Moki's Fanfiction Blog

I’d like to know more about the legality of fanfiction. I know people usually say it’s illegal, but is that a fact or an assumption? Has there ever been a case of anyone actually being sued for writing and publishing not-for-profit fanfic? Was there ever a court decision about whether or not it falls under fair use? Or even just someone making the legal argument that it should? 
Also, what would be the best way to phrase a disclaimer, and what information should be included to avoid legal trouble? Do they even help at all? 

*is afraid of lawyers*

Don’t be afraid… The key thing you ask here is about “not-fo-profit”. That’s the crux of the matter right there. Any kind of legal action is expensive, so you have to start by asking yourself, will the creator care about what you are doing and if they do care, will they care enough  to start legal action. The first step most creators will take is a notice and takedown letter – this gives you a chance to simply remove the offending material. To date there have not been any court cases about not-for-profit works. Fair use is the copyright exception that fanfic writers do rely on – it is a bit of a grey line however. It relies on the derivative work falling into several categories of exceptions – including parody, criticism, etc (I won’t bore you with the entire clause but if you are interested see sec. 107 of the Copyright Act. The disclaimer that I use is “this is a transformative work of fiction based on the original creation of X. This work is not for profit.” If you post somewhere like ff.net, they provide a helpful list of authors who DO object to your using their work. I would suggest taking their wishes into account. That said, what you do in the privacy of your own house or among your private friends is completely your business. But these are considerations if you are planning to post in a public forum or publish in a fanzine. A fanzine does pose other issues – for instance, you want to make sure that the fanzine is clearly not-for-profit – this is going to be a harder fact to prove, so if you are nervous, I would avoid fanzines. But again, if you are making no money, is there a reason to pursue the full extent of the law against you? You are most likely to simply get a takedown notice if anything at all. For more info I would suggest visiting ChillingEffect.com. This is not meant as legal advice (and yes, that is a disclaimer)

You’re a treasure!

One thing I have noticed is that too many good stories get started and not finished.

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of abandoning stories, there was a site where you could “put it up for adoption” and your story could be completed by someone else.

Or perhaps if you are a writer who is not great at plotting a storyline or a good plotter not good at writing, you could be paired up.

It crosses into the BETA role but for some reason that escapes me, many new writers don’t appear to use a BETA.

Maybe something like this already exists?

Liz, those are some excellent points!

I can’t speak for everyone else, but when I first started using FF.net I was totally mystfied by the whole Beta process – and the sheer length of the list of Betas was completely offputting. Was I really expected to read through a whole load of profiles to find a suitable match?

And some of those profiles – my goodness –  some were so crotchety and sooo demanding! - nearly put me off from submitting in the first place!

In the end I was too excited about posting (after having read and re-read my fanfic) that I couldn’t bear to wait any longer (and somehow approaching a stranger and asking them to Beta seemed a bit awkward to me)

Maybe finding a Beta would be a good topic?

It’s obvious that a lot of people just post without even re-reading for typos – maybe it doesn’t bother some, but I find it really detracts from the enjoyment – the sad thing is that they’re otherwise excellent stories. (I really hate how I seem to always spot a typo within minutes of posting!)

I don’t seem to get a lot of reviews – so I’m not really sure what people think and wouldn’t mind some feedback on what does or doesn’t work - would a Beta help? On the other hand I only do this for fun, and I’m not as thick skinned as I like to make out – so not sure I’d enjoy the reality of such feedback!

Any pointers on the etiquette of reviewing/responding?  I remember leaving my first review and the sheer surprise and pleasure I felt at the author taking the time to respond. I think as a result of that I try to leave a review more often than I would otherwise.

Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to edit reviews which means that sometimes the fanfics which have impressed me the most don’t end up reviewed as I struggle to put my thoughts together, and I know using the iPhone with my fat fingers will just lead to typos which will haunt me forever…

I do give a response to each reviewer of my fanfics (although bearing in mind I’ve never had more than three for a story that’s not exactly a big ask!). Is it possible to respond to a review so everyone can see it?

I have to say I’m a little disappointed with the numbers of people who don’t respond at all – although I’m forgiving of people with hundreds of reviews – I’d rather have the next update! – but it does make me a little reluctant to review every chapter.

However I don’t respond to people who add me as a favourite, or set an alert for an update – is this a FanFiction.net faux pas?

Ooh, that’s always been a controvertial topic TheYmp. I’m sure Moki will refer you to a guest post she has on this blog by Laine3112, titled “To Review or Not to Review.”  Many interesting points were raised – including the always lop-sided review to alert/hits/faves ratio.

Like you, I don’t get too many reviews for my little attempts at writing but I do cherish each one and appreciate that someone takes the time to contact me. Not to harp on poor Laine, but I know for a fact that she gets many reviews and takes the time to reply to every one (except anons of course.) And I also feel a little less inclined to review when a writer doesn’t acknowledge my previous reviews – how long does it take to say thank you? 

I don’t think it’s expected to reply to faves and alerts.  As far as I’m aware, there is no way to amend a review once you have sent it – rats! Like you, I have cringed when I’ve found a typo in my review. I think most people appreciate a review enough to overlook the odd typo.

So, maybe the etiquette is that we should just do what WE feel comfortable doing.  

If you haven’t done so already, check out Laine’s guest post. 

Liz

I read Laine3112′s article – and Moki’s on reviewing – that was helpful thanks for the pointer. It’s a real shame that all three articles seem to have lost all their comments!

I’m a terrible procastinator and can quite happily spend ages writing reviews instead of my own stories, so you’re right I don’t think it’s too much for just a simple thanks (and the way FF’s been working recently at least you know they’ve seen it).

Good advice on doing what feels comfortable – on reflection I think that responding to faves/alerts would make me feel (and make me look) a little stalkerish/desperate!

Oh, what an interesting idea! As far as I know, nothing like that already exists but it might be fun to set it up. Maybe as a group on Facebook, or something like that. The stories could probably even stay on ff.net and either get moved to a new account or by letting the new author have temporary access to the original writer’s page. All of this would depend on the trust between the two writers. 

Thanks for the great idea! I’m going to make note of it as something to look into possibly implementing, or helping to implement (if someone else wanted to take on the task……so if anyone does, just let me know!).

Oh, what an interesting idea! As far as I know, nothing like that already exists but it might be fun to set it up. Maybe as a group on Facebook, or something like that. The stories could probably even stay on ff.net and either get moved to a new account or by letting the new author have temporary access to the original writer’s page. All of this would depend on the trust between the two writers. 

Thanks for the great idea! I’m going to make note of it as something to look into possibly implementing, or helping to implement (if someone else wanted to take on the task……so if anyone does, just let me know!).

I’m replying to this comment separately as it’s a whole new subject

Boy do I so know how you feel about the whole beta process. Last year I decided that I needed/wanted to have a beta as I’d never really had more than editing help (for typos, etc). But that isn’t usually my problem (more often than not, he’d send my work back with nothing to correct), and I wanted to get more feedback on my dialogue, character development, story structure, etc. 
I, like you, tried looking into the beta list and was completely overwhelmed and confused. I couldn’t find out that matched what I was looking for and after spending a lot of time on it, I gave up and simply posted in my story that I was looking for one. The funny thing there is that not one person volunteered for the job. This was on a story that was getting hundreds of reviews, too. Needless to say I was baffled. 

So I have gone on, completely unbetad except for those times when I’ve reached out to people (including the very kind Laine) when I had specific issues that I needed help with. 

As for the other side, those people who post without betas and have multiple typos, etc. I feel for them a bit now that I know how hard it is to find a beta, but I too agree that those types of errors distract from the story. When they are truly awful, I have to stop reading altogether. 

Yes, I think doing a post on betas is a great idea. Will be adding that to my list as well.  :o)

Also, sort of on this subject, I’ve been thinking of doing a post about reviewing with a critique. So far I’ve never been brave enough to come right out and openly critique another’s work unless they’ve been very specific in an author’s note and asked for opinions. When people ask for reviews, do they really want to hear that I thought their characterization wasn’t *quite* right? I always fear that I’m going to devastate them with such a comment so instead find only the good things to point out (if I’ve taken the time to read an entire chapter then I’ve always found something good in it). 

I’m replying to this comment separately as it’s a whole new subject

Boy do I so know how you feel about the whole beta process. Last year I decided that I needed/wanted to have a beta as I’d never really had more than editing help (for typos, etc). But that isn’t usually my problem (more often than not, he’d send my work back with nothing to correct), and I wanted to get more feedback on my dialogue, character development, story structure, etc. 
I, like you, tried looking into the beta list and was completely overwhelmed and confused. I couldn’t find out that matched what I was looking for and after spending a lot of time on it, I gave up and simply posted in my story that I was looking for one. The funny thing there is that not one person volunteered for the job. This was on a story that was getting hundreds of reviews, too. Needless to say I was baffled. 

So I have gone on, completely unbetad except for those times when I’ve reached out to people (including the very kind Laine) when I had specific issues that I needed help with. 

As for the other side, those people who post without betas and have multiple typos, etc. I feel for them a bit now that I know how hard it is to find a beta, but I too agree that those types of errors distract from the story. When they are truly awful, I have to stop reading altogether. 

Yes, I think doing a post on betas is a great idea. Will be adding that to my list as well.  :o)

Also, sort of on this subject, I’ve been thinking of doing a post about reviewing with a critique. So far I’ve never been brave enough to come right out and openly critique another’s work unless they’ve been very specific in an author’s note and asked for opinions. When people ask for reviews, do they really want to hear that I thought their characterization wasn’t *quite* right? I always fear that I’m going to devastate them with such a comment so instead find only the good things to point out (if I’ve taken the time to read an entire chapter then I’ve always found something good in it). 

Well it looks like deangirl1 answered this question better than I ever could, but I will also say that I did do an article on this when I first started this blog. 

Here’s the link to the post so you can see what I discovered with my research (which is pretty much exactly what deangirl1 pointed out below). 
http://mokisfanfictionblog.com/blog/2010/01/28/fanfiction-is-it-legal/

Great info, thanks for sharing! I did some research on my own before I started this blog and found pretty much what you did. 

One of the reasons I do not post fanfic actually on this site (I only link to it on other sites, mostly ff.net) is because of a worry about legality. Near as I could discover in my research, discussing the subject of fanfiction isn’t illegal, even if I somehow made a profit (via the ads on this blog, etc). I suppose I may have to consult with an attorney at some point to confirm that – for instance if I wanted to sell a product that was about fanfiction (like a tee shirt with word on it, for instance) – I may want to make sure all of my ducks were in a row first. 

But for now, your explanation matches what I had already discovered on my own, which makes me feel better. Oh and I totally agree on the fanzine thing. I’ve been asked to write for a couple but because of the money issue, I have refused. I just can’t get behind the idea of them. 

hmm …Do U know how can i comment on ppls fanfic ??? plzz help! I really wanna comment on them!

Hi there! 

If you’re reading a story on fanfiction.net then the way to review is to go to the bottom of the page for any chapter and look for “Review this Chapter”. If you click on that, a window will open up where you will be able to write a review, add the story to your favorites list, etc.

If you’re logged on via a mobile device, the method is the same except the link at the bottom of the page just says “Review” and is right under the place where you would click to go to the next chapter (if there are multiple chapters).

Some people don’t allow anonymous reviews though, so if you have been having trouble that could be why. I encourage you to join the site, even if you never write anything, as it will allow you to communicate with authors.  Many will reply to your reviews and that’s how I myself have met people on the site, both as a reviewer and as a writer. 

Hope that helps!