Fanwork Ban: Difference between revisions

A fanwork ban can be particularly annoying if you get into a show/book/whatnot after it's ended. In the Internet age, the first thing many such fans will do after the series ends is look for fansites or fanwork. If a Fanwork Ban is in place, these sites will be extremely hard to come by, if they exist at all, and it's usually the case that most fans foolhardy or reckless enough to skirt a '''Fanwork Ban''' usually aren't intelligent or dedicated enough to put together good fanwork. In extreme cases, this may result in a dead fandom, unless the fans are pretty social and don't mind restricting themselves to facts and discussion. It might also result in a [[Broken Base]] between fans who support the author's decision and fans who rail against the ban. Of course, it could work out exactly as the author hopes; instead of reading fic based on ''one'' of their works, you'll probably find yourself looking into the author's other works in the hope of finding something similar.

 

 

See also [[Rule 34 Creator Reactions]].

* Yamakan's adaptation of [[Fractale]] seem to have detered many fans from drawing [[Rule 34]]. To the horror of some fans

* Neither Kishimoto nor Viz Media has ever taken action to shut down Naruto fan works, and Shonen Jump publishes Fan Art of all its regulars, Naruto included. However, even though they have a section on the official website for Fanfics and Fan Art, it is against the rules of the forum to publish a fan work using trademarked characters. [[Epileptic Trees|They must be serious about avoiding cross-pollination between fan ideas and official material.]]

** Even before this, [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Yuricon/message/22380 Kodansha has had an explicit FanworkBan on their properties], though it was somewhat loosely enforced.

** Specifically, the proposed law would give manga publishers equal ownership rights alongside the author, allowing them to go after fanworks even if the author gives approval.

 

== Comics ==

 

* [[Warner Brothers]] briefly tried to get rid of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' [[Slash Fic]]. This went nowhere.

* In the dark ages of [[Fanfic]], before the Internet (yes, kiddies, it did exist back then. Imagine your Trekker grandma passing around a bottle of good wine and the K/S fanfic...), [[George Lucas]] allegedly hit the roof when he found sexually explicit material for ''[[Star Wars]]''. And promptly went into orbit when he found the [[Slash Fic]]. He tried a repeat performance of this in the late '90s-early 2Ks when he found the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan stuff, but found it was like playing whack-a-mole. It took until 2003 and [[BioWare]] [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|being really sneaky]] to finally slip a lesbian into the GFFA.

* Games Workshop, of Warhammer and W40k fame, did this to the German-made fan-film ''[[Damnatus]]''. Annoyingly, the film's cease and desist order came ''after'' it was ready to release. In GW's defense, they were required by German copyright law to issue it or [[Critical Existence Failure|forfeit all their copyrights.]] The people who worked on it agreed never to release it, saying that it would have to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|remain on their computers]] for good. This statement prompted the forces of the internet and fandom to somehow [[Insistent Terminology|extract]] the film's final cut, and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|post it on the internet.]] Since those who made the film did [[Exact Words|everything they were required to do]] to keep it from getting out they are legally safe from retribution. It is quite stunning in its quality, even though watching it in german with english subtitles makes it hard to admire the high quality physical effects.

** For the most part, [http://kotaku.com/5585802/nintendo-doesnt-want-to-criminalize-obsessed-fans Nintendo seems to not mind fan output], so long as it doesn't "diminish the dignity" of their IPs. In short: No making money off of porn of their intellectual properties and you're good.

* Chris Hülsbeck has kindly asked not to have his video game tunes remixed, which is why there is a standing ban on derivative works at the Videogame Music Archive and only one remix on [[OverClocked Remix]].

* [[Tomonobu Itagaki]] sued a modding community years ago over their making nude mods of the female characters from the ''[[Dead or Alive]]'' series. He specifically cited the fact that the characters were like "his daughters" and that the mods were akin to violating them in real life. Most people on the Internet speculate that the lawsuit may have stemmed more from a personal problem with westerners (the modding community was American) than with maintaining copyright and the brand purity, since neither he nor Tecmo have batted an eye at the metric tonsloads of [[Hentai]] [[Doujinshi]] featuring those characters engaging in acts that would get them arrested in at least 30 countries.

** And saying that the DoA characters are like his daughters gets a little awkward given the sheer amount of [[Fan Service]] in the series.