Fanwork Ban: Difference between revisions

This is predominantly a Western trope; bans on fanwork are almost unheard of in Japan due to the widespread popularity and acceptability of [[Doujinshi]] as well as the tendency of Japanese companies to view fanwork as free advertising. However, recently there has been an attempt to change all of that.

 

{{examples|Examples of authors who have imposed fanwork bans/restrictions}}

 

** 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.

* 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.

 

== Literature ==

 

* [[Anne McCaffrey]] originally did a blanket ban save for a few [[RPG|RPGs]]. She has since relaxed the ban but imposes rules on would-be writers such as no writing about existing Pern characters, no boys can Impress gold dragons, no girls can Impress bronzes, no dragons of any other colour except for the five standard colours. Ruth is the exclusive exception. Not that anyone actually pays attention to these rules. Oh, the good old days of MSN Groups RPGs with all kinds of sparklypoo dragon colors. The ban was finally lifted in 2004, although it's still a rather small fandom.

* [[Anne Rice]]

* [[Robin Hobb]] - the aforementioned article has been archived [http://web.archive.org/web/20051124223715/www.robinhobb.com/rant.html here.]

* [[Terry Goodkind]], though as yet it's unknown if there's a [[Fanwork Ban]] on ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]''.

* John Norman is known to be hostile to ''[[Gor]]'' fanfics.

** His major objection is, apparently, that fan fiction is bad practice for an aspiring writer, the equivalent of doing paint-by-numbers for an aspiring artist. Fanart, being the translation of words into images, likely doesn't cause him quite the same consternation on that count.

* [[Larry Niven]] approves of fan fiction, as long as such stories are strictly set within the Man-Kzin War period of his [[Known Space]] universe. He publicly stated, in print, that his work was a "playground", and that he was opening up the Man-Kzin war parts of it to anyone who wants to play with his playground equipment. No entendre intended.

* [[The Other Wiki]] says this about [[wikipedia:Marion Zimmer Bradley|Marion Zimmer Bradley]]:

{{quote| "For many years, Bradley actively encouraged [[Darkover]] fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction."}}

** There was also [https://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.pratchett/browse_thread/thread/7a044f92d9f3459c/ a period in the late 90s] when some am-dram companies were intepreting "permission is always given" for Discworld amateur theatrics as "permission need not be sought". He dealt with that by publicly announcing that permission would now be granted in exchange for a small donation to the Orang-Utan Foundation. He didn't want to start getting heavy on his own account, but ''now'' anyone who didn't comply would be defrauding a charity...

* This [http://www.mediaminer.org/blog/index.php?/archives/23-AuthorsPublishers-Who-Do-Not-Allow-Fan-Fiction.html list] also includes [[Raymond Feist]], [[PN Elrod]], [[Nora Roberts]] and a few others.

* [[Anita Blake|Laurell K]][[Merry Gentry|. Hamilton]]

** This is ironic, considering how the extent to which his books are [[Public Domain Character]] fanfiction.

* [[Kim Newman]] is uncomfortable seeing other writers use his characters, although he acknowledges that this is [[Anno Dracula|somewhat hypocritical]].

== Live-Action TV ==

 

* [[Lee Goldberg]] is vehemently against fanfic and denounces any author who writes it. [[Take That|Would make more of a difference if people actually wanted to play in his sandbox.]] Some have called this hypocrisy. Why is it hypocrisy? Because the characters he mentioned were from a show he didn't create or even work for until the second season. He also writes tie-in novels for various series. Which are essentially officially sanctioned fanfics.

* Any fan remake of a game show owned by Fremantle Media will be quickly C&D'd.

** Disney also occasionally cracks down on ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' fanworks-for-sale in the US. Making fanart is fine, profiting off it is not.

* [[Square Enix]] hates [[Fan Remake|Fan Remakes]]. Or rather, fan remakes that are due to release the same month as their own [[Updated Rerelease]].

** Nintendo was also pretty tough on any [[Rule 34|porn]] made of their characters in the late 90's and early 00's. During [[Pokémon]]'s popularity peak in America, they sent constant cease and desist letters out to various hentai sites based on the franchise, and porn based on other characters were even harder to come across. After a [http://boingboing.net/2004/10/28/nintendo-apologizes.html misunderstanding] with the site Suicide Girls, they've been a bit more lenient on how they approach the issue nowadays.

** 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.

** If this is true, Mr. Hülsbeck seems to have relaxed a bit on this recently. There are now [http://ocremix.org/artist/234/chris-hulsbeck/remixes four remixes of Hulsbeck works available on OCR] and [http://remix.kwed.org/index.php?chart==date-asc&page=1&search=Chris%20%HFClsbeck two pages worth of arrangements of his work on RKO, dating back as far as 2001].

* [[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.

** [http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com The Undiscovered Playthings], a website for identifying and displaying bootleg toys got [http://www.bootlegactionfigures.com/nomorepokemon.html a C&D] from Nintendo over [[Pokémon]] toys featured on the site.

* The [[MUSH]] ''Multiverse Crisis MUSH'' acknowledges this phenomenon in its banned characters list, not allowing characters from works subject to [[Fanwork Ban]] to be played. However, [[Captain Ersatz]] versions of banned characters are fine- in fact, there is an entire theme in the game that is a [[Captain Ersatz]] version of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Something of the sort occurred with ''[[Boy Meets Boy]]'' and by association, ''[[Friendly Hostility]]''. There was really only one fan site with fairly specific submission guidelines, and all the fic and art seemed to be done by the same handful of people. The site has since gone offline. Averted with the launch of ''[[Other Peoples Business]]'' -- one of the first sections set up on the creator's forum was an OPB fanwork section, with a ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' fanwork section following close behind -- helping die-hard 'shippers [[Ship Sinking|soothe the pain]] that followed the launch of the new comic.

* Fred Gallagher once stated that if anyone ever made Rule34 fanworks of ''[[Megatokyo]]'', he would immediately quit making it. Of course, it turned out to be kind of an empty threat. Handing people who don't like you an easy way to make you quit probably isn't such a brilliant idea.

* Bill Holbrook discourages fanart and fanfiction of ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', feeling that it weakens his copyright protection.

* Mike Russell seems to heavily discourage any kind of fanfiction (but not fanart) of ''[[The World of Vicki Fox]]'' unless it strictly takes place in a similar setting as the original.

== Web Original ==

 

** However, despite this, he has in no way tried to force takedowns on [[YouTube]].

* Of a sort on [[Neopets]]. In the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Virtual Worlds Group games terms of service (which includes Neopets, [[Petpet Park]], [[Nicktropolis]], and [[Monkey Quest]]), all rights to making derivative works under Fair Use are given up. However, Neopets at the least still has original art, poetry, and storytelling contests, as well as the Neopian Times (which accepts fan comics and stories), all of which have rules that all submissions must follow in order to be accepted (such as [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]).