Fanfiction

[anogete]

I stumbled across this article while wasting time at work. There was a bit of legal discussion in there regarding fanfiction that I found really interesting.

Friction over Fanfiction

"Henry Jenkins, author of Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, argues that the impulse to write fan fiction is no different from the creative impulse driving any other narrative genre. It is part of a fundamental human need to tell stories, part of a “shared cultural tradition” dating from Homer onward. According to Jenkins, the works on which fan fiction is based serve for fan communities the same purpose as myths and folklore served in earlier times, as a source of shared references having instant recognition in that community and a source of raw material for fans’ own creative works. Contemporary web culture is, he says, the traditional folk process working at lightning speed on a global scale."

Comments

[marasmine.livejournal.com]

The 'shrug' was annoying. I suppose that if they ruled on it in favour of the author that would cause more problems in the published world. Who owns the cliched ideas? Who owns any of the formula plots in any genre? If they start prosecuting fanfic writers for a form of plagiarism where do they call a halt?

Personally I think a standard disclaimer should be good enough. Maybe it needs to say that the fic does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of the original author as well as stating their ownership of the characters and setting. There seemed to be some concern over idiots thinking that the fanfic was approved by the original author and damaging the author's reputation. I couldn't really see the problem myself.