You can't beat the classics

[scarfman]

Sometimes in defending fanfiction you come up against someone who doesn't distinguish between fanfiction and plagiarism. Fanfiction is not plagiarism; fanfiction is unauthorized derivative work. There is a difference and I mean legally: Plagiarism and derivative work have different definitions under the law.

• Plagiarism is putting your name on original work created by someone else.
• Derivative work is you creating an original work that is derived from some other original work. If that sourcework falls under copyright, the derivative work may be authorized or unauthorized by the copyright holder. If it's unauthorized, it's fanfiction.*

If you need an example to demonstrate the difference between plagiarism and derivative work, use William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare never invented a plot in his life. His histories were based on sources. His tragedies were based on sources, sometimes historical (e.g., Hamlet). Shakespeare's works were derivative, literally and under the modern legal definition. Allowing for the differences between now and then in intellectual property law, it can be said Shakespeare wrote fanfiction. Shakespeare wrote crossovers! - A Midsummer Night's Dream is a crossover between Greek myth and English fairy lore.

Now, there is or once was a movement in academia that believed Shakespeare's plays were actually written by Francis Bacon. If that were true, then Shakespeare's works would be plagiarism, because he'd have put his name on works that were written by someone else.

Fanfiction isn't plagiarism. A fanfiction writer isn't someone who uploads to his website an MPEG of The Wrath of Khan or the text of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and then claims to have written it himself. A fanfiction author creates original works derived from the works he's saluting. For the record, though, taking someone else's fanfiction and globally replacing - for example - Forever Knight character names with Moonlight character names, and then reposting the work with your own byline, is plagiarism. The sort of thing happens.

* I believe fanfiction is, and of a right ought to be, fair use like parody. However that's beside the present point.
Edit Jan 2010 Also, fanfiction is increasingly being used in the vernacular to describe prose derivative work whether or not the sourcework falls under copyright. If that goes on, soon we'll need another word to mean what fanfiction used to mean...

Comments

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

There are people who just simply disagree for the sake of being disagreeable... a sad lot, IMHO. Personally, I think fanfiction/fanart is a good method of self-training for young artists, to mimic a style is an important first step in learning one's own. At the very least, there's plenty of work for people who can write/draw just like X or Y, in comics, animation, etc.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I believe fanfiction is, and of a right ought to be, fair use like parody.

On that note, I've been meaning to ask if you'd heard about the Organization for Transformative Works, which is dedicated to pursuing exactly that principle legally.

In terms of my own personal pilgrim's progress on the road to Fanfic Enlightenment, I've been running a Mutants & Masterminds game that takes place in an alternate DC Universe. I've also been indulging in my local public library's excellent graphic novel collection to catch up on material from the last six decades , Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron, and whatever the current Age might be.

I recently realized that I've been automatically interpreting events in the "canon" DCU by the way they'd translate into my game setting's timeline.

I also realized that my version of events was every bit as valid as those of the writers and artists actually collecting paychecks from AOLTimeWarnerMajorHugeConglomCo....

[scarfman]

ask if you'd heard about the Organization for Transformative Works

I think you've linked to them for me before. Someone has. I've checked them out once or twice.