When the Author Owns the World: Copyright Issues Arising from Monetizing Fan Fiction

By S. Jamar, C. Glenn. 2014

Copyright should further the public interest and should further the inclusion and empowerment aspects of social justice; indeed, the Constitution requires that copyright be for the advancement of society and culture, not the creation of wealth for a few. The types of inducements formerly needed for creation and publication of many types of fiction no longer are relevant for the general category of fan fiction. The flowering of creative expression and communities based on common interests in worlds that prompt fan fiction will flourish best without cramped views of fair use and without expansive protection of copyrights in the copyrighted works. Little, if any, harm is caused to those traditional interests by such an interpretation. Indeed, the purpose of copyright, the advancement of society and culture through the creation and dissemination of new works, is furthered not by cutting down the forest of fan fiction, but rather by simply letting it be.

Subfields: Social Sciences & Humanities

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In Social Sciences & Humanities

1. Percy Liang
2. Dan Jurafsky

Citations in the corpus

• Foundation Models and Fair Use (2023, background): “…example, Fifty Shades of Grey was originally a fan fiction derivative of the Twilight saga, but the author removed references to the original Twilight series, including changing characters’ names, before publication and it has been commercialized without lawsuit (Jamar & Glenn, 2013; Lipton, 2014).”