Imagine reading a Harry Potter book in which Harry and Draco discover their undying love for one-another, and enter into a steamy secret affair. Or watching an episode of Starwars where Luke goes crazy and kills all his friends, even the undeniably cute-looking Yoda. All this, and more, is possible in the ever-growing world of online fan fiction.
Fan fiction (according to the fan fiction glossary) is “a genre of amateur creative expression that features characters from movies, TV shows, and popular culture in new situations or adventures.” Most of these stories are written by fans who hope to share their ideas/ imaginings about established works, and there is usually no commercial interest attached. Fan fiction authors usually want to add new characters (often idealised versions of themselves, as a sort of wish-fulfillment that allows them to be a part of their favourite book/TV series), or they often detail certain characters which they feel have been overlooked (for example, fan fiction authors in the Harry Potter fandom often write short stories that add greater detail to overlooked side characters such as Susan Bones). They may also use their fan fiction is a means of sharing their ideal ending to a series.
For example, the phenomenon of “Scully/Mulder” shippers (relationshippers) lead to various archives and newsgroups which published amateur stories which described a romantic relationship between Scully and Mulder of the X-Files. In short, fans of the TV show who were tired of waiting for the inevitable romance between the two main characters to develop, took matters into their own hands, and wrote their own short stories and TV scripts to share with other fans. These derivative works are of course unauthorised, which brings with it a difficult legal question: is this online copyright infringement?
Authors, publishers and owners often view fan fiction as the use of trademarks and original characters without the owners consent (and therefore a copyright and trademark violation). This is especially true when there is a misrepresentation of the original characters. For example, JK Rowlings has had her lawyers send cease and desist letters to restrictedsection.org after slash fiction (pornographic fiction) featuring her characters was published on the site.
When faced with a lawsuit, authors of fan fiction can argue fair use (see my blog below), in that fan fiction is often non-profit and transformative, in that it re-interprets the original art and gives it new meaning.
Of course, not all companies view fan fiction as an entirely bad thing. Paramount Pictures encourage the writing of Fan fiction as they believe that it could actually help boost their sales.
In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with fan fiction, as long as a short disclaimer is included with the story and the personas of original characters are not violated (I wouldn’t want to read a short story in which Hermione becomes bulimic and has an illegitimate child with Snape… that would damage the integrity of the authors original vision …. but I don’t see anything wrong with someone writing out the imagined chronicles of Dumbledore’s childhood).
I have included some fan art with this blog (fan art is like fan fiction, only in the form of a graphic, rather than a literary, form). Take a look and let me know what you think – should fan fiction be allowed?
