Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The fact that criticism and review are specific cases of "fair use". Writing a new story using someone else's characters is just plain and simple copyright infringement, unless you're doing it with the copyright holder's permission, or the characters are in the public domain.
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I am saying that "writing a new story" can be, and often is, a form of criticism and review.
It can say, "look, here is this character who is barely mentioned in the original; let me explain how important he'd be to the other characters, even though his story isn't in the spotlight." Or, "there's a hole in the plot where the author failed to make a plausible jump from one scene to another; let me explain what wildly different things might've happened in that time period." Or "this story would not be so different if the main character were [gay/a WWII pilot/secretly a spy]." Or, "I love the richness of the setting and the devotion the characters have for each other; let me explain *how* devoted I believe they are, and what aspects of the setting I enjoyed most." Or, "the purple prose and unbelievable arrogance of the characters really put me off this. Here, let me show you what I mean, through exaggeration and setting change, and you can see how ridiculous these characters are."
Fanfiction is a way of commenting on the original, showcasing what we loved or poking fun at what we believe are the flaws. Often both. Whether it's infringement or not should be judged by the same criteria as a review. Obviously, if someone lifts whole chapters from a book, swaps their friends' names into the character names, and reposts that as "my imagined summer vacation," it's infringement. Likewise, a "review" that quotes an entire sonnet and says "this was great!" is infringement.
But the fact that commentary is shaped as fiction should not automatically make it infringement.