Note: this post was originally made in 2010 in response to Diana Gabaldon’s epic rant about fanfiction. The original version is still being updated. I’m reposting it to Tumblr by request, but if you have any additions, please feel free to drop a comment at LJ so they can be added to the masterpost!
Dear Author of the Week,
You think fanfic is a personal affront to the many hours you’ve spent carefully crafting your characters. You think fanfic is “immoral and illegal.” You think fanfiction is just plagiarism. You think fanfiction is cheating. You think fanfic is for people who are too stupid/lazy/unimaginative to write stories of their own. You think there are exceptions for people who write published derivative works as part of a brand or franchise, because they’re clearly only doing it because they have to. You’re personally traumatized by the idea that someone else could look at your characters and decide that you did it wrong and they need to fix it/add original characters to your universe/send your characters to the moon/Japan/their hometown. You think all fanfic is basically porn. You’re revolted by the very idea that fic writers think what they do is legitimate.
We get it.
Congratulations! You’ve just summarily dismissed as criminal, immoral, and unimaginative each of the following Pulitzer Prize-winning writers and works:
This is the most delightfully brutal and complete defense of fanfiction I’ve ever seen. I think we’re done here, actually. Anyone else who ever argues against it can simply be sent to this link.
There’s a lot to love, here, but my favorite part is probably the bit that goes (to paraphrase), “We don’t care, and we don’t have to. Have some examples of published for-profit fanfiction and links to the laws and precedents that protect them.”
It is, in truth, a running battle to maintain that protection. Fanfiction continues to vie for legitimacy and legality in the face of attacks by intellectual property protectionists. But inch by inch, we’re winning that ground. It’s as much a social battle as it is a legal one, since fanfiction’s protection currently lies—at least in the US—in a ‘fair use’ grey area, which means that it is defined largely by opinion and debate. The more we can convince people—especially authority figures such as published authors, publishers, and copyright lawyers—that fanfiction and other fanworks are a worthwhile, creative artform, the better our shelter will be under the law. (And one day, perhaps, fanficcers won’t have to hide their identities online in fear of losing their jobs and friendships.)