The Messy World Of Fan Fiction And Intellectual Property — Copyright Law
As a Harmony shipper fan of Harry Potter, I always want Harry Potter to end up with Hermione but they did not in the movie. Therefore, I turn to fanfiction to explore a scenario in which Harry Potter and Hermione are happy together and do kiss. Fanfic helps me to imagine the happy ending of my favorite characters.
What is Fan Fiction?
Source: GIF
Fanfiction is a story written by a fan that features characters or settings from the original fictional universe of a TV show, book or other forms of entertainment. It is a part of fan participatory cultures that encourage fans to become producers and creators besides being consumers of creative media. For example, fans write fanfiction about the character Kurt in Glee series turn to the notorious killer or the former puppet Pinocchio helps James Bond to kill the bad guys. Fanfiction provides fans with the opportunities to enjoy, discuss and develop fan creativity and artistic production. ( John Fiske on fandom) However, fan fiction’s legal status remains unclear. Fanfiction stands at an intersection of issues of property because of its nature, authorship, and underground status.
Fan Fiction and Intellectual Property — Copyright Law — Who owns the story?
Source: Lawinspiring
Let’s take Harry Potter Fandom — which makes up the biggest proportion of fanfic on Fanfiction.net, as an example. The article “Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer: Use of Popular Characters Puts ‘Fan Fiction’ Writers in Gray Area” in 2003 is about the legality of fanfiction. J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros against Harry Potter fan websites like HarryPotterFanFiction.com, Fictionalley.org, and SugarQuill.net for publishing free fictional universe of Harry Potter to allege the violation of their movie’s copyright. Fanfiction written by the enthusiastic fan is often permitted not because of the law approvals these materials, but because copyright owners don’t see it as a threat because of its niche audience or unlikelihood of it ever making money. Fanfic may only run into legal challenges when it walks into a copyright mess. Borrowed characters, scenes or plots that are protected from unauthorized use under intellectual property laws can be enough to make fanfiction become copyright infringement.
Fans create their work and naturally post it but they don’t know they are parts of a wider community-a fanfiction forum. Therefore, fanfiction may technically be more than a personal homage to your favorite story that has a huge impact on the original work. It is obvious that precedent will be set through the court of public opinion when copyright holders overreach and outrage the public.
Is fanfiction illegal?
Source: GIF
Like most legal questions, it depends. Fanfiction may add something different to media creation or just a continuation of the original work. It is also a contribution to fan culture. However, fanfiction may borrow more than an idea which can make fan become a lawbreaker. It is a wholesale copy of the original that borrowing much of the plot from and abstracting elements of the original fictional universe, like characters and locations.
In my opinion, fanfiction is a great way for fans to express their love with their favorite movies or shows. However, when it comes to the legal side of copyrighted content, I think it is a breach of copyright. Therefore, fans need to aware of the copyright protection laws or get permission from the original content creators to use their characters and/or stories. Maybe, I think that some of the paid royalties should go to the original authors like how royalties are paid to singers on Spotify if fan writes fanfiction to make money. The fanfiction should be for good intentions as they admire for the original work, not for commercial purposes.
