Fan Fiction Paper Draft

Fan Fiction

Fan fiction (or fanfiction, fan fic, fanfic, FF) is a phenomenon that is not new, but is growing in popularity. What is fan fiction? Fan fiction is a practice where fans take already existing material, such as characters and settings and make their own stories out of them.

As said, it is not new. It became a popular occurrence in modern days with Star Trek magazines. (It has been known to be around since as early as the 17th century.) Fans would write in to fanzines (fan magazines) and share their own stories concerning characters such as Spock and Kirk. Some of these stories were slash stories, where same sex characters – sometimes, for example, Spock and Kirk – would be in romantic relationships. More on fan fiction lingo later.

My favorite type of fan fiction has to do with the television show, “Star Trek: Voyager.” There are thousands of examples of this on sites such as FanFiction.net. The site features fan fiction from books, movies, games, anime, television, comics and more. There is also crossover fan fiction on this site where fiction, say from the television show NCIS mixes with the characters of the book series Harry Potter, as an example.

Legality

Fan fiction brings up questions of legality. It doesn’t seem to be illegal as long as there is no monetary gain for the fan. This practice brings into question the use of copyright.

According to Wikipedia.org, “Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize ‘moral rights’ of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.”
According to www.chillingeffects.org, “even if there is a valid copyright, there is still the question of whether that copyright was infringed. In order to prove infringement, the owner must show that the fan fiction author copied all or part of the original work (either through direct or indirect evidence), and that the copied elements are protected.”

On the U.S. Copyright Office site’s Frequently Asked Questions section, the question “What does copyright protect?” is answered as such: “Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.”

This brings to question, what is intellectual property, and does fan fiction fall under this category? Intellectual property is creation of the mind. Laws having to do with intellectual property are diverse. According to Wikipedia.org, “Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.”

So, does fan fiction fall under the legal umbrella of intellectual property? Fan fiction actually falls under the legal category “derivative work.” This is because it displays some originality of its own, but it is derived from some form of copying of an already existing work. “Copyright infringement liability for a later work arises only if the later work embodies a substantial amount of protected expression taken from the earlier, underlying work. The later work must take enough protected expression (it does not matter how much unprotected material is taken, for the latter is open to the public) for the later work to be ‘substantially similar’ to the earlier work,” says Wikipedia.

Authorial Opinion

There are some authors that are okay with fans making derivative work off of their creations, but there are some that are not. Some are known to feel that as long as the works are not for profit, they should be held under the fair use doctrine. The fair use doctrine is something, according to Wikipedia.org, “that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.”

Fair use is looked at under four terms of definition. The first term is about whether the action in question is being used to help further the creativity of the public or if it is just about making a profit. The second thing is whether or not the information is fictional or non-fictional, and does it rightfully belong to the public domain – “facts and ideas are separate from copyright – only their particular expression or fixation merits such protection” says Wikipedia.org. The third issue is about the amount of information from the old or original copyrighted work that is incorporated into the new. And, according to Wikipedia.org, “The fourth factor measures the effect that the allegedly infringing use has had on the copyright owner's ability to exploit his original work.”

If the fan fiction is in compliance with these four issues, then it should fall under the fair use doctrine of the United States Copyright Law.
J.K. Rowling, the author of the ever popular Harry Potter series, finds the idea of fan fiction to be flattering. Stephanie Myer, the author of the Twilight Saga, also looks on fan fiction in a positive light. She even adds links to her site that lead off to fan fiction. There are some authors, though, like Anne Rice, who look on fan fiction in a more negative light. She has actually asked certain fan fiction web sites to take down the work done about her characters and narratives, for example, about the vampire Lestat from Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Chronicles.

Fan Fiction Writing Sites

Fan Fiction was originally written in magazines (fanzines) as stated above. This was really popular with Star Trek and Star Wars, for example. In the new technological age, fan fiction has since been moved to the Internet. There are actual websites just for fan fiction. It is also becoming more and more popular to utilize the technology known as blogs.
Trekfanfiction.net, one of my personal favorites, is all about Star Trek, as the name implies. The problem with this particular site is that the subsection for Star Trek: Voyager is not up to date. However, on the site fanfiction.net, the Star Trek: Voyager fan fiction stories are as new as October 2009. That is pretty up to date.

Some other sites dedicated to fan fiction alone are: fanfiction.mugglenet.com and www.harrypotterfanfiction.com. Both of these sites focus on the fictional world and characters of the Harry Potter series.

Other sites that are used to share fan fiction are blogs, such as: blogger.com, xanga.com, livejournal.com, and others. These sites are used to provide interactivity in the fan fiction writing process. As Wikipedia.org says, “Recently fan fiction has seen greater use of the forum or LiveJournal blog format. Built around message board systems, stories are posted on threads with feedback interlaced and immediate. This style of fan fiction is more interactive but also can be a distraction since the stories and comments are between each other. These communication methods make fan fiction sites and blogs useful affinity spaces as writers are able to take readers' feedback and improve their skills and abilities as writers. This informal learning is a side benefit for many fan fiction authors, some of whom eventually attempt or go on to writing professionally.”

Lingo

People who use these web sites are prone to use special fan fiction language. This is not unreasonable to consider since most subcultures in society make use of special lingo. For example, the use of the word “canon” takes place in fan fiction circles. This is a common way to refer to original source material that fan fiction is drawn upon. The word “fandom” refers to the specific subgroup of fans who like a particular genre, or story, or show, or what have you. “Fanon” is a term that “refers to people who enjoy a specific story, character, game, etc., and actively interact with others; that is, a group of (however scattered) such individuals who share interest in the same media,” according to Wikipedia.org. I’ve already discussed fanzines, which can be in print (printzines) or on the web (webzines).
Fan fiction is also full of acronyms and abbreviations. Some of these abbreviations are well known, such as POV – or Point of View. There are others that are not as well known. AU stands for Alternate Universe and AT stands for Alternate Timeline. There are many such acronyms and abbreviations.

Some sub-genres of fan fiction are: Alt, crossover (already discussed), dark, alternate pairing and “shipping,” lemon and lime, slash and het, and songfic, to name a few.

Conclusion

Fan fiction is an ever growing phenomenon. I don’t think it is wrong. I just think that there needs to be a measure of responsibility shown by the fans. As long as they do not infringe on the copyright laws, this should be considered a legitimate form of artistic expression.