[Musings: Fanfiction and the Art of the Ready-Made Audience]
With all the talk recently about SOPA and PIPA (and IDGAF and DIAF etc etc) the issue of copyright and the internet appears to have reared its ugly head once again.
Coincidentally, two famous fanfiction writers in one particular popular Fandom have made the decision to pull their work from the internet and publish it for retail sale. The move has ignited debate about whether or not this crosses the already wavy line between admiration and tribute and infringement and indecency.
I have written fanfiction, and I have read fanfiction. I have absolutely nothing against it, and I think SOPA should DIAF. I’m not here to add to the already murky debate about what constitutes ‘copying’ and when a fanfiction begins to emerge as a more original, individual piece of work.
I’m just interested in whether turning around and pulling your work from its freely available cyber shelves to publish it for retail financial gain does constitute crossing the metaphorical white line. There is something unsavory about suddenly expecting your loyal readership to fork over money for what once was given freely. In the case of the two individuals I speak of, they were highly popular and highly regarded fanfiction authors, who’s works where the most popular of their fandom. They were BNFs (Big Name Fans) in the very essence of the word – they wielded a great amount of influence within the sphere of their fandom.
This of course means a ready-made, built in audience that has already been exposed to the work, thus insuring a kind of ‘test subject’ environment that ordinary works just don’t have. Authors of original works who go the traditional route to publication throw caution to the wind and release their work into an unknowing audience. Sure, their friends and family may have seen it, but it isn’t anything like the kind of culturally, financially and socially diverse test audience that a fanfiction author has, particularly in a popular fandom. These authors have a loyal readership who will close ranks around the author at the slightest mention of any wrongdoing, and say that they would be willing to “pay anything” to read the works again, regardless of the fact that they have already had access to it for free, for years in some cases.
Both of these works in mind were AUs (Alternate Universe fics) which means that while the characters were based on the canon characters, the situations and environments were far removed and original. In both cases, name changes where really all that was needed to make the works ‘original’. But how original are they? The essence of the fanfiction is still there. In one particular case, a google image search for the main character in the fanfiction will bring up fan images of the young actor who plays the title role in the canon film.
The separation is not as clear cut as people would have you believe. It is always going to be known as “that book that was based on that other book”, and that’s how the word of mouth will carry it.
So what do you think? Is it wrong for people to profit financially on these kind of works? Or if the work is changed just so, does that constitute it becoming an original work?
Hmmm, that’s a tough one! I guess it depends how closely the fanfic resembles the original works. I’m sure a number of authors that have published original works started their careers writing fanfic. On one hand I can understand where the loyal fanfic readers are coming from. Anyone giving u more of something u love is always a good thing! But on the other hand I can also see the point of view of the authors of the original works. They do all of the ground work and then someone else is profiting from their original ideas.