Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I think that where fanfic runs into philosophical problems is the idea of indirect profits, i.e. you have a website devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic. You don't charge people to read the stories, but you do have advertisement on your website.
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I believe that in most legal systems the fair-use concept needs to be arbitrated in some sort of proceeding. So there's no actual iron-clad legal standard except as noted in individual cases? I could be completely wrong, though, I'm not a legal scholar.
For the most part fanfiction has remained non-commercial, at least for original content creators. Fanfic platforms could argue that that they do not discriminate and merely cover the costs of making the material available, and since they remove any content at the behest of authors, I don't think that it's a particularly hard sell.
A thing to note, however, is that the premise of indirect profits cuts both ways. Fan fiction might make the original work more popular, and as a consequence, more profitable, yet no one seems particularly interested in having a discussion on compensating those folks? No one has put forth any justification for having hordes of people that popularise original work for free, that's somehow become a given.
It's an interesting paradox - great fan fiction authors might do the work of entire PR teams, completely free of charge, and still be constantly at risk from litigation, and suffer the snobbery of internet trolls telling them their work is not original and is somehow near-worthless. I suppose if impartiality is too much to ask from our culture, we might at least hold some hope for impartiality in resentment.