i’m so proud of anyone who writes fanfic.
i am immensely proud of anyone who types out stories they want to see for characters that are not their creation, or their property, but that inspire them to delve into a difficult medium with which they likely have little experience or comfort. i have to be proud of that because fanfic is ultimately a thankless line of work. and it is work. it’s work for people who’re good at writing, trained in it. so imagine how difficult it is for beginners, the impaired, those with even a modicum of self-doubt? in that way, they are no different from any other author.
writing, literature, is an art form with an ugly legacy of snobbery. academics and laymen alike still argue about what sorts of writing should and should not be considered ‘canonical.’ add to that odious environment the level of disdain, apathy, or ignorance most non-fannish people have toward fan works and you have a near-permanent, repugnant shroud of You’re Not Real encompassing the whole endeavor. a shroud under which, miraculously, fan works are still produced with vigor and regularity, and largely without access to agents or editors who’re paid to polish. just as miraculously, these writers often receive, from their friends and peers and strangers, the sort of praise one associates with bestselling authors.
it’s miraculous because fanfic writers have been obliged to believe, from the moment they set finger to keyboard, that what they are doing is a sideshow. at best, they are hobbyists with some talent but no real standing. at worst, they are self-indulgent amateurs, muddying the waters of a true craft. like many authors of original work, fanfic writers will never have a millisecond of calculable fame for their efforts. they may step out of their borrowed sandbox and create original work, or they may not, but there is no scenario in which they emerge feeling like an accepted member of a celebrated tradition. even in the rare instance of pop culture turning its eye on some speck of scintillating fan work, it’s still mocked. it’s still a sideshow, just with a brighter spotlight.
so, yeah, i am proud of anyone who can absorb the reality of all the above…and still write.
for all my brave creatives out there – tappity-tap-tap!
Tag Archives: war on fanfic
Did Anne Rice really sue people for writing fanfic?!
I’m not sure if she actually sued anyone but she had her lawyer(s) send out Cease & Desist letters in the 90′s, which threatened legal action (suing) on the fanfic writers if they did not Cease & Desist in the writing of fanfic, regardless of whether they were selling it or sharing it for free.
Too much to explain here, try my #war on fanfic tag and do the google for more info.
Do you know if fanfiction is allowed today?? I was going to post something I wrote, but then I learned about all the suing that had happened, and since I am a minor in terrified of placing my parents into a lawsuit
Short answer: Yes, fanfic is okay now. AR now “ignores fanfiction.” That’s her current stance. We don’t have her approval, we have her tolerance.
*~And AO3 has pledged itself as a safe haven* for fanfic writers to post their works!~*
But even with all that, I still would caution ppl from sharing the more hidden fics unless you are sure you are communicating w/ someone who is not a POTP, bc they have “poked the bear” by sending things to AR under the guise of caring for her, but it always feels like a thinly veiled attempt to provoke drama *grumbles*
Just so you know: a lawsuit doesn’t happen immediately. She has to send you a C&D (Cease & Desist) letter first, and that’s a very scarily-worded letter that’s meant to intimidate you into taking your fanfic down, during the War on Fanfic™, ppl just complied, avoiding any further action.
I really should have an FAQ, sorry about, that bc I’ve answered this before 😛 I have more info on her stance on fanfic in these posts [X] [X], and in my #fanfic and #war on fanfic tags, if you want to more.
Hey so I really want to make VC fanart. Does Anne Rice still do legal things when she finds out? I know that all happened a while ago (wayyyyyy before my time in being in fandoms) and I know there is fanart and fanfic out there but I am still paranoid.
^This is a legit screencap from her FB page, I just added the highlight. For the record, AR loves fanart, so keep it coming! ☆° ｡:.ﾟヽ(´∀`｡)ﾉﾟ.:｡+ﾟ ☆
As for the fanfic, here’s my long post on it, with a bunch of her statements about it, but basically, she ignores fanfic:
“I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she says. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live.
If I were a young writer, I’d want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there.” – Anne Rice, Nov. 2012.
Still, her POTP occasionally bring things to her attention needlessly (like this blog post about someone’s bad experience in VC RP), with overly polite language like, “Anne, I hope that you’re aware that…” trying to provoke a response out of her. She still has rights and a lot more money than we do, so it’s important that we respect her.
Dear VC Fandom,
So. Is fanfiction okay now? Like, I’m sure Queen Anne isn’t still chasing people down with legal papers, but did we get outright approval to post stories? When did that happen?
Short answer: Yes, fanfic is okay now. AR now “ignores fanfiction.” That’s her current stance. We don’t have her approval, we have her tolerance. Not sure exactly when that happened (but there are timestamps in my FB screencaps below).
*~And AO3 has pledged itself as a safe haven* for fanfic writers to post their works!~*
*meaning: AO3 will attempt to defend the writers against copyright infringement claims. The legality of fanfic is nebulous right now, as the courts are slowly defining fanworks under the Fair Use doctrine on a case-by-case basis.
“I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she says. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live.” – Anne Rice, Nov. 2012.
Aaaaand here are the best FB screencaps re: AR’s stance on fanfic I could find, in reverse chronological order (there’s more, just trying to keep this post from getting too long, emphasized w/ my highlights, of course):
(^Year unknown on that one, old screencap; couldn’t find it again.)
…You want MORE? Hit the jump.
Also this is relevant, from 2014: “A big congratulations to Anna Todd, 25 year old author of One Direction fan fiction, "After” on her new deal with publishing house Simon & Schuster and her movie deal.”
In her comments below, AR seems to compare her inspiration of Hollywood’s vampire movies made in the ‘40s as being similar to Anna Todd’s inspiration re: the boy band 1D. In a way, AR is saying what we all know that writers ARE influenced by outside sources, in various media; Anna Todd’s work cannot be simply written off (no pun intended) as purely derivative fanfiction of 1D just like AR’s work cannot be simply written off as purely derivative fanfiction of Hollywood’s vampire movies made in the ‘40s.
Not that anyone has accused AR of that that I’m aware of, but it might have been an issue raised in 1975 when IWTV first came out.
Long answer (from Wiki):
“Anne Rice objected to fan fiction based on any of her characters (mostly those from her famous Interview with the Vampire and its sequels in The Vampire Chronicles) or other elements in her books, and she formally requested that FanFiction.Net remove stories featuring her characters.[52]However, in 2012, Metro reported that Rice has taken a milder stance on the issue: “I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she said. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I’d want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there.”[53]
“
this is ooc and i’m sorry but look. i feel like anne rice is totally dickish with her total ban on fanfiction/lack of interaction with fandom, etc, but 1. it’s her right to not want to participate in fandom and 2. she’s kind of right? at this point there are, off the top of my head, at least 2 hugely popular series right now that are complete rip-offs of other popular series (50 shades/twilight & mortal instruments/harry potter, both of which began as fanfics but are now almost —
[2nd ask sent] – almost entirely just a complete theft of the intellectual property that they started as fan-derivative works of. so i don’t know if half of what op claims is fair? because it’s true that anne rice chased away her online fandom with a broom, but it’s not totally baseless given the circumstances. she’s not just some crazy old lady imo. sorry again, i don’t want to start a fight but i don’t agree.
Okay, so this is a HUGE topic and I could write an essay and a half on all the issues raised, but it DOES sound like you’re trying to start a fight, partly bc you submitted this on Anon (and you started w/ “this is ooc” so it’s clear you’re an RPer, infringing on the VC copyright through RP, which is writing fanfic, for free!) and partly bc of your general tone, which in all fairness I could be misreading.
I’m not sure you totally understand AR’s War on Fanfic in the early-mid 90′s, or the actual points raised in the post you disagree with so strongly, so that’s why I’m taking the time to answer.
However, for everyone’s future reference: my policy has been to answer every Ask I get but that policy is changing NOW. If I get the feeling that a message is provocative in a negative way, I won’t answer it publicly. Privately, I might, if you come off Anon.
^Louis doesn’t really want to get involved in this discussion. It’s ok, just sit there and look pretty, hun, we’ll keep this brief.
For the record, there are 2 separate bloggers on the post you’re referring to.
1) Original Poster
asked a question, “Why is there so little Vampire Chronicles fan activity or content?” [X], and then;
2) @the-savage-nymph-art replied to that question [X]. Brilliantly and succinctly, I would add. They even provided one of the purposes of fanfic: to share headcanons. Whether in an AU, or PWP, etc., we’re exploring the characters through storytelling.
What @the-savage-nymph-art didn’t mention is that exploring canon through writing/sharing fanfic (both for-profit and not-for-profit, I assume) predates AR’s War on Fanfic. You can do your own research on that, but here’s a good article to start with, by Ewan Morrison.
Monika Bartyzel: talks about derivative works based on fanfic (it mentions 50 Shades & Twilight, too), but focusing on the Mortal Instruments. The thrust of the argument is that TMI was TOO derivative:
“…But until a story is willing to break through the boundaries of its inspiration and drop the mimicry in favor of its own voice, it will always be as derivative as its origins — no matter how many names you change.”
(^So there is a difference between fanfic that shares headcanons to explore, and fanfic that seems to merely mimic the canon it’s derived from.)
What @the-savage-nymph-art ALSO didn’t mention is that fanfic was shared for FREE when AR had her War on fanfic in the early-mid 90′s. This was to prevent the writing/sharing of fanfic that was not-for-profit. She was suing people because “It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters.” Not that she was concerned about the fanfic writers making money off their works, since they were being written/shared for FREE. Specs (short for “Speculative Fiction,” as they were called at that time) often had disclaimers at the top that the works were “written for love, not profit. Characters © Anne Rice” (and some fanfic authors continue to include these in various forms).
Anon, Anne Rice no longer has an issue with Fanfic. I don’t remember what year this was posted on FB but it was, and she hasn’t mentioned it since, that I’m aware of.
^So really, with that, the argument is kind of over.
But I am definitively saying, I run this blog as respectfully of Anne Rice as I can, w/ just a little light teasing bc we do that even to our own parents! she’s given us a great gift in the VC.
This blog is about positivity and inclusivity, and arguing over whether a derivative work is worthy of being considered worth standing alone as a separate work, that’s for the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis as we define what is a “derivative” work. There are some fanworks that I love so much that I WISH they were canon, that I WISH I could buy as a beautiful physical book to repay the creators for bringing me Such Feels!
Hit the jump for just a little more.
Anon’s argument has 2 points:
A) That fanfic written for fandom and then altered by changing the character names, etc. (aka ”filing the serial numbers off”, “Hermione” becomes “Eloise” or whatever) so that it can be sold for profit, is infringing on the copyright of the original creator. Anon mentions 2 examples that are making tons of money. I’ve heard of those series and the accusations of their beginnings as fanfic. I haven’t read them or followed the reviews about them though, so I can’t comment on whether or not they really are derivative works.
B) That Anne Rice is wrongfully accused of being “just some crazy old lady” in defense of the her VC copyright.
As per Anon’s point A), this is a nebulous thing, copyright law is still being worked out for it. It’s slowly developing on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes it’s settled out of court. Look at the Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia case, for example. Not a fanfic, but still, a fanwork. The judge ruled that the
Unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia could be published for profit, in an abridged version of how it was originally intended to be, bc it served as a reference work, so it had value, but in its entirety it would have been
unfair competition w/ a similar work that J.K. Rowling intended to release (and she is still working on, years later).
As for your point B):
Nowhere in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s reply is Anne Rice referred to as “just some crazy old lady.” In fact, it was only you, Anon, who called her “dickish.”
Actually, there are several mocking references in @the-savage-nymph-art‘s commentary to those who write fanfic, in the usual Tumblrland Hyperbole™ kind of way, which is intended to grab your attention and add a little levity to a serious and saddening topic. Don’t you get the joke, Anon? Silliness! Or can you not take it as humorous when smne mentions “your gloriously blushing butt-cheeks” ?
I disagree with you, Anon. Anne Rice has given us an incredible gift. Yes, I have mentioned that she waged War on Fanfic. That’s a fact. It’s actual history.
Fanfic sold for money w/ the serial numbers filed off, (like 50 Shades does to Twilight and the Mortal Instruments *allegedly* does to Harry Potter) well, the creators of the original works have every right to pursue copyright protection! Have they, in these cases? Because the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments seem to be doing fine, getting movie deals an all.
Maybe the authors of 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments were sued and settled out of court.
But maybe, in these cases, the derivative work (as Anon calls them) was sufficiently AU of the fandoms they were adapted from to constitute enough originality to be considered works that stand on their own.
Let’s see what happens when someone writes fanfic w/ the serial numbers filed off based on 50 Shades and the Mortal Instruments!
Oh wait, 50 Shades already has a parody of it, 50 Shades of Black. Let’s get popcorn and see if a legal dispute fires up…
what they say: I’m fine
what they mean: Why is there so little Vampire Chronicles fan activity or content? Where is the fanbase? I understand that it’s older but the appeal is still massive. This is something that you can like for years and years and not get over. Why is it there aren’t hoards of new fans every year? What can you want more than beautiful bisexual vampires? I mean Anne Rice practically invented the modern vampire genre. There’s dozens of shows and book series that owe their creative careers to her. She is one of the bestselling writers of all time!!! The fact that there isn’t a bigger active fanbase especially since Prince Lestat’s release kind of blows my mind. I mean there was even a blockbuster motion picture with an allstar cast. How are there not more new young fans? How do we get more? Like I know so many people who have seen and enjoyed the movie but where is the huge cult following behind the film and the books?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You Want to know why?
Because Anne Rice likes to sue your gloriously blushing butt-cheeks off if you DARE to produce fanfiction of her characters and works.
And most book based fandoms thrive from fanfiction, the telling of stories how it could be (or should be) or what might have happened IF ONLY…..
Then fanarts are created for said fanfictions and for the original books as well, if they have content that is worth ‘arting’ for. But Anne Rice isn’t loyal to her characters and one of the reasons she likes to sue fanfiction-writers is because they might have better ideas than she. Or the same and it might look like she was stealing that idea.
Then there is the fact that her books have lessened in quality with each new book. (An oppinion many of the fans I know share.)
From MY point of view… only two and a half books are even worth reading (out of thirteen)and one movie worth watching (“Interview with the Vampire”! I wouldn’t bother watching “Queen of the Damned”…), because she doesn’t care to check canon facts, names, dates and characters.
The only one she cannot possibly write OOC is Lestat, because he canonly is all over the place with his ego anyway.
This Fandom, for most parts, lives on Head-Canons. Like “Imagine Nicolas de Lenfent faked his death somehow” or “What if Akasha and Enkil had actually loved each other till the very end and they had a deal to come back together after her little interlude with Lestat and playing goddess”.
And how do you present your Head-Canons to the fanbase? Mostly through fanfiction. (Which you can get your pretty butt sued off for.)
Most activity in the VC-fandom is limited to roleplay and some fanart/cosplay. Because she hardly can sue that.
And that is why there is so little movement in the fandom. We enjoy what good she did (Creating the characters we love) in silence, keeping to ourself with few friends in many little covents, so to speak.
Do you have any fanfiction recommendations? Personal favorites?
Fanfic?? there’s no such thing as VC fanfic… pfffft. What are you crazy honestly??!
^Lestat is laughing bc he knows I is sarcastic.
I have a huge list of faves. HUGE. But the thing about VC fanfic is that we still have to be sort of careful about sharing it bc of reasons (under the cut if you wanna know why).
MY faves may not be what you’re looking for as I tend to skew L/L, since they are the OTP I am hopelessly afflicted with, but I have some drabbles and links to fic saved with other characters in my #fanfic, and #damn you and your perfect headcanon perfection tags here. There’s also some fine stuff in the @vcsecretgifts archive.
Archive of Our Own (aka AO3)
has a mission statement about protecting fanworks from copyright infringement arguments, so I feel pretty safe recc’ing stuff that’s on there:
-
Gulfport: A British Petroleum Fanfic (Part One) by hw_campbell_jnr – There are 2 parts and it’s incomplete but this is devastatingly beautiful long!fic. Hipster modern Lestat and Louis, Lestat going by a pseudonym, politics woven in, it’s just too good. It annoys me how good it is. I am annoyed. I would be less annoyed if it were COMPLETED.
-
First Light by Rebness – Such feels, Claudia’s POV on her final night ;A;
-
The Grim Brothers by Rebness – incomplete but it’s a fun little werewolf AU! I hope the author picks it up again someday.
-
The Sexting Caper by Gairid – because sexting!
-
The Haunting by Gairid – A haunted object.
- Gairid also has some excellent long!fics and collaborations with Leshan that are worth checking out, too many to list here.
- My stuff… see Burnadette_dpdL. De Motu Cordis is not my fave but has one of the highest hit counts. L/L lovey fluff *blushes*
-
One Night in New Orleans by iskra667 – L/L dubcon angst, fluff, I just really enjoy it.
- Childhood memory – a harsh lesson is learned (not the official title) @devilsfool – a response to an Ask, a first kiss, child!Lestat.
- Lestat’s actual birthday (not the official title) by @viaticumforthemarquise – Gabrielle’s POV on the day Lestat is born oh gawds! Baby!Lestat
Hit the jump for a teensy fanfic history lesson.
In short, Anne Rice had waged war on VC fanfic in the mid-90s, sic’ing her lawyers on many fanfic writers, eventually breaking apart fanfic sites (“speculative fiction” or “spec” archives/communities) and driving many of these writers to stop writing altogether or do so in a more underground way.
Currently, she’s had conflicting stances on fanfic, but hasn’t made outright war at nearly that level. We try not to tag her in discussions of it, basically, we don’t try to provoke her by making our caches of VC fanfic known. Especially on Facebook, where she’s very active and might see it. She posted this on her FB in 2014 (I think):
Since I’m trying to convince a friend who has some reservation due to Anne Rice’s previous stance on fan works, do you feel as if RPing from the Vampire Chronicles is in any way problematic?
[I don’t know the current SJW definition of the word “problematic” so I’m going with what the dictionary explains, which is smtg “constituting or presenting a problem or difficulty.”]
So AR had commented thusly on her FB, 2014 (might be a different year):
It’s true that she used to attack fanfic authors, there was a war on fanfic in the ‘90s…
…but currently she seems to ignore it. Huzzah, right? I think so!
I can’t recall her having an issue with RPers. Not sure why, but maybe she doesn’t see RP as being fanfiction in that it’s a series of responses. There are fics and published works that write from different characters’ POV (Queen of the Damned did that, for example) but seem to devote whole chapters to each POV.
We had a situation recently in which a VC RPer was sent what we now consider to have been Anon-hate that was written to look like a real Cease & Desist letter (which is what we get when AR wants our grubby hands off her precious bbs). We believe it was a particularly cruel way to send Anon-hate.
So I think you’re clear, no problems. Go RP!
However, your friend may have other reservations about RPing, too. There are a lot of things to consider, among which:
- Are you over 18?
- Are you willing to RP with people under 18?
- Are you willing to RP smut and R-rated scenes?
- Are you willing to RP with OC’s and other fandoms?
- Are you willing to RP AU?
- Is your muse a canon or original
character?
- Is your muse multi-ship (can have more than one relationship at a time in different threads)?
Fair use is … wholly authorized by the law. That’s what the 9th Circuit said today, in a ruling that will become a terrific tool to support sharing of transformative works (like fanfic, fanart, cosplay, fanfilms, filks, etc.).
Back in 2001 and 2003, when I first started writing and speaking about fair use in connection with what we’re now calling “fan law”, we did a lot of argiing by analogy. Caselaw hadn’t really caught up with how people were actually using the internet and definitely hadn’t caught up with the idea that fans of a show or book or film or band or piece of art or work of creativity would create a “follow-on work” and share it at no cost to anyone, on the internet.
But lawyers argue by analogy – we go before a court and say “this is similar to that, and thus the laws for that should also apply to this”. That’s how it works (at least in the US) so it was reasonable to say because of court rulings in The Wind Done Gone and the 2 Live Crew case re Pretty Woman, or a 1996 case in the 11th Circuit that said “
fair use is not an infringement, that (noncommercially distributed) fanworks – as transformative works – were fair use and thus were not infringements of someone’s copyright.
By and large, over the last fifteen years (and actually, through the 90s too) the courts have agreed with this concept every time something that parallels an aspect of fanworks comes before an appellate court. Click the Fair Use tag here for examples.
However, today the 9th Circuit issued its ruling in Lenz v. Universal, a case that dates back EIGHT YEARS to a pre-Google time at YouTube, when the tv networks were all freaking out about this new way that people could get content via the internet, and the music companies were continuing their perpetual angst about the idea that certain uses of songs could be, in any way noninfringing.
While Lenz doesn’t really redefine large swaths of law, it makes a few points explicit and clear:
- Fair use is not just excused by the law, it is wholly authorized by the law.
- A copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification.
- The DMCA requires consideration of fair use prior to sending a takedown notification…
- If a copyright holder ignores or neglects our unequivocal holding that it must consider fair use before sending a takedown notification, it is liable for damages.
- A copyright holder who pays lip service to the consideration of fair use by claiming it formed a good faith belief when there is evidence to the contrary is still subject to §512(f) liability.
The court also quoted a brief from transformativeworks (OTW/AO3) where we set forth when computer programs might be of use in finding infringements where “(1) the video track matches the video track of a copyrighted work submitted by a content owner; (2) the audio track matches the audio track of that same copyrighted work;and (3) nearly the entirety…is comprised of a single copyrighted work.” As you can see, that process wouldn’t be applicable for fanworks.
The ruling doesn’t mean an end to automatic takedown notices; where a file of concern matches exactly to a single copyrighted work *and* nearly the entirety of the file of concern is comprised of that single copyrighted work, bots and automated notices would still be viable.
But a video manifesting mashup culture or a story that’s a follow-on work or a meme that includes a copyrighted photo and text that comments on or criticizes something, or educational infographs should not be DMCA-ed by autobots, and any analysis by the copyright-holder of the fanfic, fanart, etc. they’re looking at must actually look to current law regarding whether something is a transformative work/fair use/otherwise noninfringing.
Does this mean that creative fans will suddenly start experiencing fewer DMCA takedowns? Possibly, but also maybe not. But it does mean that if a creative fan gets a DMCA takedown/notification about fanworks (especially when there’s no commercial sale) the fan can and should push back on whether the sender has actually considered fair use; if it’s obvious that they haven’t, the creative fan may be able to seek damages.
Perhaps that risk of damages will be a disincentive to copyright-holders, so they focus their attention, and DMCA notices, on works that are actual counterfeits – copies of entire movies, books or tv serieses, or high resolution copies of art.
Copyright holders cannot shirk their duty to consider—in good faith and prior to sending a takedown notification—whether allegedly infringing material constitutes fair use, a use which the DMCA plainly contemplates as authorized by the law.
And that’s a good thing.
Now that you’re up to date on fair use law, check out the discussions that OTW’s Legal Chair Betsy and I had about fanworks, fair use, copyright law and so much more with fansplaining last week for their awesome new podcast.
Such awesome news! And go Legal Committee!! o/
Also if you haven’t yet, take a look at the great candidates running for OTW board this year (the nonprofit that supports the AO3 and the Legal Committee and their advocacy work, among other awesome projects) and don’t forget to vote! (You have to be a $10 minimum dues-paying member to vote.)
I-want-my-IWTV 