Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNefario
Well, I claim he wasn't attacking or insulting anyone. It's a fairly straightforward expression of the strictest view of copyright. How else would you put it? The only real term we have for a violator of copyright is "pirate", which is surely worse (except that it has become massively devalued by being used to mean copyright-violator.)
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Considering his statement was general and all-encompassing, not bothering to differentiate between people writing fanfic for copyrighted universes where the rights holder doesn't allow it, copyrighted universes where the rights holder allows and/or encourages it, and universes in public domain, I'd say he managed to insult a LOT of people who haven't engaged in anything even remotely illegal or infringing on anyone's copyright.
And considering his statement implied that
everyone who "feeds" off other people's work instead of creating their own worlds is a leech and parasite and blood-sucker, it's pretty offensive also to anyone writing legal, approved, published fanfiction in its widest sense (tie-in novels, sequels to or alternative takes on public domain works, and so on - all that is, in its essence, the same thing as fanfiction after all, just that it's done for personal gain, not (just) out of love or interest in the source material).
By that statement, people like Laurie R. King (Mary Russell novels) and Jean Rhys (Wide Sargasso Sea), never mind Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) are also nothing but leeches, parasites and blood-suckers, as they, too, "feed off" someone else's work. And let's not even get to almost the entire TV and film industry that lives on adaptations of other people's work instead of coming up with something completely original!