Publishing Fanfiction

So, I've read quite a bit of fanfiction over the years, some of it god-awful and some that I've enjoyed much more than some original published work I've read. And while I know that there are some authors (Anne Rice for one, I believe) who loathe the idea of fans using their creations to write fanfics, personally, as long as you aren't trying to make money off of it, I don't see anything wrong with it. I see it more as a compliment to the author, too- that someone loves the world that the author has created so much that they want to play in it a little too. And I think it can be a good writing exercise.

But then you get some fics that get a really good reception, and the fanfic author takes them off the internet, changes the names around, and publishes them as original fiction. Fifty Shades of Grey is one such fic- it was originally uploaded onto Fanfiction.net as a Twilight alternate universe, all human fanfiction entitled Masters of the Universe, before being removed and uploaded to another site, then taken down completely before it was at first self-published, then picked up by a larger publishing firm. And I'm not sure how I feel about this, and I wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion.

In fanfiction, even an alternate universe one, you're still building on the work of another. And it often shows- an author doesn't need to take the time to fully describe Sora, because we as KH fans already know who he is. We don't need lush descriptions of Destiny Islands, because we've already seen the place. In a story set after KH I, we don't need details on what occurred during that game, because we already know. So when an author simply changes the names of characters and locations, and a few details that draw too closely a parallel to the original work, I think it can leave the story feeling empty and unclear. And depending on how deeply the story is rewritten, I think you can still draw parallels between it and the original work, even with the changes. I know that without even knowing that Fifty Shades was a Twilight fanfic at one time, I could still see plenty of similarities, from the way the characters looked, personality traits, locations, relationship pairings, etc.

So it makes me wonder, should an author who is publishing a work that was once fanfiction have to buy the rights to the original work or get permission from the original author? Are name changes and some other alterations enough to separate the two? It's not plagiarism, since the words are the fanfic writer's own, but the basis for the idea is copyrighted. And it also seems a little shifty- these fanfic authors post their works online, get a following, then take the fics down and charge people for the right to read them. They take advantage of a fandom with a massive following to get attention and then profit off of it.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

I actually disagree that it's a form of plagiarism. If, say, an author were to take an existing story written by someone else, leave everything the same and change names to ones of their own choosing, then I would say that is plagiarism.

The stories that these fanfiction authors are writing are original in that all of the words being written are their own. But they're playing in someone else's sandbox and profitting from it. Fanfiction, by definition, is derivative work, and is actually considered the property of the copyright holder (so in other words, every Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy fanfiction is actually the property of Square-Enix (and Disney), not the author). So, when a fanfiction author takes a story that they wrote based on someone else's characters and worlds, even when put into original shenanigans, changes the names and enough details that they won't immediately be sued, and publishes it, it rather seems to me like stealing.

And the only reason I can see to do this is to cash in on an already existing fanbase, because these fanfics that get published (I think) are usually AUs and not actually set in the exact canon world (see the Fifty Shades example- the story is also set in part in Washington, as Twilight is, but there are no vampires or werewolves, or any of the Twilight mythos present). It might as well be a "love" story between any two random people, so why wasn't it just written that way from the start? Because it would have been harder for the author to gain the attention needed to get it published.

I'll say again that I have absolutely nothing against fanfiction, or fanfic writers. I probably read way too much fanfiction for my own good, so I can hardly say that the act of writing it is wrong. And many of the writers I've read are amazing and should be published. But I don't think their fanfic should be.

Well, there's the prestige of being a "real", published author. And there's the money that can be made. And fanfic authors, at least the ones I've had discussions with about it, do put a lot of time, thought, and energy into their fics, so I could see why they wouldn't want to waste that, if they saw the opportunity. But I think it's still cheating.