barrel for them. There actually have been cases where fans sued authors, claiming that elements of their books were stolen from fanfic creations--which kind of boggles my mind, since the entire universe was created by the author anyway, how can they possible steal from something somebody else wrote in a universe they didn't have rights to?

Some authors don't care if people write fanfic or not, others care very deeply. I'm not sure what the in-practice legality would be, since a case has yet to make it to court. But I sure don't see the harm in writing that sort of thing for your own enjoyment. There wouldn't necessarily be any harm in publishing it either, if we could be sure that authors wouldn't later have to deal with lawsuits from fans who feel their work has been stolen.

In all actuality, I think the problem only affects a small population of writers. You have to be a pretty darn popular writer before people get together and write stories based on your stories. For me, the issue is all hypothetical, so I'm not likely to get too upset. :) For JK Rowling, the issue is very real, and she still doesn't get upset, except when people post stuff that would be wildly inappropriate for her target audience (kids). I kind of think that makes her look better than if she flew off the handle and accused the fanfics writers of vandalism and started issuing cease & desist orders left and right.

But, as usual, just my two cents.

Hi, just wanted to put in my two cents.
I believe that writing fanfiction is a great thing to do to open up the mind and let juices flow if you can't think of any original stories. I don't see the problem with fanfictions, until people get out of hand by selling the fanfic for money, or prophet or something like that. Until it gets to that point however, I believe there is nothing wrong with writing it. I my self have about a hundred fanfictions on the net, but I certainly wouldn't sell them for money. Who would buy a fanfiction, anyway? Wouldn't you rather have the orignal?