This includes Blizzard with World of Warcraft.įan fiction and fan art communities, in turn, usually have a set of rules that they follow to preserve their symbiotic relationship.įirst, they agree to not profit from or sell copies of their creations. Some even go as far as to create fan site kits, for the purpose of aiding the creation of fan Web sites. No creator wants to sue their fans, especially when the fans aren’t earning revenue, and as such most creators will tolerate fan fiction and art under most circumstances. Being litigious with creators of fan art can be very costly, not just in terms of court costs, but in terms of backlash. The bigger issue, however, is the cost of going to war with fans.
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In short, since fan creations don’t take away sales of the original work, they are often seen as free promotion and a way to grow the brand without cost or effort. In fact, some feel these fan communities actually serve a valuable service to copyright holders by providing a thriving site for fans to visit, keeping them entertained and engage between official releases. Fans create works that are openly recognized to be non-canon to the story and are not replacements for the original. Speaking the Unspoken Ruleįrom a copyright holder viewpoint, fan fiction and art is usually not very harmful. So why has fan art thrived? The reason is actually fairly simple. This is especially odd considering that many of the rightsholders who are the most common target of fan creations are also among those most aggressive at stopping other infringement of their work. Yet, despite a relatively strong legal position, lawsuits over fan fiction and fan art are extremely rare. Trademark disputes over fan creations are rare, but still possible. It is also worth noting that fan fiction and fan art can be a trademark violation as well, especially if it uses names and titles in a way that causes confusion as to whether they are official. However, most fan creations, by their very nature, don’t parody or criticize the source material, which would provide a great deal of protection, nor are they highly transformative, meaning that they are less likely to win in the even that such a suit takes place. That being said, fair use may protect some fan creations from being an infringement, but that is handled on a case-by-case basis, looking at the facts of the actual work. This is furthered that most fan creations are built upon plot elements and other copyrightable parts of the original material. This includes sequels and any other work that includes copyrightable elements from the original creation.Īs was confirmed in the recent “Catcher in the Rye” case, characters can be granted copyright protection as can many other non-expression elements of the original work. What the Law SaysĪccording to copyright law, copyright holders have the sole right to distribute derivative works based on an original creation. So, while an entire blog could be dedicated to the top of fan creations in copyright, we’re going to take a brief look at the issue and try to understand where we sit on the issue today. There are large communities dedicated to, such as Harry Potter fan fiction, even after Rowling successfully sues another fan creation in court.
Yet, fan fiction and fan art both remain wildly popular and widely tolerated on the Web.
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Whether it is fan fiction for a popular fantasy series or fan art of a popular movie, these creations almost instantly walk into a copyright mess that can be enough to make even the boldest attorney cringe. Very few copyright issues are as divisive or as headache-inducing as fan creations.