Re: Fan fiction in general was: MOVED from MAIN - "sequels" to the classics

[dumbledore11214]

Alla:>
> Say, some sort of the idea - take LOLLYPOPS again entered the
> creator's head and fan's head roughly at the same time. Do you
think
> fan's claim that he or she thought of this first should even be
> entertained?

Magpie:
Nope--and certainly that happened. There were plenty of Lollipops
stories pre-DH. It was nothing new. But the fanfic community didn't
think JKR stole the idea, nor, I don't think, would any fanfic author
have had a leg to stand on if they did. It wasn't a problem. As you
say, you couldn't say who thought of it first. (Actually in this case
you could, because JKR could probably show a lot of evidence that it
had always been true for her even before she wrote the first book.)
Somebody on HP4GU could have done the same thing, say they predicted
Lollipops and JKR stole it.

Alla:

Right I know there were many stories about LOLLYPOPS preDH, that is 
why I brought them as example.

Alla:
> And somebody who wrote FANFIC dares to sue the author? I dislike it
> very much.

Magpie:
And the fanfic community is very quick to smack down anybody who
tries to claim ownership of the canon. I would suspect the main thing
that gave the Lackey person anything like credit was that this was
something the author was officially involved with.

Alla:

Right, that's all I am saying really – I think that somebody who 
tries claiming ownership of the canon should be slapped and hard. I 
think fanfic writers should always remember that they are playing in 
somebody else's playground and I do know that many of them do. It is 
not theirs. I know I am saying obvious things, but it looks like not 
everybody considers them obvious ( not you)

Magpie:
I've always heard they didn't read fanfic because of exactly this--
it's a bad idea legally to start reading fanfics. Much cleaner to
just say "I don't read fanfic, period. Whatever anybody might claim I
saw, I didn't."

Are we sure JKR was talking about (re: Harry losing his magic etc.)
fanfic and not just speculation or things she's heard about? I can't
imagine the woman's sitting around reading fanfic herself. Even
without wanting to just keep it separate it doesn't seem like a good
idea to start mixing your own version of the characters with other
peoples' versions. HBP was full of fanfic cliches; that was part of
the fun. But I don't think when anybody said "JKR's been reading
fic!" they really meant it. It was more assumed that the fanfic had
picked up on stuff already in the text.

Alla:

Right, no of course I am not sure, I am speaking from memory and 
maybe she is speaking about the things she heard only. Personally I 
hope she does not read fanfiction, but I definitely know as I 
mentioned before that Mercedes Lackey for example selects some 
fanfics for the antologies (Voldemar related, etc), so she definitely 
reads them.

Magpie:
> > On the other side, some fanfic writers wound up being published--
> > their fics, I mean. I think Star Trek people went legit that way,
> for
> > instance.
> >
>
> Alla:
>
> Yes, courtesy of the copyright holders, no? Lackey selects some
> fanfics to be printed too.

Magpie:
Of course courtesy of the copyright holders. I'm not sure what you're
asking about. I'm just saying that fanfic is a part of fandom and so
not necessarily something an author considers a threat or an insult
to him/her.
<SNIP>

Alla:

I was just saying that Star Treck did not went in print just because 
fans felt like it and did it, they did it because they were **allowed 
to**, no?

And sure it is not necessarily a threat to the author, most people 
just want to have fun in that playground, but I think it is a very 
reasonable argument that it could be a threat from some people at 
least.