copyright

[Annette Varghese]

According to my research, copyright refers to the exclusive rights a person has to intellectual property. Copyright, as it relates to fanfiction, refers to the world that a writer creates, the characters and their personalities, and adaptations of the writing. The main copyright infraction that I think of is “Fifty Shades of Grey” which is a film franchise that started as fan fiction for the Young Adult series, Twilight. The fanfiction author stated that once it was published it is no longer considered fan fiction, however, originally the characters were based on Edward Cullen and Bella Swan with the names simply changed. This is a blatant violation of the copyright agreement and violates the community guidelines of many fanfiction sites that fanfiction is not meant to become stand-alone fiction or the beginning of a new franchise.

[Danielle Puccio]

Fifty Shades is interesting because of the popularity and assumable profit it brought despite being a potential violation. You often see companies or production studios trying to control smaller fan economic activities (like Redbubble or Etsy shops), but if something gets big enough to make them money, they either allow it or gain control of it.

[Alan Glover]

I may not be well informed in the Fifty Shades of Grey debate, but would it actually be in violation of copyright law if the published work makes no mention of Twilight characters, environments, etc.? I feel as though if it were a blatant copyright infringement, then Twilight would have already filed a claim in hopes of making a big pay day.

And is it not considered an original work if there is no direct correlation to the Twilight series?

[Grant Glass]

Alan,

Because the author talked about how she took the characters from Twilight, then she would be in violation. If she did not say that then she would have been safe.

[Author]

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