Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Let me say, by the way, that I too am very much of favour of significantly shorter copyright terms.
The questions you raise are interesting ones, and have no simple answer. Let's consider the case of "Wide Sargasso Sea" in a little more detail. It is, as I'm sure you know, the story of "The Mad Woman in the Attic" from Charlotte Brontė's "Jane Eyre". Generations of readers of Jane Eyre have wanted to know more about her, and "Wide Sargasso Sea" was probably only a success because of the success of Jane Eyre.
We could ask whether it would have been legitimate for another author to write such a novel in Charlotte Brontė's lifetime. Personally I'd say "no", because it would have removed Brontė's right as an author to tell that story herself, and I think that every author has the right to "control" the characters that they create.
That's the argument against fan fiction: that it removes from the author the right to tell their characters' stories. Does it matter, in reality, if the author has no intention of telling those stories themselves? Probably not, which is why most authors turn a blind eye to it. Should other authors be allowed to tell those stories for commercial gain? I don't know the answer to that.
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How does it remove the right? I'm not personally familiar with The Mad Woman in the Attic but what would have prevented Bronte from writing her own story in the same timeframe with the same characters? At worst it'd have left it up to a free market to decide which cannon they preferred. I think it would increase the market for both, people could discuss the different takes in their book club meetings, a third person could do a mashup of the two. Rival fandoms could delicate themselves to expanding on their favorite.
To me that sounds like progress of science and the useful arts. To deny it is censorship. Time limited censorship and not without some justification but still enough to make me really uncomfortable. So the question would be does financial interest or even personal interest trump free expression. Satire is already protected, education and criticism are protected. Requiring that non commercial fanfic be considered fair use really only threatens control.