Just to satisfy my curiosity
I'am a law student from Indonesia
As far i know Fan Fiction novel is way more popular than ordinary novel
But it is allright if we copy other person movie/manga/novel character?
Do they need approval from the original creator first?
While we talk about it, i will shamelessly share my original novel in order to attract more reader .
(I wonder how many people take my bait to actually read this forum *and my novel)
https://www.webnovel.com/book/11936486305630405
if you go to a site called FF.net, youll find out that most authors put a disclaimer like this
"We dont own "popular series 1" or "popular series 2" all rights belong to their respective author, this is strictly a non profit fan fiction"
like that..... almost every author there does this and this is missing from this site, dont know why though
but it is generally accepted as fanfiction literally is fan made fiction.... and most copyrights holder really on sue if the fanfic author is charging money and or someone is distributing their "original" work for free
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.
also some people circumvent this via paypal donations or endorsing their patreon page....
they reason this as accepting a donation and not selling a product so some people are now doing this
Adolfo13 Actually i also want to asking if fan fiction can get any DMCA issue.
Someone even suggest me to stop the novel that i currently writing.
https://www.webnovel.com/book/11955392905656605/Bloody-Romance
SnoozySloth
Holy shit, that's some scary stuff going on there dude
New author gonna get wrecked if the original owner sue them
But i highly doubt they can find out your real information if you do violate copyright law
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.
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.''
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
