Fanfiction: Legal, or Not Legal?

If any activities on the internet could be termed “pirating”, they would probably be the sharing of music files, pictures, and other such media without the permission of the author. However, there’s another aspect of slightly illegal use of other people’s property that often escapes the spotlight because of its fuzzy and  unclear nature: use of someone else’s work used to construct something new and original. Examples of this might include fan fiction, fan art, wallpapers of TV show characters, re-mixes of popular songs. As with piracy, these things use the original artist’s work without permission.
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But are they wrong?
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I, myself, am a writer of fan fiction and an artist of fan art. As a lover of “the Chronicles of Narnia”, I found myself longing for more than just seven books...so the idea occurred to me, why not write another one? To my surprise, lots of other people have had the same idea. The most popular website for fan fiction, “Fanfiction.net”, boasts over 2,680,000 members. That’s 2 million people who are reading (if not writing) stories about characters and plots that legally belong to someone else. Personally, I think that fan fiction is a good thing because it allows young writers who may not have enough practice with creating characters and worlds to hone their skills by using already existing characters and worlds. Eventually they will reach a point when they feel confident enough to branch out and create “original fiction”, but until then, I think fan fiction is a great opportunity for growth as a writer while expanding the fandom you love in the process.
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The downside of these things are the rights of the original creators. Often one hears stories about an author who was sued because her latest book sounded too much like a fan’s story that was posted on a site like fan fiction. To combat this, many authors prohibit the public creation of fan fiction for their stories.
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This is an interesting dilemma, though, and one mentioned in our textbook “Born Digital”. There is little information being created on the internet today (pictures, stories, music) that is actually original. However, I’m not sure that is a bad thing. By using someone else’s creation and adapting it to fit their purposes, people are becoming more adept at changing and molding what already exists into the form they have in mind for it to become. That doesn’t sound like piracy to me.

A Comic Approach to Illegal Downloading

While searching for the image I included in the previous post, I stumbled on a brilliant comic in which two people are hovering over the computer and discussing the economic side of internet piracy. The first person said something like, “So you have this thousand dollar computer and this hundred dollar a month internet connection and you’re getting…?” The second person grinned and said, “Free music, baby!” Or something of that sort.

Unfortunately, when I went back to find that cartoon, it had utterly and completely disappeared. So I found a similar one, in which a salesclerk is telling a woman, “We don’t sell CD’s anymore. We sell colorful jackets for the music you download illegally.”

This, obviously, is a comic strip, which means it’s supposed to be humorous (in this case, humorous in an ironic sort of way). The style is simple and it is drawn in black and white, leaving the words to be the most significant part of the picture. I found this comic on the web (in case you’re wondering about context), and on a stock comic site, so I’m not sure how much that says about it.

As I mentioned, this comic is a satire of the problem of illegal downloading. It insinuates by exaggeration that as illegal downloading continues to grow in popularity and usage, music stores will be pretty much useless (and will only carry colorful jackets). However, each jump in technology (records to tapes, tapes to CDs) has caused fear concerning the music industry. While it is true that this age is the first time in which people can get music by paying nothing, many people are convinced that it isn’t as bad as the authorities say.

Stealing or Sharing?

In the olden days, there were two types of piracy. The first was the illegal kind—independent pirates would chase down ships and plunder them. The second kind was privateering, piracy that was sanctioned by a specific country, used most often in a time of war. For example, Sir Francis Drake attacked and plundered Spanish ships during the 16^th century in the name of Elizabeth I of England. With privateering, the pirates were considered criminals by the countries whose ships they were plundering, but were practically heroes back home.

Cyber piracy is similarly controversial. Although government authorities like the FBI consider piracy a crime, many internet users are in disagreement to this assessment. The picture on this post is from a blog called Spicy IP, from an article the author did concerning copyright infringement. This article insists that there is a difference between internet piracy and literal “theft”, since with theft, the object of value is actually taken away, whereas with piracy, it’s merely copied. Because the creator does not seem to seem to actually lose anything, many people argue that internet piracy should not be put in the same boat with other cases of internet fraud. 

However, the FBI sees it differently. A statement on their website reads, “It's robbing people of their ideas, inventions, and creative expressions—what’s called intellectual property—everything from trade secrets and proprietary products and parts to movies and music and software.” The biggest reason people argue that piracy is a crime is the fact that it deprives the music and entertainment industry of so much income because of pirated videos, music, and software.

So which side is right? Well, as the FBI has the power right now to make decisions about laws, it’s ultimately their call. But who knows? Perhaps someday they’ll reconsider, and those who prefer to describe cyber piracy as “sharing” rather than “stealing” will finally be appeased.

Introduction to Internet Piracy

When the word “pirate” comes up in conversation, the first thing that generally comes to mind is cannon fire, the Skull and Crossbones of the Jolly Roger, and more often than not, a swaggering brigand who sways a little when he walks and is very fond of the word “saavy”. 

As the times have changed, however, the tools of piracy have shifted from the traditional ship, cannon, and cutlass to any kind of computer with an internet connection. Modern pirates (other than the ones in Somalia) are no longer concerned with plundering for gold, treasure, or any sort of material good. In fact, most modern pirates commit their crimes nonviolently, in the comforts of their own homes.

So why the title “pirates”?

Well, it’s complicated. They download music and videos—copyrighted creations of others—without payment, stealing them as effectively as Jack Sparrow stole the Interceptor from Port Royal. And although these “internet pirates” cannot be hanged for their crimes, they can still get into deep trouble for taking someone else’s property without paying for it. According to an article on Chillingeffects.org “In a civil suit, an infringer may be liable for a copyright owner's actual damages plus any profits made from the infringement.”

Many, however, fail to realize the reason for the harsh penalties for illegal downloading. According to the website for RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), “In the decade since peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.7 billion.” Internet piracy has caused a drop in available jobs and in income for artists who are trying to market their albums and songs to a world who would rather just download them for free. Sure, downloading songs is easy, free, and doesn’t feel illegal, but nevertheless, it is wrong.

The purpose of this blog is to explore the subject of internet piracy, creativity on the internet, and intellectual property, so as to better inform the author and the readers of the intricacies and consequences of internet piracy. 

http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi

http://www.riaa.com/faq.php