Fan fiction

Fan fiction is a general term that can be used to describe a variety written works about characters from fictional mediums such as movies, video games, books, comic books, etc. It can detail fictional musings about public characters, persona, and people. It is often written by fans of these mediums of works to create their own long-form entry or story based off a work; it’s done for free. These works are then read by other fans of the work and has, over time, has cultivated several online communities devoted to its creation. What is now recognized as modern fan fiction was popularized in the 1960s with ‘fanzines’ made by fans of the popular TV series Star Trek. The work is rarely professionally published or monetized and is usually done as a hobby. As fan fiction gains popularity, several services have allowed fans to publish, and even sell their works. Owners of the original works have varying attitudes about this practice, there are cases in which they have responded with legal action or disapproval of the content.

Notable Examples

Fanfiction.net

Fanfiction.net (or FFN) is the world’s largest source for fan fiction on the web, and accounts for more than 33% of all content about books online. It has the most extensive collection of fan works, both based on popular and obscure works. This includes books, comics, manga, webcomics, television, plays, etc. The site allows users to follow serialized stories, publish their own works, review other's works, and create their own communities and story collections. Notably, Fan Fiction doesn’t let authors publish NC-17 rated content through user-moderation, and enforces restrictions on the types of stories you can submit (i.e. songfic, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, self-insertion, and non-fiction). Also, certain authors have requested that fan fiction won’t be generated for their works.

Archive of Our Own

Archive of Our Owen (or AO3) is a project derived from the fan-run and fan-created non-profit organization called Organization for Transformative Works. This organization created projects related to defending and promoting a future in which all "fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative, and accepted as legitimate creative activity.' It differs from Fanfiction.net in that it allows any kind of fiction, excluding explicitly illegal content such as child pornogrpahy or trade secrets. It doesn't adhere to the legal pressures that other sites have, and advocates for fan fiction to be recognized under 'fair use' in United States law. Additionally, they believe that fan fiction in American law doesn't fall under copyright; therefore, fans should be free to create transformative works as they please.

Kindle Worlds

Kindle Worlds is a fan fiction platform created by the company Amazon. It has two features which differentiate it from other fan fiction archives:

1. There's no legal grey area. All works on the site are derived from licensed media properties and each media property has explicit rules from it's creator from which fan fiction writers can adhere to when creating fan works.
2. Fan fiction authors can make money from what they write. Usually, fan fiction writers write as a hobby and don't expect any compensation aside from feedback on their writing quality. With Kindle Worlds, the works are published through Amazon Publishing like any other written work and are fully-available for purchase through the Amazon Kindle store.

Legality

Copyright

In the United States, fan fiction is considered a ‘derivative work’, meaning that it is a work based upon one or more creative works. This includes works like translations, musical arrangements, art reproductions, etc. This falls mostly under United States copyright law; this law states that the owners of the original work have ownership and the exclusive right to “prepare derivative works based upon [their] copyrighted work. The author has exclusive rights and can sue for copyright infringement at any moment they wish.

Fair Use

Fan fiction is not infringing on copyright if it falls under the guise of fair use. Many advocates of fan fiction believe that it falls under this category. This would mean that fan works can be created and are legal under the law. However, this is only determined on a case-by-case basis. If a fan work falls under parody or criticism and are “transformative” in nature, then it is more likely to be seen as fair use.

Alternatives

As a way to get around the wishes of authors or the grey areas within U.S. law, authors may consider altering their fan works in order to make them 'legal' in the eyes of the law.

1. By removing original names or locations from the work, an author may be able to pass off a transformative work as a derivative one.
2. A fan fiction author may consider writing a work as a parody, or a work that either criticizes or makes fun of the original work, or is sued to create political satire. Legally, this kind of transformative work is legal as it directly falls under the guise of fair use.
3. Alternatively, a writer could only write fan fiction for public domain works. This could include authors like Jane Austen or William Shakespeare who's works are in the public domain and no one would be able to claim copyright for them.
4. In this same vein, there are authors that encourage fan works based off of their original works. If you write exclusively for these works, then there would be no legal issues.
5. A fan fiction writer could additionally consider getting the author's explicit written permission.

Fifty Shades of Grey

The novel series Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James was professionally published in 2013. However, the series began as a long-form fan fiction based off of the immensely popular novel and movie series Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. In 2009, it started off as a public work written on Fanfiction.net. By changing the names of the characters in the book, E.L. James was able to publish it as her own copyrighted work, and facilitate the creation of a movie adaptation.

Controversy

Censorship

fan sites censoring fiction to better comply with the law and author's personal wishes. Others websites ignoring it under 'fair use' or other excuses.

"Real-person fiction"

Is it wrong? Or violating privacy? Or have celebrities given us permission by being a public persona? How do these fictions affect these celebrities in real life?

Sexually Deviant/Explicit Works

Is it morally wrong? Some websites censor? is this ok? what about the positive effects a way for people to express sexuality and sexual feelings? is it ok to do this without authors permission?

Plagiarism

Plagiarism of other fan works. Is it legal? Does it matter since they're technically both derivative works?