Since we're talking about fanfic

[Pray4Life]

I hope y’all will forgive me, I didn’t want to divert the other threads on this topic and since it’s already generating discussion, I thought I’d throw in my own question. This has been bothering me for a while now (the topic I mean, not the other threads).

Since fan fiction is considered to be legally ambiguous, at least in the United States, and by some, condemned as outright illegal (due to copyright issues), is it sinful to write/read? Some authors (or estates) seem dead set against any fanfic based on their work, others seem supportive, plenty of others just “turn a blind eye.”

I have read some great fanfic before this subject started troubling me. It seems taken for granted in the other threads on this subject that this is perfectly OK practice, I am not sure if there are differences in location involved to explain this, but I would love to hear what other Catholics think.

 

[masterjedi747]

Since fan fiction is considered to be legally ambiguous, at least in the United States, and by some, condemned as outright illegal (due to copyright issues), is it sinful to write/read?

I’m just going to have to go with a flat-out NO, it’s not sinful to write or read.
(…provided, of course, that we’re not dealing with fan fiction that violates the sixth commandment, or anything)

As for the legal issues, if and when they exist… I don’t know, but that seems utterly ridiculous to me, and so I’m not sure if such laws would, in Catholic teaching, be binding in conscience. But my best guess (gut feeling) is that, at least for the most part, they probably wouldn’t be.

 

[The_Otaku]

Different laws, ideals, and status quos govern different countries. When you’re talking about anime related fan fiction, the japanese are very understanding and very supportive, even to the extent that they don’t necessarily mind that a profit is made on fan work. They see this is as good for business and free promotion of their series and products. If I was to charge money for my La Pucelle doujinshi, or even go so far as to print and sell it at at an anime con, I would be able to get away with this.

Morally speaking do I have a right to? I’m not so sure. I don’t think so.

If these products and series belonged to american companies and so forth, the law would be enforced and there would be crack downs. The line is blurred with the anime industry. Another conflicted example is the issue of anime fan subs. These are anime shows that have not yet been licenced to the U.S yet, but already have fan-based subtitles and translation teams (some of which are really good at it) working on the product before it’s even put on dvd. In most cases, there’s a working, uploaded episode of a currently airing show as soon as a day or two after it’s initial airing on japanese television.

The japanese know this is happening and they’re not cracking down on it, to my knowledge. The americans who stand to make money in the North American market are trying to stop it. They realize that there’s no incentive to buy an anime on dvd when you can watch the entire thing online, for free, via a loophole and watch it sometimes in the range of anywhere between 6 months to a year before the anime is brought to the States for dubbing and so forth. There’s no incentive to buy and no incentive to wait.

Is this morally wrong and considered pirating? Probably so, but by the japanese viewpoint, they’ve already made their money, and once their products are out on the internet it’s out of their hands. If you upload fan subs and share them on the internet, but do not charge money for them, the japanese seem to have no problem with this or they’re not trying to stop it. If it’s your intent to buy the anime on dvd when it comes out in the States after being licenced, are you really stealing if you watch the anime for free? What about when you watch it but you don’t like it? Are you morally obligated to buy it? And what about places where anime is hard to buy (or even rent) or you cannot afford it because it’s too expense (the price of anime on average is pretty unreasonable and they’re milking it and they know it)? And since not all people have internet access or can use credit cards or paypal like I can, to fund online payments, theres many would-be anime fans who not able to watch anime.

So the middle man of sorts is the fan subbers. They step in to give the world the product, for free and with no profit to themselves, and once the series has been licenced by the U.S, they do the right thing and remove all the files from their sites. In most fan subs, it’s a rule of thumb to put before each episode something to the like of “please buy the anime when it is released” or “do not sell, trade, etc”. The subbers intend to honor american laws once America gains copyrights, so they are honoring the system legally, but not before they’ve used the loopholes the japanese haven’t closed up.

In getting back to the fan fictions, I don’t think there’s a sinful element to writing a fan fiction. If that was the case, I’m in huge trouble since I’m not just making a fiction, I’m drawing it too. I don’t think the problem is in making it. There’s plenty of fan comics or fiction for Superman and other western characters. The fact the others are japanese style is irrelevant. I use the example of the anime convention because it proves there is a loophole in this business. One can write and sell a fan fiction for japanese anime, but if you did it for Superman and co., you’d probably be sued if they caught you.

It all comes down to stance in laws between the U.S and Japan. One is conservative and will sue the pants off you, and the other is liberal and sees it as good for business. Who gets to decide which is right and which is wrong? I suppose that would be the country you live in and God tells us to obey the laws of the land.

 

[tabsie3210]

Speaking as an English major (History minor) with a focus on folklore and legend…

Going back throughout history we see that human beings have been engaging in “fan fiction” since the first original works were written down. One could say that the gnostic “gospels” are a type of fan fiction, with the main character being a “Mary Sue” instead of the true Jesus Christ. There are “fan fiction” versions of the story of Gilgamesh, of the Greek gods, and in Asian countries, imitation is considered the best way to learn, so it’s encouraged, and has been for centuries.

Is the writing of it itself bad? Provided that you intend to make no money off of it, no. What you do with your favorite novel in the privacy of your own home, provided that you don’t break any of the commandments, is perfectly okay. You’re not stealing the characters because you’re simply expressing your own views on them.

Now, is the Publishing of fan fiction moral?

That depends on what the original owners say.

For example, Mercedes Lackey forbids posting fan fiction of her writing online, and yet she does permit people to write and publish fan fiction in print media, provided they print out and sign a waiver giving her rights to anything they write. So basically if I write a novella about Vanyel and Tylendel (two of her most popular characters in one of her most popular series), I can publish it in a fan magazine (a zine) as long as I sign the rights to my novella over to her, so that it’s legally her property.

And that’s entirely her right to do so, and that’s exactly what ANY fan fiction author should do. If we’re using the characters, we have to be aware that these are the creations that are the authors’ livelyhoods. Marion Zimmer Bradley was sued by a fan fiction author who claimed she stole his idea in one of her later novels, and he demanded co-author credit. The trial dragged on and on and eventually she canceled the contract with her publisher and dropped the book altogether. That was the only way to end the trial - by not writing the book she wanted to.

So, publishing anything that borrows or takes heavily from a living author’s work is ONLY acceptable if one is willing to realize that one cannot infringe on the rights of the creator. When I write fan fiction I acknowledge that I don’t own the characters or concepts and that my writing is legally the property of either the authors or the owners of a franchise (such as Transformers, thus making my property the property of Michael Bay, the writers of the script, Hasbro, and all associated parties), and I accept that as my payment for the use of their characters.

In cases where an author is dead or where something has gone public domain, after a certain time the work belongs to the public, and may be used any way you want to. So, that’s okay then.

But to pass off something that you write as fan fiction as something original by you and something you alone own is immoral and illegal.

 

[TableServant]

I’m not sure why I don’t read more fanfic, as I’m a scifi/fantasy fan, but I suppose I just don’t have any time for it, just as I’ve not had too much time for any ‘purely for pleasure’ reading in the past months.

We do have a parallel issue in the software industry, in a way. Some software is commercial, you have to pay for a license to use it. Some is supported by donations, and some is entirely free. Within the free and donation supported software, there are some that allow modifications to be done without any issues, others who require that modifications be submitted to the original author for approval, and others who refuse to allow any modifications.

With commercial software, there are those who make illegal copies and either use them themselves, or even distribute them. This is called pirate software, and is illegal and immoral.

If someone has created a thing, and asks that you pay for it, or that you not make modifications to it, you should respect their request, or not use the thing! If, on the other hand, they have given free access not only to the thing, but to the inner workings of the thing (allowing fanfic), then feel free! But to abuse the author’s creation is to abuse the author, and is an immoral act.

 

[masterjedi747]

Is the writing of it itself bad? Provided that you intend to make no money off of it, no. What you do with your favorite novel in the privacy of your own home, provided that you don’t break any of the commandments, is perfectly okay. You’re not stealing the characters because you’re simply expressing your own views on them.

Now, is the Publishing of fan fiction moral?

That depends on what the original owners say.

Excellent distinction. I would definitely agree with that.

 

[tabsie3210]

I once hosted a panel at an Anime convention about fan ficiton, what’s moral and what’s immoral, and what’s legal and what isn’t, and what our rights as consumers of the product and users of the product are.

Here’s another way of looking at it - suppose I buy a copy of Superman Returns (the new Superman movie). I like the way the movie looks when it’s played on my computer screen because the computer screen has better quality and sound than my television. So I burn a copy to my hard drive for my own personal enjoyment. That’s fine.

And let’s say I want to have a Superman Returns birthday party where all my friends get together and we watch Superman, Superman II, and Superman Returns back-to-back on my television. I’ve got like twenty people there shouting out to the TV and watching it and enjoying it in a large group, but I’m the only one who paid for it.

That’s fine, too. Private home viewing is acceptable.

And let’s say that one of the presents I get at the birthday party is a new copy of the original Superman. Obviously I have that movie already, so I sell the DVD to a re-sale place. That’s also fine. They only make a minimum profit off of the DVD, and they don’t make any profit off the content, just the price of the product itself. (Yes, that’s complicated, but it works out.)

But now if I get a DVD burner and make multiple copies of the DVD to sell for a major profit, THEN I am committing a crime. I’m not making money off the individual product - the original CD, which wouldn’t be the same price as what I initially paid for it. I’d be making money off the content - the movie itself - and that’s illegal.

Or say I have a file-sharing program that lets me download music and movies to my heart’s content, and I have my computer set up so that anyone who wants anything I have can share it. That means if I have Superman Returns on my computer, anyone at all can get it for free. I’m not making money, but this is ALSO a crime, because I’m giving away the content without giving anything back to the original owners.

I did some research for this panel.

Fan fiction works exactly the same way. If I get a novel and am impressed with the story and I want to enjoy writing my own conclusions to it, or re-writing the ending, or whatever, and I do so on my own time for my own enjoyment, that’s perfectly acceptable.

And if I get together with a small group of friends who like the same stories I do, and we swap our stuff for the simple pleasure of it, then that’s fine, too.

It gets a little edgy online because it’s so easy for people to get any kind of story and mutilate it to the point where it turns good characters bad, or turns people off to the story. But still, there are some communities where it’s understood that this is fan work only.

If someone claims intellectual property of the fan fiction, however, that’s stealing. Even if you make no money off of it, if you claim it as your own intellectual property, it’s theft. Theft of idea if nothing else.

99% of authors will NOT read fan ficiton. They can’t, legally, because they’re told not to by their editors and publishing companies.

So what if I write a long fan fic about a Mercedes Lackey character and later on she writes a novel about the same character and uses a very similar plotline, or a key moment that’s almost identical to mine?

It is then IMMORAL for me to try to claim the intellectual rights to her story. She copyrighted the characters, she owns them, and she has the right to determine how they’re presented, what happens to them, etc. It is my RESPONSIBILITY as a fan ficcer to turn over all my intellectual property to Ms. Lackey.

That sounds like it stinks, but this is why I don’t write fan fiction about characters in novels. I try to stay away from writing any story that is the property of one individual, unless that person is in another country and the work isn’t published over here yet. If someone’s in another country and has no market over here, then that person isn’t going to suffer a loss of money, and there’s even a chance your fan attention will help bring over his or her writing, in translated form.

See, I did my homework!

 

[nahbios]

See, I did my homework!

I’ve been wondering about the morals of this for ages, so thank you very much for sharing your homework with us, Tabsie!

 

[tjm190]

I would think not- it seems to be either beneficial or neutral for all parties involved, the author of the original series included.