I'm a bit too busy at work today to write this up tidily, but in brief...
-- I agree with those who are saying this is a Rule of Fandom. The thinking behind this rule, when I've discussed it, seem to be that the source authors operate on one level and the fanfiction authors operate on another; it's ok to write fanfiction about published work without permission, because permission in that context is impossible to begin with and impractical besides, but there's nothing stopping you from getting permission from another fanfiction author. Some would call this "honor among theives," but I prefer to think of it as polite. I'd also argue that while writing a fanfic based on other fan work is sometimes permissible when credit is given where due, leaving off those credits is NEVER ok.
-- On the "I spend hours writing fic and I don't want someone going in and ripping it up" front, I have a lot of sympathy for that outlook. Many authors I know think of fanfic as casual fun of little consequence, which is perfectly fine, but others take it very seriously and work as hard on it as they would an original story. I don't think I'm the only aspiring novelist who thinks of my fanfic story as my "crappy first book" that I nonetheless have to take seriously and learn from. (But whatever, that's a tangential issue anyway)
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2006-08-21 08:12 pm (UTC)I'm a bit too busy at work today to write this up tidily, but in brief...
-- I agree with those who are saying this is a Rule of Fandom. The thinking behind this rule, when I've discussed it, seem to be that the source authors operate on one level and the fanfiction authors operate on another; it's ok to write fanfiction about published work without permission, because permission in that context is impossible to begin with and impractical besides, but there's nothing stopping you from getting permission from another fanfiction author. Some would call this "honor among theives," but I prefer to think of it as polite. I'd also argue that while writing a fanfic based on other fan work is sometimes permissible when credit is given where due, leaving off those credits is NEVER ok.
-- On the "I spend hours writing fic and I don't want someone going in and ripping it up" front, I have a lot of sympathy for that outlook. Many authors I know think of fanfic as casual fun of little consequence, which is perfectly fine, but others take it very seriously and work as hard on it as they would an original story. I don't think I'm the only aspiring novelist who thinks of my fanfic story as my "crappy first book" that I nonetheless have to take seriously and learn from. (But whatever, that's a tangential issue anyway)
(er....ok, so not as brief as I'd thought....)