Why Fanfiction Should be LegalBy Camila Gutierrez Sotres As a young writer and artist, a lot of my very first creations were inspired by original works. When I was a middle school student, I discovered websites that held fanfiction made by other people, and about a year ago I started posting my own written pieces on said websites as well. However, it was just recently revealed to me that making fanart could be illegal, which I personally think is completely ridiculous. Fanart and fanfiction can help a young writer or artist practice their skill by giving them a base to work off of. Fanfiction/Fanart can also inspire many people (like me), to pursue careers in art and literature, therefore it should be legal to some extent. This essay will argue why fanfiction can be useful and how to avoid lawsuits if you plan to post fanart. According to attorney and legal consultant Jarrod Easterling, fanfiction can be legal or illegal depending on what you're working with. Some creators do not care if their work is made into fanfiction, but others, like Disney, might want you to take it down and could send you a cease and desist; This is basically an order to remove your creation from the internet, and if you don't, they could take you to court, which is the last thing you want to happen if you are going against a big company. You could claim that your work falls under free use, but other people can always see free use differently, so it is important to understand the fundamentals. The four factors that make up fair use are: 1) the purpose of the character or story of use, including if it is of commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes, 2) the nature of the copyrighted work, 3) the amount of the copyrighted work used, and 4) the effect upon the potential market for the value of the copyrighted work. A way to make your fanart legal is to make sure it is transformative. A work that is transformative is something that has further purpose or a different message. Basically, the further away you are from the original creation, the least likely you are to get into any legal trouble.
An article written by Hoa P. Nguyen, an assistant editor at Edutopia who used to work at New America’s Open Technology Institute and was a reporter for a New York magazine, says that, “fanfiction and fanart can bring people together and is great practice for young creators.” Most fanfiction writers are between the ages of 13-25, a period in your life that is key for development. Writing fanfiction expands an author's skill and includes reading or watching the original media and analyzing it. To create another story, you need to capture the character’s personality traits and make them react accordingly to situations you throw at them, great practice for kids that want to become writers when they grow up. For example, 10-year-old Cecilia Aragon often felt very alone, but when writing fanfiction on the famous Lord of the Rings, she discovered a new passion for writing and met a whole community of young writers. Now, she is a professor at the University of Washington who wrote Writers in the Secret Garden: Fanfiction, Youth,and New Forms of Mentoring. Additionally, writing fanfiction has positive effects on learning. For example, many writers that do not have English as their first language become more fluent by practicing writing something they enjoy, and fanfiction can teach people about different cultures, since the writing community is so large. It is time that we begin accepting young artists and writers into our arms. There is so much potential in these children that could be wasted if we kept them hiding in the dark. Governments should rewrite the copyright law so fanfiction is legal, as long as it is mostly different from the original piece and is not being sold. If we do this, our leniency could give birth to a new generation of astounding creators. Works Cited
Easterling, Jarrod. "Is Fanfiction Legal? A Lawyer's Guide to Copyrights and Avoiding Lawsuits." NovelPad, novelpad.co/blog/is-fanfiction-legal. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023. "Fan Art: Is It Legal to Create Fan Art?" Law Soup, Tristan Blaine, lawsoup.org/legal-guides/copyright-protecting-creative-artistic-business-work/fan-art/#:~:text=If%20the%20owner%20does%20not,fair%20use%E2%80%9D%20of%20the%20work. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023. Mullenix, Bryan. "Your Guide to Selling Fan Art Legally (Explained)." Artistry Found, artistryfound.com/your-guide-to-selling-fan-art-legally/#How_to_Sell_Fan_Art_Legally. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023. Nguyen, Hoa P. "How Fan Fiction Can Do Wonders for Student Writing." Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 7 Feb. 2022, www.edutopia.org/article/how-fan-fiction-can-do-wonders-student-writing/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023. Yip, Iris. "The Ethics of Fan Art: When and Where You Should, and Shouldn't." Art Prof, Clara Lieu, artprof.org/pro-development/copyright/fan-art/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2023.
0 Comments
|
Disclaimer StatementThe views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Chapel Hill HS or Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|