That's why young aspiring artists should be focusing on expanding and bringing attention only to public domain IP. Otherwise it's just free unrewarded labor.
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Writers often want to play in other peoples’ stories, and that’s a pleasure in its own right. Creative labor isn’t only about its monetary value. Of course, there are good examples of authors re-tooling their fan fic and selling it later *cough*50 Shades *cough*
the funniest thing there is that apparently 365 Days was a fanfiction of 50 Shades which was a fanfiction of Twilight...and yet none are recognizable so much to the other and it's kinda wild.
In college, I took a class where the head of the department of literature was my teacher cuz i'm a masochist and she said much the same...More to the point her assignments challenged that every piece you read related to something else you read or experienced.
We butted heads so often but she is probably the instructor I respected the most in my college years...she presented a challenge and I'm sure she didn't appreciate my antics but I did hers.
But it makes me sad that we then end up only having these freely shared creative universes for works that were published 100+ years ago, with the same thing being banned for more recent works
Yeah. I mean. There are exceptions. Like, you've been commissioned by the IP holder to write something. Otherwise, it's weird to ask to demand to be paid to play in a universe someone else put all the heavy lifting into. Knowing I'm making someone happy by doing something self-indulgent is enough.
Fandom has always been a gift economy, which is the best thing about it. We're all creating, sharing, and consuming out of sheer love for the source material.
There was talk about people wanting to monetize (25? 30?) years ago but they were largely shut down.
If I'm remembering my fandom history I think that is about the time AO3 got started. To protect us from those who would monetize us and wreck everything
I know there have been a few cases of companies skimming from fanfiction websites to publish in content mills and ebook sites, and I've seen some fairly sketchy 'contests' by publishers especially in recent years. But by and large we're really not about that, and that's important
Ao3 was started in 2008, so definitely not 20+ years ago.
The monetization topic comes up on tumblr periodically still. If anything the content culture of social media makes it more frequent than it was in the early 2000s
Thanks for the clarification. Also I'm on Tumblr but I had no idea. Most of the people in most of the fandoms that I have participated in tend to be allergic to the idea of monetization.
We are, but the continued existence of the archive is predicated on its army of lawyers on one side and several publishers closing an eye or two on the other. It's a legal gray area, not exactly "it's fine as long as you don't make money". You surely remember the old days of the cease&desists.
And it's not just fiction but the whole social/engagement scene. "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard" is so famous that there's a DVD extra with the actors singing it, but it's been taken down several times on copyright grounds. Reaction gifs are illegal unless licensed. Etc, etc.
Would you say then by the same token that we should get rid of regular copyright since we can count on people to create for the joy of it? I just want equal treatment for fanfic and regular fic
Why? I mean, I want fanfic writers to be respected as creative people whose work has value, but I also want the people who create the original work that I love and draw from to not be stolen from. Right now we can have both of those things. Why mess with it?
Riffing off of ideas from other books is not stealing. Gaiman's A Study in Emerald is cool and valuable and valid as art without detracting from the original works it references. There's really no difference besides the current legal regime for art riffing off of more recent works
Except copyright is how artists get paid. And we need to continue to pay artists so that they are able to continue to make art. And the last thing fan artists want to do is to make it harder for the people who made their favorite stuff to make more of it.
AO3 has been a wonderful place for me to post my fan fiction. I have written over a million words, focused fairly narrowly on a green child from a galaxy far, far away. People read it, give me feedback, and I am happy to hear from them all. Retiree, so I didn't need the money. I needed to write.
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At some point, “influence” becomes “inspiration”
Not-for-profit that hosts fanfic (donations go towards things like paying for servers and legal defence)
Cause it's a freedom of speak thingy....
There was talk about people wanting to monetize (25? 30?) years ago but they were largely shut down.
The monetization topic comes up on tumblr periodically still. If anything the content culture of social media makes it more frequent than it was in the early 2000s