History Main / FanworkBan

* [[ThursdayNext Jasper Fforde's]] stance, although mellower than it used to be, [[http://www.jasperfforde.com/faq.html#u is still against fanfiction]], to the extent that one book actually [[WriterOnBoard talks about how damage fanfiction writers are doing to]] ''LordOfTheRings''.

-->''"Reactions of character creators to fanfiction have been varied, from polite acknowledgment to legal threats to having their character discuss out loud how disturbing and weird some types of fanfiction are. Fanfictions reacted to all of these things by [[InternetCounterattack writing 9,000,000 new fanfics]]."''

** As is often the case, there are two sides to a story. See [[http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1470621.html?thread=20753821#t20753821 http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1470621.html?thread=20753821#t20753821]]. Also [[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/2649a35b264175b8/b91ef5c1e50f3439?#b91ef5c1e50f3439 this Usenet thread]].

* If you dare to use the name ''{{Tetris}}''™©®⑨ or even so much as create a game that involves falling tetriminos, prepare for a C&D letter from Henk Rogers™©®⑨, CorruptCorporateExecutive extraordinaire of The Tetris™©®⑨ Company™©®⑨. Unless of course you pay The Tetris™©®⑨ Company™©®⑨ licensing fees and royalties to help Rogers' continued ability to brag in public about how rich he's gotten from Tetris™©®⑨. Even if you're not violating any copyrights and only copy elements which the US Supreme Court has ruled ''cannot even be covered by copyright'' (Lotus v. Borland), you'll still get [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP SLAPP]]'ed with legal threats for the sake of intimidation.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

** Ironically, their old chief artist, Dan [=DeCarlo=], started his career doing "wink wink nudge nudge" pinup art, and learned how to draw by making nude pictures of his wife.

This is predominantly a Western trope; bans on fanwork are almost unheard of in Japan due to the widespread popularity and acceptability of {{Doujinshi}} as well as the tendency of companies to view fanwork as free advertising. However, unwritten rules does sometime influence what fanwork appears.

This is predominantly a Western trope; bans on fanwork are almost unheard of in Japan due to the widespread popularity and acceptability of {{Doujinshi}}. However, unwritten rules does sometime influence what fanwork appears.

* If you dare to use the name ''{{Tetris}}''™©®⑨ or even so much as create a game that involves falling tetriminos, prepare for a C&D letter from Henk Rogers™©®⑨, CorruptCorporateExecutive extraordinaire of The Tetris™©®⑨ Company™©®⑨. Unless of course you pay The Tetris™©®⑨ Company™©®⑨ licensing fees and royalties to help Rogers' continued ability to brag in public about how rich he's gotten from Tetris™©®⑨. Even if you're not violating any copyrights and only copy elements which the US Supreme Court has ruled ''cannot even be covered by copyright'' (Lotus v. Borland), you'll still get [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP SLAPP]'ed with legal threats for the sake of intimidation.

* If you dare to use the name ''{{Tetris}}''™©®⑨ or even so much as create a game that involves falling tetriminos, prepare for a C&D letter from Henk Rogers™©®⑨, CorruptCorporateExecutive extraordinaire of The Tetris™©®⑨ Company™©®⑨. Unless of course you pay them licensing fees and royalties to help Rogers' continued ability to brag in public about how rich he's gotten from Tetris™©®⑨.

* WarnerBrothers briefly tried to get rid of ''HarryPotter'' SlashFic. [[{{Understatement}} This went nowhere]].

* [[{{TrueCapitalist}} Ghost]] has implied such a ban, owing to his displeasure of people compromising the integrity of his "serious" online political radio show by [[{{StupidStatementDanceMix}} splicing his voice to make YouTube videos]], who get added to his "shit list"

*** That being said, the DannyPhantom fanbase is large and crazy and full of YaoiFangirls, and thus the fanfic ban is quite unaffective.

* [[http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1246633.html Diana Gabaldon]] has compared fanfiction to, among other things, people breaking into her house or selling her children into slavery. This despite the fact that one of the characters from her books is heavily based on Jamie [=McCrimmon=] from ''DoctorWho''.

*** Hell, Hartman states that '''ANYTHING''' that is fan made that features mature themes (sex regardless if it's straight or not, murder & death, etc) isn't made by any '''real''' fans of his work.

Reasons for such a ban/restrictions vary. RobinHobb wrote an article sounding a bit like a PSA ("Fanfic -- JUST SAY NO!") that had the basic premise of "Those characters are like family to me. You don't like seeing your family put into weird or perverted situations, do you?" (And who can blame him for saying that?) Others take the legal ground; that's how they make their living, and that's their intellectual property you are messing with. Others simply don't think anyone else can write their world as well as they can (detractors, however, might comment that they're worried that someone can write them ''[[BetterThanCanon better]]'' [[BetterThanCanon than the author can]]).

* Bill Holbrook discourages fanart and fanfiction of ''KevinAndKell'' on the grounds that it weakens his copyright protection.

** Apparently, a user from Ninjahacker started openly talking about it ''[[WhatAnIdiot on Tecmo's own forums]]'', and since it had been brought to their attention, they were legally required to defend their copyright.

When a creator (usually writers, it seems) bans or restricts their fans from writing fanfic, drawing fanart, or generally using the author's work "creatively". You can buy the books, buy TheMerch and read "officially sanctioned" material, but the hounds of hell will be unleashed should you write ''their'' characters into ''your'' story. Trying to call their bluff is a bad idea. They ain't bluffing. Fanfic and fanart basically rely on the author's tolerance of them. If they decide they don't like it, you don't have a legal leg to stand on. While some may accuse the creator of a [[StopHavingFunGuys dog-in-the-manger]] attitude, ultimately, those are their characters, that's their story, and they have the final say.

* Full Moon Entertainment recently [[http://puppetmasterforum.yuku.com/topic/1846 threatened to press charges against one fan creating and selling his own replicas of puppets from the Puppet Master film series]] (it doesn't help that said fan's replicas are largely thought to be a significant improvement over the officially-released ones)

* In 1997 a group of folks were working on a ''[[{{Game/Quake}} Quake]]'' [[GameMod mod]] based on the ''{{Alien}}'' franchise simply titled ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Alien Quake]]'' until [[TwentiethCenturyFox 20th Century Fox]] issued a Cease and Desist on them. The shutdown was notorious enough in the modding community to the point it even coined the term "[[http://www.bluesnews.com/guide/qe/history/foxed.html foxed]]" to refer for projects [[http://func-auton.net/blog/?p=41 similarly]] shut down at the request of corporations.

** More curiously, his disapproval of fanfiction is not enough to stop him from writing fanfics for several 'What character would win in a fight?!' contests/debates/polls, including several that don't actually involve his characters.
** He claims to have gotten permission from the creators of said characters before he wrote those posts.
*** Didn't one of them involve Jamie Lannister beating the tar out of Hermione Granger? I can see JK Rowling being ''thrilled'' with that.

** Wait? And now she's done a nanowrimo pep-talk encouraging people to write fanfic - talk about a change of heart...

** Don't forget about the situation involving the fan sequel CrimsonEchoes. Five years of work and 98% done when SquareEnix slapped them with a C&D.
*** Oddly, the entirety of their work was shown on Youtube via a series of videos, which in itself would violate a C&D order. This has led some to believe that the entire "game" was simply glorified {{Machinima}}.
**** Those who have located copies of the 95% complete beta that was leaked after the C&D are less skeptical.
**** Even less after a practically complete beta leaked in early 2011.

** [[TooDumbToLive A fan film that was being screened at New York theatres and turning a profit all without Nintendo's permission, of course.]]
*** They mentioned that they didn't make any profit off the movie, just showed it in places.
*** Showing it in places considered to be ''commercial'' film festivals.
** To be fair, Nintendo was pretty nice and let them keep the movie online until the year was out.

** [[ParentalFavoritism Maybe they're only his daughters when they have three dimensions.]]
*** Actually, it's probably related to how doujinshi circles are far harder to sue than Western modding teams, due to the way Japanese copyright law works. Could someone with more background on the subject back me up on this?
*** Law or not (it's something of a gray area), going after doujinshi artists is considered extremely declasse in Japan. [[SquareEnix Squeenix]] can get away with coming down like a Meteo spell on fan works, but nobody else is going to try.

* This is actually a fear many ''SonicTheHedgehog'' fans have, especially in terms of fan games. A recent fan game had earned media attention and many fans had begun to fear that if Sega found out about it and how popular it was, it would be the end of the community.
** If this is true, then the company certainly doesn't put it to practice, as fans have been making fan hacks ever since a stolen ''Sonic 2'' prototype was obtained on Ebay roughly a decade ago and released to the modding scene.
** Actually, Sega (the Europe division to be exact) has recently gone against Bomber Games' ''StreetsOfRage'' remake project.

** Gallagher even built his "out" into the original threat, adding a (somewhat petulant) statement that said he knew someone would thus probably make some just to end the comic so he wouldn't let them win. So basically the threat was posturing from the start... he got to declare himself morally superior ''and'' claim that anyone who made 34 of Megatokyo was just part of the {{Hatedom}} trying to take him down.

** This fan was a student and making the video as a project for his class, or so I've heard.
** What makes it even worse is that the animated series Buckley went on to make was ''terrible''. Oh, and he later blatantly stole from another artist and denied ever having sent the C&D letter.
*** Oh, and one episode of said animated series makes almost certainly unauthorized use of [[StarWars Darth Vader]] and at least two of John Williams' ''StarWars'' themes.