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Fan fiction or fanfic as it is more commonly know is on the fuzzy edge and many times over that edge of copyright violations. Most owners of the copyrights look the other way when it comes to fanfic. A number of prominent authors started by writing fanfic and then moved onto their own works. Some have even become professional writers in the universes they dabbled in when they were young fans.
Even though a show is over doesn’t mean that the copyright isn’t still in place. Someone owns those characters body and soul according to the law and has the right to decide what happens to them next. They also have the right and sometimes the obligation to protect their intellectual property from those who would try to profit from it without paying for the rights. Publishers and others pay a lot of money for the licensing fee so that they can produce books and other materials in these various universes for sale to earn money for their pockets and the pockets of the owners of the copyrights. Which means that the publishers also have to protect the intellectual property they have paid money to use.
The Internet has allowed fanfic to flourish. It has given a platform where anyone can get anything they have written out there for people to read. A lot of people want to read and write about the characters they have come to love from TV, film, books, and other sources. There are entire websites devoted to nothing but fanfic of one variety or another. Search Yahoo groups or Live Journal and you will find whole communities writing fanfic about the known and the slightly obscure (did you know that there is a fanfic group for Kafka’s works?). Technically all these people are breaking the law anytime they post anything since all these works are under some form of copyright but the companies that own the works look the other way. Unless someone crosses the line and then the blazing light of legal truth is shown upon the whole community.
Recently in the Star Wars community it has been brought to the attention of Lucas Films that someone is selling a book on various platforms including Amazon which is based on George Lucas’ intellectual property. The list of excuses and why they think this is legal is long and leaving them open to all kinds of legal grief down the road if they don’t obey the very large cease and desist order that is coming down the pipeline. Fans are really not helping by buying this book figuring that it will become a “collector’s item” once the legal teams get done with it. Believe it or not but Lucas can demand that all copies be returned and destroyed or legal action can be taken against those who have bought the book. Considering that there is a paper trail leading to those people from the publisher and Lucas Films can subpoena those records since all these books are really coming from one source.
This person may screw it up for all the fanfic writers of Star Wars or at least make it very hard to keep some of these sites up and running. The publishers should have known better as well. (I know the author is listed as one of the publishers but their partners should have known better than to let this go through). I really don’t think they are going to make enough to pay the legal fees that are heading their way by the sales of this book. I do think that other fanfics authors are going to have this person to thank or curse when they get told that they can’t play in the sandbox anymore with George’s toys because of this one tarnished example.
I am grateful I can’t read Star Wars Fanfic.
Even though a show is over doesn’t mean that the copyright isn’t still in place. Someone owns those characters body and soul according to the law and has the right to decide what happens to them next. They also have the right and sometimes the obligation to protect their intellectual property from those who would try to profit from it without paying for the rights. Publishers and others pay a lot of money for the licensing fee so that they can produce books and other materials in these various universes for sale to earn money for their pockets and the pockets of the owners of the copyrights. Which means that the publishers also have to protect the intellectual property they have paid money to use.
The Internet has allowed fanfic to flourish. It has given a platform where anyone can get anything they have written out there for people to read. A lot of people want to read and write about the characters they have come to love from TV, film, books, and other sources. There are entire websites devoted to nothing but fanfic of one variety or another. Search Yahoo groups or Live Journal and you will find whole communities writing fanfic about the known and the slightly obscure (did you know that there is a fanfic group for Kafka’s works?). Technically all these people are breaking the law anytime they post anything since all these works are under some form of copyright but the companies that own the works look the other way. Unless someone crosses the line and then the blazing light of legal truth is shown upon the whole community.
Recently in the Star Wars community it has been brought to the attention of Lucas Films that someone is selling a book on various platforms including Amazon which is based on George Lucas’ intellectual property. The list of excuses and why they think this is legal is long and leaving them open to all kinds of legal grief down the road if they don’t obey the very large cease and desist order that is coming down the pipeline. Fans are really not helping by buying this book figuring that it will become a “collector’s item” once the legal teams get done with it. Believe it or not but Lucas can demand that all copies be returned and destroyed or legal action can be taken against those who have bought the book. Considering that there is a paper trail leading to those people from the publisher and Lucas Films can subpoena those records since all these books are really coming from one source.
This person may screw it up for all the fanfic writers of Star Wars or at least make it very hard to keep some of these sites up and running. The publishers should have known better as well. (I know the author is listed as one of the publishers but their partners should have known better than to let this go through). I really don’t think they are going to make enough to pay the legal fees that are heading their way by the sales of this book. I do think that other fanfics authors are going to have this person to thank or curse when they get told that they can’t play in the sandbox anymore with George’s toys because of this one tarnished example.
I am grateful I can’t read Star Wars Fanfic.
