So! All the SOPA and
PIPA stuff has died down, to everyone's relief, although now ACTA furor is in
the air. I'm sure I agree with most
Internet users in seeing these pieces of legislation as incredibly dangerous,
both in my capacity as an almost-author and an almost-librarian. My mind goes strange places in trying to
visualize the outcomes of these events, though:
in addition to penalties for file sharers, I wonder about fans who do
produce creative works based on copyrighted materials, and whether eventually
the government will bother to target them, too.
I do enjoy looking at pretty fanart, but I've never been
much of a fanfiction reader (and never a writer). In theory, though, I don't mind it as long as
nobody is making money from it. If
people were to write fanfic of my work someday, I wouldn't read any of it (so I
could keep it from influencing my own ideas, especially if I were writing a
series, and prevent any allegations that I stole an idea from someone writing a
story based on my own ideas!), but I wouldn't mind its existence. Some professional authors got their start
writing fanfic, and I'm generally of the attitude that anything that promotes
reading and writing and literacy is
good.
It's been a while since I've seen fanfic wank floating
around the Internet, so I don't know why my mind went there, but I think it'd
be a bit silly if laws went into effect that allowed the prosecution of fans
expressing themselves in innocuous ways (save for perhaps to some writers' egos).
Perhaps it's because, like I said, I like fanart. If these kinds of creators were scared of
jail, we'd never get that Chewbacca on a squirrel vs. Nazis picture I posted an
entry or two ago. And that would be a
shame.
Ehh, next time I'll write about something more concrete, or at least useful to the present. Perhaps constructed languages, since those have also been on my mind and I've got a background in linguistics. In the meantime, I start my final semester of grad school tomorrow, so please pray for my sanity. Whoosh~
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3 comments:
Hope your first day of the semester went well!!
That's an interesting point you bring up. I never even thought about the fan art/fiction, but it would be stupid for those people to be prosecuted. (Although, apparently there's an erotic series that started as Twilight fan fiction, but the characters aren't even named the same and there are no vampires, so it's loosely based, in my opinion. Can't remember the title of the series, off the top of my head.)
I've never read fan fiction--not my thing--but I love silly fan art!
I'd love a post on constructed languages! Linguistic nerds unite!!
I once read an interesting article on fanfiction, reminding that some of our great works would actually be considered fanfiction in modern times, depending on your definition of it. My immediate example is Siddhartha, and without being able to reference the article I couldn't go into much greater depth at the current time.
While I don't pay any particular attention to the fanfiction you're discussing though, I feel that even if these fanfiction writers were to start charging, I don't think there's any money to be made for a couple reasons. First, that most fanfiction writers don't write well enough for it to be paid for when you could find the same thing from someone else for the same cost. Secondly, that even if it is of some quality, most fanfiction readers won't pay for something they could find at the same cost from someone else.
I think the main thing to keep in mind with most modern fanfictions is that they don't really satisfy a desire for quality writing. They satisfy a desire to see Edward get down with Jacob. Which is a disturbing thought all it's own, but not one that makes me as a writer worry that someday people will be writing fanfiction about my work.
Though seeing a disembodied narrator get down with a tree...
@Kris: I agree. If you can take something that started as fanfiction, change it so it has absolutely no resemblance, and make the writing publishable...well, more power to you, I guess. I just wonder why you bothered to go the Fanfiction route if your story was pretty much totally original, you know?
@Obsession: It happens all the time with public domain works, too. Look how many novels are still published based on Jane Austen's work, for example. Still, for some reason nobody seems to classify it as fanfic if the author is dead. It becomes a "reimagining" or an "homage" or something similar, which makes me think the idea of money is driving those who criticize fanfic--those authors are still alive to make money.
I don't think fanfic writers should make money off copyrighted works, but like you, I don't see them as much of a threat. There are a few with huge followings, but I doubt they'd have amassed so many admirers if their work wasn't free. If they started charging for their work, they'd effectively be like any other self-published author, and would have to convince people to pay for it. And given the number of people probably out there writing Edward/Jacob fic, I doubt most readers would bother to fork over the money.
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