Adolfo13
I am not a lawyer and you should not take this as legal advice, but the answer to your question is likely both yes and no. If someone writes a fanfic, they cannot make any money off of it. This is because they do not own the copyright to the characters, world, etc. If somebody was to profit off a fanfic then legal action against that person would be much more likely.

Most fanfics make no money. Technically, the copyright owner could issue a DMCA to have it taken down anyways, but it would be very unlikely to happen. There are tons of naruto, DBZ, harry potter, etc. fanfics. Since they don't make money and the fans like them, there isn't really a good reason for the copyright holder to issue a DMCA. However, it can still happen. Pokemon/Nintendo seems to be more strict in protecting their copyrights. Like when they took down that popular pokemon parody YouTube video years ago, even though that one should have fell under fair use laws. Likewise, Disney might go to extremes to protect Mickey Mouse since he's their most important character.

That just leaves the question of fair use. For example, I have a character in my novel that is an obvious parody of Saitama from One Punch Man. I even named him Tama Sai. However, his personality is completely different as are his powers. Technically, the copyright holder of One Punch Man could try to get my novel taken down because of this despite it clearly falling under fair use law (USA). At that point it would likely depend on the platform to defend me. A bad platform like YouTube would likely just listen to the bigger dog and take it down. Fair use is a heavily debated topic and the little guys often get screwed. Especially since they can't afford legal fees if a lawsuit ever really does happen.

      SweetsTomato
      Let me answer this from law prespective
      Do your country did adopt copyright law?

      The original owner can only sue you based law on your country
      The punishment also based on law in your country, not international law

        Adolfo13
        Right. Though in all likelihood it would never escalate beyond a DMCA take-down request. If the fanfic author complied then it would end there. I'd imagine that even if a fanfic did profit off the novel, it would still likely be a DMCA request at most. Most copyright holders probably wouldn't want to waste a ton of money on lawsuits over small potential gains anyways.

          SweetsTomato
          Don't worry dude, just keep on writing. I would advice u to change the title and a bit of the characters, if u want it. Other than that I don't think there's gonna be any trouble. I mean lookout, there's ton of novels here and most of them are based on is something. In fact, all novels, characters, scenes, scenarios are based on some other novels or the likes. So if they don't get sued why would urs be.
          Be happy

              FujiCigarette Nope. That is still dangerous. Donation = making money.

              SnoozySloth Most trouble is some publisher care about their IP. For example Disney protected their character from being used as sex symbol. What if someday one make Mickey Mouse SEX System. That would 'destroy' their brand. Or Mickey and Goofy BL story. That is the problem.

                    MasterRabbink Donation = making money

                    while to me and to some people that sounds correct
                    it still boggles my mind how some
                    non-profit organizations accept donations though....... if it is considered making money

                        Hmm...well, if you're making money off of it, then yes. It's no longer in the foggy area of 'fair use.'

                        If the author has requested no fan-fics, then yes, there's no hint of foggy permission or deniability.

                        It basically falls to the publisher and author whether or not they'll go after fan-fics. Some of my favorite authors specifically request no fan-fics and yet another has built a multi-volume series of allowing them for one of his series. I would suggest checking it out, but starting 1632 and its numerous, numerous, numerous fan-fics (some of which are now official novels!) is a long, torturous and expensive rabbit hole!

                        Can someone make a ff of a Qi novel? On the main site in china there are tons of novels copying each other and yes they put chapters behind paywalls. I would think they don't care.

                        ImBloo yes sir. This author has reflected. m(._.)m Did it twice and it made me feel yucky.

                            FujiCigarette
                            Non-profit means not having the aim of profiting. They can still make money, but they will use it for whatever aims they have. Here is an excerpt from the wiki page;

                            ''In economic terms, it is an organization that uses its surplus of the revenues to further achieve its ultimate objective, rather than distributing its income to the organization's shareholders, leaders, or members.''

                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization

                                GreasyBeer ''In economic terms, it is an organization that uses its surplus of the revenues to further achieve its ultimate objective, rather than distributing its income to the organization's shareholders, leaders, or members.''

                                this aint relevant to the thread but, my country got a tonne of donations from the last natural disaster and a lot of those donations went to non-profit organizations and honestly the people that needed it havent seen a cent....makes you wonder where all that money went....

                                as for the thread then... authors make note declare yourselves as a nonprofit writer from now on and still accept donations and use it for your intended purpose... lol

                                    FujiCigarette Webnovel being a site that distributes published works they own the rights to host here might be held accountable.

                                    They generate income from ads and sales of inhouse currency, allowing for fanfic to be hosted here could risk them being sued.

                                    If what you have becomes well known and successful, you can bet they be after you. Making money from fanfic means you are not a non-profit author as you are indeed profiting.

                                    Example
                                    Megaupload - Hosting site
                                    Nostalrius - WoW private non-profit server
                                    Axanar - Star trek fan made movie
                                    Fanfic authors sued below
                                    Salinger v. Colting, 607 F.3d 68 (2d Cir. 2010)
                                    Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin, 268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001)
                                    Anderson v. Stallone, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11109 (C.D. Cal. 1989)
                                    Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, 755 F. 3d 496 (7th Cir. 2014)
                                    Castle Rock v. Carol Publishing, 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998) and 7. Paramount Pictures v. Carol Publishing, 11 F. Supp.2d 329 (S.D.N.Y. 1998)
                                    Warner Brothers v. RDR Books, 575 F.Supp.2d 513 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)
                                    Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books USA, 109 F.3d 1394 (9th Cir. 1997)
                                    Paramount Pictures v. Axanar, Case No. 2:15-cv-09938 (C.D. Cal. 2016)

                                        West i cant really consider those as the modern term we call as fanfic authors most of those cases are generally about authors making fictions based on other works and publishing them on a ligitimate publishing company intending profit.... which they might and will be sued for... which confuses me as the works they are defending sound like they are using elements of the original work and making reference rather than actual plagiarizers, since copyright law affords more protection to certain works than others, the nature of the works you have copied matters

                                        usually what i envision what a fanfic is, is a fiction changing the original based on the views and imagination of a fan, which involves a lot more of the originals work than it is actual critique or a take based on it....
                                        while yes if you make a tonne of money you will get sued the examples you list of actually involved actual money making organizations suing each other.

                                        what is generally termed as fanfic nowadays are usually single authors posting in hosting sites, the real danger only comes to site like this that actually involve real money in it. maybe thats one of the reasons why it feels dangerous on this site and the site generally takes action if a case does come up i.e mass deletion of fanfics in ff.net a few years back

                                        small time authors that post fanfiction generally dont get sued though, they usually get a cease and desist first before any suing is done....
                                        so for any authors wanting to make money through fanfiction.... well better think things through first
                                        for authors just wanting to post free works... go ahead worst thing to happen is your story gets deleted for a while and get reposted in some forum somewhere like most completed fanfics before 2007 that got deleted from their hosting sites

                                        • West replied to this.

                                            FujiCigarette

                                            They could be sued if they have violated trade marked content and some fanfic authors have 50% or more copy paste content. All they do is add OC/SI and include their character.Some places might not accept this but if enough publishers find it irritating they can lobby their governments to force action.

                                            Let's be real, donations for fanfic/translated work is a murky area. If you look it up you will find that some authors allow for fanfic but others do not, unwritten rules for this kind of thing is to not profit or generate money using content not owned by you when you have no right to.

                                            But webnovel having already taken action against non-authorized translations should know better to host it. Megaupload was outright blocked by all ISPs in the west, they don't need to get the hosting company to take action to take down website's if they block it out right.

                                            Webnovel's parent company being a major publisher might actually be allowed this if they brought the rights to it.

                                            I have no problem with fanfiction or translated works, but monetizing it without getting permission is just a di*k move. That's how webnovel formed, because they saw it as a profitable venture and took action to stop their content from being exploited.

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