Copyright question: Is fan fiction illegal?

Question

I don't write fanfiction because I find it boring but I was looking online about something else about copyright laws. According to http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html "Fan fiction and other work derived from copyrighted works is a copyright violation." So all of those people who post fan fiction of movies or TV shows on the internet are doing something illegal?

Answer 1

Good question. Although Jay has it slightly wrong. There isn't "copyright dilution" -- "dilution" (i.e. the tarnshiment or blurring the distinctiveness of intellectual property) is related solely to TRADEMARKS.
Copyrights can extend to characters, specific scenarios, etc., even though that it is "expression" that is protected, not "ideas." Thus, most fan fiction would be a copyright violation -- not necessarily because it dilutes the copyright, but because a copyright owner has many rights under the Copyright Act -- including the right to make "Derivative works" (i.e. changing the medium of the copyrighted work, changing the plot details to create sequels, etc). By creating fan fiction, people are making "derivative works" from the original copyrighted work. But the owners could charge you money for that -- their copyrighted scripts, characters, etc., add value to your work, and quite often there ARE series of books, articles, etc., based upon TV show characters sold for profit.
But in this realm, it's a matter of publicity for sure. Studios look REALLY bad when they shut down fan fiction sites, or sue authors who are nothing but admirers of Roddenberry or Lucas or Groening (for example). Sometimes you have to, but so long as the fan fiction isn't being sold for profit (where the studios probably would want the royalties you make) they'll mostly let it be.

And note, that except for for-profit pirating, copyright infringement generally isn't a crime -- it's just a civil action (like negligence, where a person sues another person for money, not for imprisonment). Not that it's still not illegal -- it is, it's just generally not criminal.

(P.S. To the extent the fans use a series name and/or some characers in their fiction, those names may be trademarked-- which is what Jay was talking about. That's a different analysis -- likelihood of confusion or likelihood that the use would "dilute the distinctiveness" of the mark (or tarnish the marks' reputation). You generally don't get profits from a trademark infringement, just an injunction to stop people from doing it again.)

Answer 2

Depends.

In general, fan fiction falls under "copyright dilution." By creating works that appear to be related to the original (even with disclaimers), the original can become harmed.

Let's look at an extreme example. Suppose someone writes a pornographic version of a popular TV show. By using names of the characters, the TV can be "harmed" by having their characters linked to pornographic activities.

However, this dilution is often difficult to prove. Many copyright holders don't see it worth the time to pursue. Disney is one company that does actively pursue copyright dilution.

However...

Satire is NOT considered a copyright violation. So, a pornographic version of a TV show COULD be considered satire. Despite the fact that it would dilute the copyright.

However, it must be bona fide satire. Fan fiction is not.

Answer 3

Yes, fan fiction is illegal and can be shut down by whoever owns the rights. However, often times whoever owns the works turn a sort of "blind eye" to fan fiction, as long as it is not for profit, since fan fiction is sort of like free publicity to promote the copyrighted work.