Ran wrote:It always amazes me that some fanfic authors and fans get annoyed at fanfic that are based upon other fanfics without permission. Since essentially that is what they did with the original series/work the fic was based upon.
It depends. If you are borrowing settings or story situations as a base for a new story, it's one thing. Example: I wrote a small series of short stories revolving around why Kasumi borrowed books from Doctor Tofu. Another fan author wrote a story based on the same idea. That was fine, and I thought his story was better than mine. I even included his story with mine when I posted them on the internet, with his permission. But if I created original characters and they suddenly started appearing in someone else's stories without permission, that would be another thing entirely.
There's a big difference when it comes to pro author versus fan author. Fan fiction based on a professional's work is somewhat legitimate, because the pro profits from his or her storytelling. Fans have some rights as to what they can do with the pro's work because it's a commodity; that's called "fair use", and is a return on the fact that somewhere along the line, they are paying him or her for the story. Fan authors make no profit on their original work or characters, so there is no "fair use" for those.
