Aha, the line between plagiarism and fanfic! There, there it is!

[icarus]

I apologize that I won't have time to reply to comments. I'm in finals, behind, asking for extensions even, and I won't have time to deal with the distraction. This is picked up from telesilla.

Aha! The Line! Or -- The Line Between Fanfiction and Plagiarism

For those who have trouble deciding where the line is between fanfiction and plagiarism, here it is.

caras_galadhon writes of a popular Lord of the Rings fanfic that turned pro-fic A Hidden Passion by Lucia Logan, which was then revealed to follow Jane Eyre on each plot point, and even in its wording. (I'll leave aside my surprise that the Jane Eyre plot wasn't recognized in the first place. I understand it was called an "homage.")

Next we have Gehayi's report on the pro version A Hidden Passion, which has a handy chart demonstrating where A Hidden Passion copies Jane Eyre.

This example is invaluable. I'm sorry so many people have been burned and the publisher invested in this book and had to withdraw it. (I'll leave aside my surprise that the publisher didn't recognize the Jane Eyre plot either.) Yet what we have here is a perfect example of where the line is drawn between fanfiction and plagiarism. Fanfiction haters take note.

Distance Between the Source and Fanfiction

Why is this such a perfect example? Because there is already published work based on Bronte's Jane Eyre. It's called Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It takes the madwoman in the attic of Jane Eyre and tells another related story. Wide Sargasso Sea follows the two most important rules of fanfiction. Every word of Wide Sargasso Sea is (1) the author's own words. That's the easy part, the litmus test for pure plagiarism. But beyond that, (2) the plot is entirely the author's own. Even though it links up at key points to Jane Eyre. Geraldine Brooks' 2006 Pulitzer winning March does the same with the absent father from Little Women.

This is exactly what is done in loupnoir's fanfic The Durmstrang Chronicles, mctabby's Two Worlds and In Between, and to a lesser extent miss_porcupine's The Jenny Code (not to mention many others). Like Wide Sargasso Sea, they take minor characters, displace them, and expand on their story to tell us something completely different.

Wide Sargasso Sea tells us of the colonialism that takes place between the lines of Jane Eyre. The Durmstrang Chronicles explores the moral grey areas of the "bad school" in Harry Potter that's only briefly mentioned in the series. Two Worlds and In Between, although unfinished, gives us a rich portrait an 18th century wizard culture based on Harry Potter. The Jenny Code gives us a purely military viewpoint of Stargate Atlantis through the eyes of one Major Lorne, a character who at the time didn't even have a first name on the television show. Telling us something completely different isn't a requirement of fanfiction any more than it is in any other fiction. It just tends to be a marker of better quality.

Embedded Fanfiction

Most fanfiction, however, is closer to the source material than these. Most fanfiction involves the main characters of the source work. There is an entire subgenre of "missing scenes." The Wolfie Twins' Call of the Wild takes a supporting character in Harry Potter, Remus Lupin, fills in twenty years of his life and creates a werewolf culture set in Transylvania. It's highly original, without a doubt the co-authors' own words and plot, but it revolves around a Harry Potter character whose characterization was definitely fleshed out by J. K. Rowling.

Other "missing scenes" are even closer. mahoni's From One End of the World to Another takes a single moment in Stargate Atlantis between one scene and the next -- where viewers were only given the hero going to sleep and the next his panicked return home -- and shows us what happened. The character and situation are the creation of the television series, but this scene is only hinted at. The words belong to mahoni as do the exact plot points, but it is intended to drop into the show like a missing puzzle piece. There is no attempt to create or flesh out new characters. That would defeat the purpose.

Paid and Unpaid Tie-In Novels

A segment of fanfiction stories are simply new adventures created for the main characters. This is what most people imagine when they first hear of fanfiction -- amateur tie-in novels. Stories like ltlj's Fellow Traveler and auburnnothenna's The Taste Of Apples focus on the source material's main characters, and while it's their own plot and words, at the end they return them in good condition.

Subversive or Transformative Fanfiction

Now the vast majority of fanfiction stories take the heroes further afield and place them in circumstances that are highly unlikely. A gay romance between a military commander and the head scientist? A pregnant man? Characters switched to a different gender? The hero turned into a small, fuzzy cat?

Here Professor Henry Jenkins' definition of fanfiction as "subverting" the original text is appropriate, or we could go with otw's description of fanfiction being "transformative works," which is similar but avoids the negative connotation of "subversiveness." These stories explore possibilities within the characters and world of the original that might run counter to the intention of the author.

Some fanfiction stories are more likely than others but couldn't happen in the source for darned good reason. One of the most popular types of fanfiction is porn, or dramas that contain at least one very explicit scene. No doubt many viewers of Stargate Atlantis would appreciate a sex scene between actor Joe Flanigan and any number of his co-stars, but that's not the kind of show they're writing (also, they'd probably have to pay him a lot more). Then there's the mutiny that takes place in cesperanza's Written By The Victors which would end the series, the violent deaths of important characters in auburnnothenna's bleak Legion The Things I Would Give To Oblivion would pretty much do the same, while tevere's sexually explicit relationship between enemies in The Human Stain wouldn't happen in the show for a whole host of reasons.

The bottom line is that more "subversive" or "transformative" stories make up the bulk of fanficion and while they begin with the main characters and world, by the end, so much has changed they no longer "click" into the main source. Some changes are so radical (or even absurd) they could be classified as parody.

Character Displacement - Alternate Universes

The furthest extent of character displacement is the fanfiction "alternate universe." Here the characters are removed from the context of the original world entirely. celli revisualizes a military commander as a Nascar driver in Fireball. toft_froggy in String Theory: A Concerto For Violin In D Minor plucks a physicist out of Stargate Atlantis and drops him into the role of a composer. Characterization remains similar, but the characters are given entirely new histories and there is a considerable amount of world-building.

Character Displacement - Crossovers

A variation on character displacement is the "crossover," where characters are plucked from one writer's world into another. For example, astolat writes the physicist Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis in the role of Jedi master and the Colonel Sheppard as a Sith Lord from Star Wars in her The Dark Side. In xparrot's On The Wings Of Imagination the same two characters are placed in Anne McCaffrey's Pern, with the colonel as a hungry bronze dragon.

Character Displacement - Remakes and Remixes

The farthest range of this type of crossover is the adaptation or "remake." Characters are put into the plot of a popular (often classic) movie, such as linaerys' fanfiction remake of Hitchcock's Notorious, Entanglement. Here the movie's plot points must be followed. The challenge is in adapting the dialogue, viewpoint, and description to the new personalities in those roles. What changes when a laconic male lead takes Ingrid Bergman's role? The fanfic version of the remake is the "remix," where fanfic writers volunteer to have one of their stories re-written by another. The benefit to the writer isn't obvious unless one understands the exploratory nature of fanfic writers and the promotional value of having your work linked to a better known writer.

In both cases, for the most part only the words belong to the fanfic author, breaking with the (2) second rule of fanfiction although following the film tradition of remakes. Adaptations are widely accepted (how many adaptations of Shakespeare have there been?) and may be what the publisher of A Hidden Passion assumed Lucia Logan had written. It's an important line, respected by publishers and fanfiction writers alike. There was a tremendous uproar and cries of plagiarism from the fanfiction community in 2006 when an author of a remake lifted dialogue in its entirety from a movie without adapting much of anything. Like Logan's book, the story was removed from circulation.

Author Reaction to Fanfiction

Although the accusation of plagiarism is leveled at fanfiction writers, I've noticed that authors tend to be more comfortable with "tie-in" type fanfiction that's similar to their world, which actually changes less. They are irritated with stories that change it too much. The fans who don't read fanfiction tend to react the same. "Frodo's not gay!"

Fanfiction writers aren't very different. Copyright is assumed among fanfiction writers. It is customary and polite to ask a fanfic author before one writes a fanfic based on theirs (oh yes, there is fanfiction based on fanfiction) although granted, some ignore this. (J. K. Rowling is not expected to sign off each of 300,000+ Harry Potter fanfiction stories; permission is considered tacit unless professional authors opt out on sites like Fanfiction.net, although granted, some ignore this, too.) But when the resulting story varies radically from the original fanfic, it's often read as a critique. When helenish wrote her unauthorized Take Clothes Off As Directed, a inversion of xanthe's BDSM novels, General & Dr. Sheppard and Coming Home, many readers took it as a feminist critique, if not quite a parody along the lines of Fielding's 18th century Shamela which mocked Richardson's Pamela.

It's interesting to note that author feelings about this haven't changed in the last 300 years. After the publication of Pamela, a number of unauthorized additions to Richardson's novel were published, irritating Richardson to no end -- for the very same reason. These "Pamel-ites" didn't write what he had in mind. Pamela pre-dated the legal enforcement of copyright. The difference between these Pamelites and modern "tie-in" type fanfiction is that modern fanfiction is non-profit.

Fanfiction Plagiarism

Fanfiction writers respond violently to the plagiarism, a fact that critics of fanfiction like Lee Goldberg find ironic. Fanfic plagiarism is the stuff of ferocious flamewars. The perpetrator is run out on a rail and entire communities like stop_plagiarism are devoted to the removal of plagiarized fanfic from the internet. While the motive of the plagiarism of Jane Eyre in A Hidden Passion seems to be profit, most fanfiction plagiarists covet the positive comments received by other writers. The standard pattern is the plagiarist will post one or two stories that are not well received, then they will plagiarize a popular fanfic author and rake in the praise -- until they're caught, which is usually pretty quickly, because they, uh, plagiarized a popular story.

There is the peculiar case of epicyclical where the popular Harry Potter writer collected bits and quotes with magpie-like abandon. The large section of word-for-word plagiarized work embedded in her Draco Trilogy was out of place. It added nothing to the story and was not an improvement. Was this a case of lack of confidence, or a plagiarist who learned after the fact that she could write? Or her own plot developed around plagiarized pieces, like concrete emedded with glittery bits of glass? Or perhaps the rest of her writing was such a patchwork of plagiarism that no one can track down all the original sources? Later she credited many sources, but missed quite a few and seemed unclear where she got them. The effort involved in stringing it all together... well, writing it from scratch would have been easier. It's a strange case.

telesilla mentions that the Harry Potter fans don't give a damn about plagiarism, based on her continued popularity and the support for the published version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, I'm guessing. But I think the reality is that many, many people were friends with epicyclical and the owner of The Harry Potter Lexicon (currently in legal trouble for trying to publish a copy of the Lexicon). It's harder to thrash your friends, even when they're in the wrong. Copying word-for-word and claiming someone else's work as your own breaks rule (1) and is plagiarism, no matter who does it. But how you treat a friend will always be different. For good reason. Friends have done things for you that weigh into the mix.

Fanfic Leeches? Perhaps Symbiotic is the better word.

While Fanfiction isn't plagiarism, I can be honest in that there is a kind of... leeching... going on. As a creative writing professor told me, "Fanfiction solves the problem of finding an audience."

A fanfiction writer probably wouldn't find such a large audience for their first original story. No way. Most fanfic writers are also fanfic readers, so a tight supportive writing community grows around the source text, the kind of support new writers can't find anywhere else. Some people characterize the relationship between the fanfiction community and the original source as an homage, and it's true that the original source is elevated and treated as Canon (with a capital C). In fanfiction writers, the source author has his or her most dedicated and obsessive fans. They buy everything related to their favorite book or television show or movie, sign petitions, and call television stations to fight for their show. But the relationship is also... well, we can admit it... somewhat parasitic.

It's like the hotdog stands outside a major league ballfield. The fanfic writers have a vested interest in the survival and continued success of their favorite show or author. Their own audience depends on it.

Yet fanfiction writers relate to other writers as writers, first and foremost. If fanfiction writers viewed the other writers as commodities, they would not have responded as they did to the WGA strike. When the Writer's Guide struck, fanfiction writers called stations to tell them they wouldn't be watching replacement television, got the word out, signed petitions -- and then raised $21,339.18 to support writers who'd lost health benefits due to the strike.

My Point, if I have one....

I've heard critics call fanfiction plagiarism. The O.E.D. gives the definition "to take (the work or idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own." That doesn't occur with Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea or Brooks' Pulitzer winning March. Both acknowledge their debt to Jane Eyre and Little Women respectively. Fanfiction writers do the same. No one is passing the work of others off as their own. (Except, apparently, Lucia Logan.)

But the sense that fanfiction is unoriginal and ripping off authors' ideas is what's really meant by those who blanket fanfiction with the term plagiarism. Answering that complaint with a flat definition of plagiarism then is unhelpful and sounds like so much legal nitpicking. Hopefully now the relationship between fanfiction and professional authors' ideas is more clear. (I've mentioned copyright in a few places as it's also often conflated with plagiarism, but I haven't gone into it at any depth. The legal status of fanfiction and copyright is unsettled, largely theoretical--due to a lack of case law--and varies from one country to the next. Fanfiction writers attitudes towards copyright is a topic for another essay.)

At the opposite extreme, I've heard it said in the fanfiction community that the difference between Wide Sargasso Sea and all fanfiction is merely that Charlotte Bronte's copyright has expired. That's an oversimplification. Yes, some fanfiction is very far from the original source, like Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and Brooks' March. But the relationship between fanfiction stories and the original source varies. They range from tightly embedded stories, to extra episodes, to irreverent stories, to stories that have only the characters in common with the original.

This doesn't mean that more independent, distant fanfiction stories are better or somehow more "valid" (whatever that means) although it looks like the March-es of this world are more likely to win a Pulitzer. But the various types of fanfiction stories have different aims, and are trying to accomplish different writing challenges. What the different types of fanfiction have in common with each other is the intention to explore the characters and facets of the original writer's world.


I think I've written this long post just to avoid all the work I'm supposed to be doing right now. Do me a favor and if you comment, be patient about the lack of replies? It's going to be a week before I finish finals.


ETA: So I don't have a dozen comments misunderstanding me --

*sneaks in one more answer before I'm caught by the final-fairies*

I didn't say this explicitly though I probably should have. People who call fanfic plagiarism are usually conflating "plagiarism" with "lack of originality." (I should probably add that to clarify, thank you.) Some don't know any better, others count on people not knowing any better so that any argument against them sounds like hair-splitting.

I return to plagiarism at the end, but mostly I'm addressing the underlying accusation of "lack of originality." That's why I begin with Wide Sargasso Sea and March (obviously not plagiarised) and set them alongside fanfiction that does exactly the same thing as those two, is similarly original and quite far from the source material. I'm addressing both actual plagiarism and what they really mean by "plagiarism" at once.

Then I address the "yes-buts," because it is true that not all fanfiction is far from the source. So I analyzed the distance of various texts from their source and what that says about their "lack of originality."

There's a little bit about copyright in there with the discussion of fanfiction authors' attitudes about copyright with eachother, because people also conflate "plagiarism" with "breaking copyright" and "lack of originality," but I don't go into it. I probably should draw that point out more clearly. I just didn't want to get into a legal digression since the whole point is to avoid the legal nitpicking and address the underlying issue.

I've tried to look past the word "plagiarism" into what's really in question.

Comments

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just wow. I'm still digesting all of that, so I currently have nothing constructive to add. Except wow. :D

And may I link this out? I have fanfic buddies that will find this very insightful and interesting.

Thankies much!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Sure, go ahead. I just... I think I'm doing anything to avoid these essays so I-- I'm going to have to rein myself in on replying.

[inkscribe.livejournal.com]

Excellent summary of the many and various ways this plays out. I am still boggled by people who scream 'fanfic is plagiarism'. Frankly, it tells me they understand neither the term nor the general terms of what copyright does or does not apply to (not to mention other parts of intellectual property law).

That said, most of us singular fanfic writers can't really afford an entire legal firm or department dragging us through the muck, so I am quite certain we'll continue to hear the parties of the second part continue to make those types of claims, regardless of their lack of veracity. ;-)

*don't worry about replying to this one ... it is just a longwinded "yes yes I agree!" comment

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

That's a good overview of the situation.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It's also better than the essay I wrote for my finals. *snort*

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious where you'd put a book like "Jenna Starborn" which lifts the general plot of Jane Eyre and makes it a sci-fi story. (It doesn't bother with "homage" and comes right out and says on the cover it's an adaptation).

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

LOL!

It complicates and may very well disprove much of my conclusion. I will allow myself to delve into it as soon I've finish the first of three papers that are due Monday. There. That's the bargain I've struck with myself.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

Really an excellent, lucid summation of the various types of fanfic and its relation to profic that riffs off other novels. Going into memories.

Don't worry about answering this, either, just wanted to poke my head in and say hi.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hi! *hook drags Icarus away, clawing at the floor, wailing, "Noooooo... this more fun!"*

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I still think the best argument for fanfic not being plagiarism (at least of its source material) is that it explicitly credits that source material. If you call something SGA fanfic, you're saying that the characters and world come from SGA. And there's an expectation that readers will be familiar with the source so will know what parts of the story are taken from episodes and what are your own. Since plagiarism is passing off another's ideas as one's one, then just calling it fanfic makes it not plagiarism. There's no fraud--you're citing your source.

Copyright's a whole other, thing, though...

This is a good classification of types of fanfic, though. I often think of fanfic as expanding circles away from the source--you start in a fandom with missing scenes, and the more time you spend, you progress to tie-ins, subversions, and eventually AUs, which are so distant from the canon as to be unrecognizable.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*sneaks in one more answer before I'm caught by the final-fairies*

I didn't say this explicitly though I probably should have. People who call fanfic plagiarism are usually conflating "plagiarism" with "lack of originality." (I should probably add that to clarify, thank you.)

Some don't know any better, others count on people not knowing any better so that any argument against them sounds like hair-splitting.

I return to plagiarism at the end, but mostly I'm addressing the underlying accusation of "lack of originality." That's why I begin with Wide Sargasso Sea and March (obviously not plagiarized) and set them alongside fanfiction that does exactly the same thing as those two, is similarly original and quite far from the source material. I'm addressing both plagiarism and what they really mean by "plagiarism" at once.

Then I address the "yes-buts," because it is true that not all fanfiction is far from the source. So I analyzed the distance of various texts from their source and what that says about their "lack of originality."

There's a little bit about copyright in there with the discussion of fanfiction authors' attitudes about copyright with eachother, because people also conflate "plagiarism" with "breaking copyright" and "lack of originality," but I don't go into it. I probably should draw that point out more clearly. I just didn't want to get into a legal digression since the whole point is to avoid the legal nitpicking and address the underlying issue.

[kitsune13.livejournal.com]

This is great; my heart belongs to genre studies, and this is a really, really nice breakdown of different types/genres (in the broad sense) of fanfiction.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

my heart belongs to genre studies

Oh, mine, too.

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this rational, helpful, calm and thorough analysis of the issues and of the options. (I went off and read up on the Lucia Logan hooha, and am particularly unimpressed by the publisher's idiocy. No further comment on the 'author'.)

No need to respond, just want to acknowledge a much-appreciated essay.

Displacement activity rules, in spades! Good luck with finals.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Displacement activity rules, in spades!

Yes! Displace those characters with abandon.

[aerynvala.livejournal.com]

This is an awesome and clear and eloquent essay. Thank you.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Maybe I can hand this in instead of the one I'm supposed to write. You think my professor of 18th century lit will go for that? I mean, I do mention Jane Eyre.

[argosy.livejournal.com]

Really well-done essay. I admire people who meta well and thoughtfully.

I am just now in the very early stages of adapting a book into an SGA AU, so it was especially interesting. I feel pretty confident I wouldn't have stolen direct passages even without the cautionary tale this essay provides, but I guess now we'll never know. :D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I feel pretty confident I wouldn't have stolen direct passages even without the cautionary tale this essay provides, but I guess now we'll never know.

*snorts, giggles* I can't imagine you would have.

[perfica.livejournal.com]

telesilla mentions that the Harry Potter fans don't give a damn about plagiarism, based on her continued popularity and the support for the published version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, I'm guessing.

I'd strongly disagree. HP is by far the largest fandom; ergo, we have the most fans (whether you're counting number of writers and/or readers) and we're a diverse group. There's a lot of people in HP fandom that have a problem with plagiarism (and are very vocal about it) as there are a lot that don't agree with the whole Lexicon mess.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I disagree with that, too. But I can see how she came to that conclusion, tarring everyone with the same brush.

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

I'll leave aside my surprise that the Jane Eyre plot wasn't recognized in the first place.

As someone who comes from this fandom O_O I have to say that everyone knew A Hidden Passion was based on Jane Eyre. Yes, we knew that the plots were essentially the same. Re-using a basic plotline isn't a problem, especially if you say, "Hey, this is an adaptation of Title of Book or Movie" in your header, which this author did.

What most of us did not know was that the writer had lifted lines, some word-for-word and some slightly altered, from the original novel. Plots don't get copyrighted. Strings of words do. And saying "This is an adaptation," is not the same as saying, "Scattered throughout this story are lines lifted directly from the book," which is what it should have said.

The surprise isn't because we didn't know she'd used the plot. :P It's because we didn't know she'd copied lines. Very different, and that is where the line between adaptation and plagiarism is drawn.

telesilla mentions that the Harry Potter fans don't give a damn about plagiarism, based on her continued popularity and the support for the published version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, I'm guessing.

I'm pretty sure it's because of the Cassie Claire thing, and specifically the fact that it took several years of a number of different people insisting that there were many unattributed lines lifted directly from various sources, people who persisted in the face of snark and abuse and fannish ostracism, to get the fandom as a whole (or at least the Draco end of it) to realize that yes, what Cassie Claire did was wrong.

Angie

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's because of the Cassie Claire thing, and specifically the fact that it took several years of a number of different people insisting that there were many unattributed lines lifted directly from various sources, people who persisted in the face of snark and abuse and fannish ostracism, to get the fandom as a whole (or at least the Draco end of it) to realize that yes, what Cassie Claire did was wrong.

Oh, there's still large segments of HP fandom (and fandom in general) who insist that there *was* nothing wrong with CC's writing "technique," to this day.

I'm not saying "every single person in hp fandom is pro-plagiarism!" is a true statement, because that would be impossible, but I also don't think it's really accurate to say "draco fans now understand that what cc did was wrong!" Many, many people still think it was fine and people criticising CC are just jealous of her talent or whatever.

(Probably another reason that HP has that particular reputation is that *so many* of its BNFs were pro-CC and pro-their own special definition of plagiarism-- because they were doing it themselves! bad_penny on journalfen exposed at least two more plagiarizers-- AngieJ/Ebony (who admitted it and apologized) and Heidi8 (who I don't think has, to this day) but I highly doubt that's where it ends.

Some HP fans probably defended CC out of blind fangirlishness or a confusion about the nature of plagiarism, but a lot of others probably defended her because they were doing the same thing themselves and didn't want to think it was at all wrong. The reason they'd been defending CC's writing techniques is that they were doing the same thing-- copy-pasting whole scenes with slight changes to the verbiage and occasionally crediting the source as "inspired by..." such and such. Which, just... no.

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

Interesting essay. but there's a minor detail wrong, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron and the owner of the HP lexicon are not the same person. It's the latter guy who's in trouble with JKR and Warner

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've corrected that (I always thought they were the same person).

[failing-light.livejournal.com]

This is a very clear and insightful treatment of the subject. Thanks for sharing!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[sarka.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was a very neat analysis.

As for the whole kerfluffle, obviously an author can't get away with doing this. The very attempt was ill-advised.

I just mostly find it hilarious that as an avid RPS reader, I gave A Hidden Passion a shot. About two chapters in (having ignored disclaimers, which I almost always do) I went all, "ah, it's a retelling of Jane Eyre".

Now, I've never read Jane Eyre, so I couldn't have realized what a close retelling it was. But I remember that I didn't finish the story because I thought it was too emo and fanfictionish, and the wording was too pompous, without being good.

*facepalm*

Shows how much I know :D

[manna]

I thought it was too emo and fanfictionish, and the wording was too pompous, without being good.

And that's how you can recognize Charlotte Bronte. ;-)

[shironezumi.livejournal.com]

/here via frogspace

I usually don't have enough time or just the patience to read much meta-thoughts or learn about how fandoms really work; but this entry was so interesting that I just couldn't stop reading.^^ Thanks!^^

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I was trying to make it approachable and something that a non-fanfic writer would also be able to follow.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

(also, they'd probably have to pay him a lot more)

That would be where my mom cracked up. Thnaks for writing something that even she could understand and relate to.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should find out how much that is and....

Okay, maybe not.

That would be where my mom cracked up. Thnaks for writing something that even she could understand and relate to.

I'm so glad your mom liked it. I meant this for non-fanfic writers, too, and hoped I made sense and explained the terms enough as I went.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

I'd be really interested, when you have time, to see what you have to say regarding RPS in this issue. Does it change any of the definitions? move any of the lines? Why or why not?

I really appreciate the time you spend looking at the different aspects of this issue. I suspect that often, the issue in community response is very heavily muddied by conflicting morals. As you say, friendship is a strong force. The people who are friends often have information about the case that the community in general does not, and are more willing to forgive a friend for making a mistake, no matter how large.

GOod luck on your finals. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Cool question.

RPS... I can't see where plaigiarism would be an issue in RPS (except in this case where the story was lifted from a second source). Libel might be a concern.

In terms of distance from the source, RPS doesn't have a canon per se. There's information about the [band members/actors/etc] but it's superficial and part and parcel with marketing. You're basically writing original fic, only swiping names and identifiable traits (such as appearance and mannerisms). I've done that in creating OCs. I character I wrote called niko_molokov is a combination of a picture I found, the personality of an ex-boyfriend plus a guy I knew in high school, and the english struggles of some of my ESL students.

My personal problem as a reader when it comes to RPS is that I know we don't have a canon and I can't bring myself to buy the characterization. It's better for me when I don't know the real person it's based on. Though then I demand more physical description of the person.

[miso-no-tsuki.livejournal.com]

First off, all the best for your finals! Rah,rah, you *go* girl!!!
Secondly, what an interesting and precisely elucidated post. I'm always amazed when one of these things actually hits the "real" press, as opposed to getting "gossiped" about online. I always thought that the whole thing about fanfic was that you could play in "their" sandbox, any way you liked, so long as you weren't making any money/profit. Some of the best fanfic writers stay spot on canon, in character voice and tell stories that the studios couldn't make but only because of cost/time constraints.(Or the aforementioned costs of getting Mr Flanigan out of his kit.Let's face it, the Hewlett will drop 'em for a rubber ducky!) Others, and these are the really creative ones, take the whole thing and twist it out of shape and tell vivid stories of wildly AU doings but *still* have the same, recogniseable characters with the same interplay. Rodney is still Rodney whether he is the Chief Scientist on Atlantis,a musician/composer/mathematician/ dress designer (and I didn't believe *that* one could work till I read it!)ice skating coach (*g*)/chef/ a Canadian Mountie or a regency dandy with a mountain of gambling debts.He's still a mouthy,obnoxious, but brilliant sod.
Thirdly, that's an interesting list of fanfic, some of which I *haven't* read, so that's my free time sorted till I have rectified that sad condition.
And fourthly; don't worry about replying till *after* you're done. I have a humoungous big instruction manual to plough through. Before Tuesday. *coughs*

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Egad!! I'm not a full-bore SGA fan, but now I'm DYING to read Rodney as a regency dandy with a mountain of gambling debts.

Please, please, if you have the url . . . I beg of you.

[billywiggy.livejournal.com]

This is a fascinating, well thought-out and finely balanced piece of writing. Thank you for this. ;)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[delle.livejournal.com]

this was fascinating (and, as a some-times fanfic writer, I appreciate your even-handed and supportive comments about our hobby).

having read many of the posts regarding the Jane Eyre story.... some of what caused the issue, it seems to me, is that the author herself said she was "basing" her story on Jane Eyre. To some readers that meant she was basically posting the original story with character names and small details changed. To others (and to me, as an outsider) that disclaimer implied she was taking the basic plot structure but writing her own story.

There's a HUGE difference between those interpretations, obviously. Like Cassie Edwards, I do believe that using huge chunks of text (or barely barely rearranged sentences) from the original source is plagiarism. But I think the difference in interpreting the author's orginal disclaimer also plays a role in why some people a. didn't think there was a problem with the story when originally posted and b. think the current fuss is now "mean" to the author.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I can see how people got confused. Lucia Logan, well, there's no way to soft pedal this. She lied. "Basing" means an adaptation.

Just changing names and a few details is always plagiarism, but many people don't know that. Every quarter in college I sit through yet another explanation about just what plagiarism is. Obviously many people need to be told. For those who don't know what plagiarism is (and I was a little fuzzy on it before school) and those who don't know "basing" flat out says that there's a difference between the text and what it's based on (which I did know before school), they wouldn't understand that they were reading plagiarized work. They need to not take Lucia Logan's word above every scholar's definition of plagiarism.

Here via Metafandom

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

This is a terrific, fascinating post, but unfortunately it does seem to be conflating plagiarism and copyright violation; they're not the same thing. A piece may be both, either, or neither.

Plagiarism is passing off someone else's work as your own; copyright violation is using an illegal amount of someone's copyrighted material without permission (the legal amount varies with the type of use).

If I claim to have written a piece by Shakespeare, it's plagiarism but not a copyright violation. If I print the lyrics to "Imagine" on the first page of my original novel and credit them to John Lennon, it's a copyright violation but not plagiarism. If I reprint a story by Ray Bradbury with my name listed as the author, it's both. Wide Sargasso Sea is neither, since the debt to Bronte is acknowledged and the copyright has expired.

Fanfiction that adequately credits the source is not plagiarism (hence disclaimers), but may - or may not - be a copyright violation. To determine whether any given piece of fanfiction violates copyright would require a court ruling. Thus your above excellent breakdown of the types of fanfiction actually has less to do with plagiarism, and more to do with whether or not a given piece of fanfiction would be likely judged transformative enough to avoid being ruled a copyright violation under fair use provisions.

Apart from that, really wonderful post which I enjoyed reading (and will probably re-read to absorb more of); thank you for writing it.

Re: Here via Metafandom

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No, no, no.

I'm addressing those who conflate plagiarism with copy violation with lack of originality.

That's what underlies the claim that fanfiction is plagiarism. But to just say, "You've got it wrong" is to not address the underlying question. Please see this (http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/741394.html?thread=10672914#t10672914).

[wivern.livejournal.com]

Thank you for a clear and very useful essay.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Great, I'm glad it was worthwhile.

[pensnest]

This is a very good, clear analysis of what fanfic is. Nicely done. (here from metafandom)

[tasha18.livejournal.com]

This is a great post! When you're done with finals, or you feel like procrastinating, I'm giving you a link to my thesis. It basically argues that fanfiction writers value "repetition with a difference" instead of originality, and that the practice of writing fanfic is not only liberating, but therapeutic as well (I draw a comparison to narrative therapy.)
http://owl.tauri.org/stories.php?psid=5647
good luck with finals!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thank you.