Mccardle

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NOTE
FAN FICTION, FANDOM, AND FANFARE: WHAT’S ALL
THE FUSS?
Meredith McCardle*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................
II. WHAT EXACTLY IS FAN FICTION? ....................................................................
A. Is all fan fiction the same?...................................................................
1. I’ve heard there are various types of fan fiction. What are
they? ...........................................................................................
2. Should the courts take a categorical approach to fan
fiction?.........................................................................................
B. Does fan fiction have a traceable history? ..........................................
C. Okay, but why do people write it or read it? Does it serve any
purpose in society? ............................................................................
III. OKAY, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A FAN FICTION AUTHOR, IS FAN
FICTION LEGAL? ........................................................................................
A. Am I infringing on copyright? .............................................................
B. How far does copyright extend? There have to be some limits
to it, right? .........................................................................................
C. What rights do copyright holders actually have?................................
D. Do I have any defenses under copyright law?.....................................
1. Can’t I make some sort of implied consent argument? ................
2. Isn’t what I’m doing a fair use?....................................................
a. The Purpose and Character of the Use: “But I don’t
make any money off of this and am learning to become
a better writer in the process. That has to count for
something, right?”.................................................................
b. The Nature of the Copyrighted Work: “Does it make a
difference if the original work is a TV show, movie or
book?”...................................................................................
c. The Amount and Substantiality: “C’mon, now – All I’m
using are the characters. Isn’t that okay?”...........................
*
J.D., Boston University School of Law, 2003; B.S. Journalism, B.A. Theatre, University of
Florida, 2000.
COPYRIGHT © 2003 TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY. THIS VERSION DOES NOT
B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2
d. The Effect on the Market for the Original: “Could a

court really think that I somehow take money away
from the original?” ...............................................................
E. Hmm, that’s good to know. Moving on . . . wait, what?
Trademark law, you say? ..................................................................
IV. CONCLUSION – WELL . . .THAT WAS A LOT OF INFORMATION AT ONCE.
CAN YOU SUM ALL OF THIS UP FOR ME? ....................................................
I. INTRODUCTION
Do you remember that Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk and Spock
confess their romantic feelings for each other? No? Well, how about that
Harry Potter storyline in which Harry befriends Draco Malfoy, and they join
together to combat the forces of evil? Still, no? One more try, what about that
scene in Star Wars where an angst-filled Darth Vader seeks solace through the
composition of love sonnets? Are you still scratching your head, wondering if
you have missed something? Welcome to the world of fan fiction, a world in
which a fan’s wildest and most imaginative dreams come to life, a world that is
probably bigger and more encompassing than you ever realized.
What exactly is fan fiction? Rebecca Tushnet provided one of the most
succinct definitions when she described fan fiction as “any kind of written
creativity that is based on an identifiable segment of popular culture, such as a
television show, and is not produced as ‘professional’ writing.”1 Have you
ever walked out of a theatre wishing a movie had more fully explored a certain
plot element or wondering what drove a character to act a certain way?
Chances are you have. When somebody takes the extra step and puts pen to
paper, thereby crafting an extended plot or adding a scene exploring that
character’s motivation, the result is fan fiction. You yourself might have even
written fan fiction and not realized it. For example, did you ever read the short
story The Lady, or the Tiger2 in a junior high or high school English class?
Did your teacher ask you to compose an ending to it? If you answered yes,
congratulations, you have written fan fiction.
This Note is a guide for anyone interested in the plight of the fan fiction
author, be it the writer himself, the consumer of cultural products, or the
passive observer with an interest in intellectual property law.3 Nonetheless,
1
Rebecca Tushnet, Using Law and Identity to Script Cultural Production: Legal
Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law, 17 LOY. L.A. ENT. L.J. 651,
655 (1997).
2 FRANK R. STOCKTON, THE LADY, OR THE TIGER (1886) (telling the story of a young
lover who will find either a new bride or a mauling death when he opens a gate to a Roman
arena, but whose fate is not revealed before the tale ends, leading many educators using this
story in class to ask students to create their own personalized endings).
3 Of course, the reader should also understand that this Note is for an informational
purpose and is not to be taken as legal advice. Copyright is an exceedingly complex and
ever-changing area of the law, so you, the reader, are urged to seek proper legal advice if
you truly want to analyze your rights under copyright law.
2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE
this Note’s orientation is written primarily for the fan fiction author. Part II of
this Note will begin by familiarizing the lay person with the world of fan
fiction. It will explain basic terms and trace the history of fan fiction. Also, it
will explore the cultural and sociological significance behind the writing of fan
fiction. Part III of this Note will delve into the copyright issues surrounding
fan fiction and determine which exclusive rights of a copyright owner fan
fiction authors violate when they write stories. Of particular importance to the
fan fiction author, Part III will also set out any defenses he or she could use if
tested by a copyright owner, beginning first with implied consent. This Note
will then explain the fair use doctrine as it relates to fan fiction and will give
fan fiction authors basic guidelines to structure their stories within the current
scope of fair use precedent. Part III will next undertake a discussion of
trademark law and determine whether fan fiction authors could face liability
for trademark dilution. Finally, Part IV of this Note will summarize the issues
and provide something of a checklist that fan fiction authors can use to avoid
liability.
II. WHAT EXACTLY IS FAN FICTION?
A. Is all fan fiction the same?
1. I’ve heard there are various types of fan fiction. What are they?
For every work of fan fiction, an underlying “fandom” exists. Fandom is
defined as “the world of fans and enthusiasts, especially of fans of science
fiction magazines and conventions.”4 As most fan fiction writers know,
fandoms come equipped with their own languages. For instance, if a fan
fiction author were to say, “My story is primarily gen/het but it’s also an AU
featuring a non-MS OC,” any other fan fiction author would nod his head in
approval, knowing exactly what the other was trying to communicate.5 For
anyone not familiar with the language of fan fiction, however, this relatively
simple statement is nothing more than gibberish.
The first term a fan fiction neophyte6 should learn is “canon,” which refers
to the original work from which the fan fiction author borrows.7 There’s the
4 THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF CURRENT ENGLISH 487 (9th ed. 1995) (defining
“fandom”). For example, writers of Star Trek fan fiction exist within the Star Trek fandom,
writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan fiction exist within the Buffy fandom, and so on.
5 Translated into common English, the above quotation would read along the lines of,
“My story features characters engaging in a general, heterosexual relationship, but it takes
place in an environment different from that of the original and features a new character I’ve
created, though I’ve tried my best not to make this character a stereotype.”
6 A fandom would call you a “newbie.”
7 Tranquility Amongst The Stars, Fan Fiction Glossary, at http://www.swtats.com/
glossary.html (last visited May 7, 2003) (defining “canon” as “professional source material,
or the official facts as stated by the original book, movie, or show episode”).
Star Trek canon, which includes all episodes and movies, or the Harry Potter
canon, which includes all of the books published by J.K. Rowling. Fan fiction
authors sometimes refer to their canons as their Bibles, and most try to remain
as true to the canon as possible so that other readers will see their stories as a
natural extension of the story arc.8 However, a niche genre of fan fiction takes
the opposite approach by presenting the characters in an environment
diametrically opposite to that of canon. This story is termed the “Alternate
Universe,” shortened within the fandom as “AU.”9 For example, in the Star
Trek fandom, taking Captain Kirk and his crew off of the Enterprise and
transporting them to modern-day New York City would be rightly classified as
an AU.
Most fan fiction stories fall into one of two classifications based on the
characters’ relationships. A fan fiction in the first classification is called a
“gen/het” story and involves a heterosexual relationship between two
characters that may or may not be romantically linked in canon. “Gen/het” is a
shorthand way of saying the story involves general/heterosexual relationships.
A fan fiction in the second classification is called a “slash” story and features
two characters engaged in a homosexual relationship that are most often
heterosexual in the canon.10
Apart from relationships, many works of fan fiction center around the
characters themselves, exploring their psyches or attempting to explain choices
made in canon. Sometimes fan fiction authors feel the need to insert additional
characters of their own creation to fully explore a canon character. From a
general perspective, these added entities are termed “other characters,” or
“OCs” for short.11 While most fandoms tolerate the use of additional
characters in stories, nearly all keep a watchful eye out for a specific type of
OC, the much loathed and widely ridiculed “Mary Sue,” shortened within the
fandom as “MS.”12 A “Mary Sue,” or “Gary Stu” if the character is a man, is
typically perfect in nearly every way imaginable. Beautiful, intelligent and
quick-witted, these characters usually come equipped with a certain disregard
for rules and normally wind up stealing the heart of a main canon character.
8 Id. (referring to “canon” as a “holy text”).

9 Id. (defining “alternate universe” as “fanfic set in a universe which is different from the
canon show universe. AUs are also known as What Ifs (What if Luke had joined Vader?),
Elseworld (DC, Marvel fandom) and Uber (Xena fandom)”).
10 See HENRY JENKINS, TEXTUAL POACHERS: TELEVISION FANS & PARTICIPATORY
CULTURE 186 (Routledge, Chapman and Hall 1992) (explaining how the term “slash”
originated from 1960’s Star Trek fandom because writers of Star Trek slash fan fiction
would label their works as containing a “Kirk/Spock” pairing (read ‘Kirk-slash-Spock’), and
over time, the term “slash” became the popular way to refer to any fan fiction involving a
homosexual pairing).
11 Fanspeak Dictionary, available at http://expressions.populli.net/dictionary.html (last
visited May 8, 2003).

12 See ROSEMARY COOMBE, THE CULTURAL LIFE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES 119-20
(Stanley Fish & Fredric Jameson eds., 1998).

The Mary Sue story, common to every fandom, is despised across the board as
most fandoms feel these stories cheapen the better works of fan fiction and
give the entire fandom a bad name.13
The list of terms goes on and on, with each fandom incorporating its own
vocabulary and set of abbreviations. However, terms such as “canon,” “AU,”
Mary Sue,” “gen/het” and “slash” are common to every fandom. Having a
general understanding of their meanings will aid anyone attempting to explore
the various cultural and legal underpinnings of fan fiction.
2. Should the courts take a categorical approach to fan fiction?

In a perfect world, the cultural and sociological underpinnings of the fan
fiction community might merit special protection for every piece of fan fiction
ever composed. This protection could lump them together into one tidy,
organized category in such a way as to warrant treating them with uniformity.
In reality, however, the various forms fan fiction can take are wildly different
and do not lend themselves to orderly classification.14 Consequently, it would
be extremely difficult to make a successful categorical argument, though some
have tried.15 A categorical argument fails primarily because not all fan fiction
works can fit neatly into predefined categories. Advocating protection across
the board ironically runs the risk of weakening protection as a whole because
wilder, more controversial forms of fan fiction are apt to swallow the entire
genre of fan fiction.16 Taking an individualized approach, on the other hand,
would help alleviate this dilemma by allowing a court to focus on the distinct
qualities inherent to every work of fan fiction.17
B. Does fan fiction have a traceable history?

We are natural storytellers. We especially love to tell stories based upon
other stories. Ask the parent of any toddler, and he or she will fill your ears
with a plethora of examples for how children love to tell stories based upon the
characters in Sesame Street or Arthur. Think about this for a moment. As we
grow older, we never really stop telling ourselves these stories, do we? Think
of your favorite television show for a moment. Have you ever wondered what
would happen if the plot went a different direction? Have you created your
own subplot and pondered its viability? How about mentally expounded on a
character’s background? Chances are you have, at a minimum, thought along
the lines of “what would happen if . . .” In essence, fan fiction authors take
13 See id.
14 See supra Part II.A.i for discussion about the various forms of fan fiction.
15 See generally Tushnet, supra note 1.
16 For instance, many of the cease and desist letters sent to websites concern the writing
of “adult” fan fiction, the attention of which runs the risk of overshadowing other forms of
fan fiction. See Chilling Effects Clearinghouse Web site, at http://www.chillingeffects.org
(committed to the legal plights of fan fiction authors).
17 Notably, an individualized approach will undercut efforts for uniformity in precedent.
that extra step, asking themselves “what would happen if . . .,” formulating an
answer, and then writing it down.
Let us return to the beginning. Where did this desire to expound come
from? For as long as history has been recorded, people have been asking
themselves, “What happens next?”18 Beginning first with oral narratives, the
impulses of human nature led people to expand on the stories passed down in
their cultures, changing plotlines or adding characters.19 The practice grew
increasingly common, perhaps coming to a head in the Elizabethan era, where
borrowing of plot, character and setting was a common practice.20
For nearly 200 years, the tradition of borrowing from predecessor works
continued unchecked by modern notions of copyright law and fair use, but the
practice was bound to change in 1710 when England enacted the very first
copyright law in history.21 Known as the Statute of Anne, the law’s main
purpose was “to destroy the booksellers’ monopoly of the booktrade and to
prevent its recurrence.”22 The statute showed some resemblance to modern
copyright law in that it protected only new creative works and for only a
limited duration.23
The Statute of Anne provided the framework for the United States to create
its own form of copyright law.24 The Framers of the Constitution used the
statute for guidance when they wrote Article I, sec.8, cl.8, which reads, “The
Congress shall have power . . . to promote the Progress of Science and useful
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”25 Out of this grew the
Copyright Act of 1790.26 The 1790 Act, while striving to promote learning
and ward off censorship, limited the copyright in literature to the right “to
publish and vend books.”27 Early judicial interpretations of the Act took the
18 Tushnet, supra note 1, at 652.

19 See id.
20 Id. at 652 n.3 (citing HAROLD OGDEN WHITE, PLAGIARISM AND IMITATION DURING THE
ENGLISH RENAISSANCE (1935) for “discussing stunning creativity of Elizabethan era in

England enabled by widespread borrowing of plot, character, and setting”).
21 Amy Masciola, A History of Copyright in the United States, Association of Research
Libraries, available at http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html (last modified Nov. 22,

2002).
22 L. Ray Patterson, Understanding the Copyright Clause, 47. J. COPYRIGHT SOC’Y USA
365, 379 (2000).

23 Masciola, supra note 21.
24 Id.
25 Id. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 8.
26 J.A. Lorengo, Whats Good for the Goose is Good fo the Gander: An Argument for the
Consistent Interpretation of Patent & Copyright Clause, 85 J. PAT. & TRADEMARK OFF.
SOC’Y 51, 53 (2003) (explaining that general misgivings about monopolies were a driving
force behind the limited duration of protection in the Patent and Copyright Clause of the
U.S. Constitution and the Copyright Act of 1790).
27 Patterson, supra note 22, at 383.
term “copy” quite literally and held that an author only had the right to prevent
others from copying their works verbatim.28 However, the landmark 1841 case
of Folsom v. Marsh lessened this early rule’s severity somewhat.29 This
opinion, penned by Justice Story, originated the fair use doctrine, which was
later codified in 1976.30 The case involved a biographer’s unauthorized use of
George Washington’s private letters, which the court found to be a permissible
use.31 In his opinion, Story stated, “In short, we must often, in deciding
questions of this sort, look to the nature and objects of the selections made, the
quantity and value of the materials used, and the degree in which the use may
prejudice the sale or diminish the profits, or supersede the objects, of the
original work.”32 As revolutionary as Story’s opinion was to become, at the
time it actually helped to further the copyright monopoly because translations
or variations on copyrighted works were not seen as infringement.33 In 1909,
the Copyright Act underwent its first major revision, although Story’s fair use
vision would not see codification quite yet. Rather, the 1909 Act extended
protection to “all works of authorship” and extended protection to twenty-eight
years plus another twenty-eight years upon renewal.34 In 1976, the Copyright
Act again underwent a major revision.35 The Act extended a copyright’s
duration to the life of the author plus an additional fifty years and made it
possible to get copyright in any work “fixed in a tangible medium of
expression,” thus removing the previous requirement that a work be first
published.36 Additionally, the fair use requirement first detailed in Story’s
1841 Folsom opinion was codified.37
28 See Stowe v. Thomas, 23 F. Cas. 201, 208 (C.C.E.D. Pa. 1853) (No. 13514) (holding
that a German translation of Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not an infringement
because it was not a literal copy of the work verbatim).
29 9 Fed. Cas. 342, 348 (C.C. Mass. 1841).
30 Masciola, supra note 21.
31 Folsom, 9 Fed. Cas. at 342.
32 Folsom, 9 Fed. Cas. at 348.
33 See, e.g. Stowe, 23 Fed. Cas. at 206.
34 Masciola, supra note 21; see Lorengo, supra note 26.
35 See Masciola, supra note 21 (explaining that there were two primary reasons for the
1976 revision. “First, technological developments and their impact on what might be
copyrighted, how works might be copied, and what constituted an infringement needed to be
addressed. Second, the revision was undertaken in anticipation of Berne Convention
adherence by the U.S. It was felt that the statute needed to be amended to bring the United
States into accord with international copyright law, practices and policies”).
36 17 U.S.C. § 102(a) (2000) (protecting any work “fixed in a tangible medium of
expression”); William F. Patry, The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1995: Or How
Publishers Managed to Steal the Bread From Authors, 14 CARDOZO ARTS & ENT. L.J. 661,
669 (1996) (“Beginning in 1978, the basic term was switched to life of the author plus fifty
years”).
37 17 U.S.C. § 107 (2000) (in determining whether a use is fair, the factors to be
considered include: “(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is
of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the
A basic knowledge of copyright law’s history helps in understanding its

application to fan fiction’s development during the years leading up to the
1976 revision. In the mid-nineteenth century, right around the time Story
created the fair use doctrine, writings based on other works grew and gained
more popularity.38 Beginning in the late 1860s, fans began to rewrite endings
to Lewis Carroll’s works and wrote entire parodies based on them.39 The
practice was relatively common and continued unchecked for nearly a century,
but with the advent of modern media and television, the game changed.40 The
modern idea of fan fiction as is prevalent in today’s society was not born until
the second season of Star Trek hit the airwaves in 1967.41 Out of the show’s
popularity grew a number of “fanzines,” which were fan-based magazines that
included original works of fiction based around the characters on the show.42
The first such fanzine, “Spockanalia,” was published during the shows original
series in 1967.43 The popularity of “Spockanalia” spurred the creation of
dozens more Star Trek fanzines, including “adult” fanzines and “slash”
fanzines that explored homosexual relationships between otherwise
heterosexual characters.44
The first instance of a recognized clash between fan fiction authors and
copyright owners occurred in June of 1977 when Paramount, the copyright
holder to Star Trek, sent a cease and desist letter to Linda Maclaren and Gina
Martin, publishers of a Star Trek fanzine.45 However, Paramount voluntarily
dropped the case when it learned the fanzine was not a professional
copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work”).
38 See generally Henry Jenkins, Digital Land Grab, MIT ALUMNI ASS’N TECH. REV.
(2000), available at http://www.whoosh.org/jenkins.txt (Mar./Apr. 2000) (explaining the

rise fan fiction’s appeal).
39 Id. (noting Christina Rossetti and Frances Hodgson Burnett as being among writers
who reworked Lewis Carroll’s writings).

40 Id. See also COOMBE, supra note 12, at 89-90 (detailing how the rise in popular
cultural icons in the mid-Twentieth Century has led to a society saturated with media
images, which in turn has resulted in an increased fixation and desire to expound on these
images).
42 Worlds Without Boundaries: Destina’s Fan Fiction, Destina’s Fan Fiction FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions), at http://www.lyricalmagic.com/fanficFAQ.html#origin (last

visited May 7, 2003); see also THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTION OF CURRENT ENGLISH 488 (9th
ed. 1995) (defining “fanzine” as “a magazine for fans, especially those of science fiction,
sport, or popular music”).
43 Michela Ecks & Writers University, A History of Television Fan Fiction, WRITERS
UNIVERSITY, at http://writersu.s5.com/history/shistory03tv.html (last visited Mar. 26, 2003).

44 Id. The particularities of “slash” fan fiction will be fully explored in Parts II-C-I and
III-C.
45 Id.
publication.46 The next instance occurred in September of 1981, when

Maureen Garrett, the head of the Official Star Wars Fan Club, sent a cease and
desist letter to the publishers of “Guardian,” a fanzine that published adult fan
fiction based on Star Wars characters.47 Garrett alleged the club had violated
an informal policy of copyright holder LucasFilms Ltd., which had tolerated
fanzines provided they were not pornographic. The publishers of “Guardian”
backed down and ceased publication.48
Fan fiction used to exist solely in the fanzine form, which meant its
visibility was limited to those willing to search out the individual publications.
The birth of the Internet signified a change in the method of distribution and
catapulted fan fiction into the main stream, allowing anyone with a computer
and a modem to instantly read fan fiction.49 Accordingly, with the increased
Internet posting of fan fiction came the increased mailing of cease and desist
letters to website operators.50 In today’s online world, cease and desist letters
from copyright holders are routine practice, yet the popularity of fan fiction
continues to grow at exponential rates. Despite this, not a single fan fiction
case has appeared on a court docket, although this distinct absence of litigation
may not continue indefinitely. Fan fiction authors could quite possibly find
themselves defending their actions before a tribunal at some point in the future.
C. Okay, but why do people write or read fan fiction? Does it serve any
purpose in society?
The reasons an individual author will give for writing fan fiction are varied
and extensive. To get a real feel for what drives the composition of fan fiction,
it helps to turn to a few of the writers themselves for their individual
explanations. Some people write for the experience and training it provides,
such as Erin Bartuska, a 15-year-old high school freshman who writes fan
fiction.51 “I write because I love to,” Bartuska said.52 “I get feedback, which
is great because I know where I’m messing up and what people think is good.
It’s not as if I see myself continuing to write fan fiction indefinitely, but it’s
like training wheels for a writer. It’s lovely while you need it.”53 Other people
write fan fiction in order to further expand upon a television show or movie, as
is the case with 30-year-old Debbie Fulmer.54 “I have written scenes to
express ‘I wish this is how the episode had really gone’ or to fill in a
46
Id.
47 Id.
48 Id.
49 See Jenkins, supra note 38.
50 Id. (explaining that not only were cease-and-desist letters standard corporate practice,
but that when Fox had dozens of Buffy the Vampire Slayer websites removed, fans did not
bat an eye because many saw it as a common occurrence in today’s copyright age).
51 E-mail from Erin Bartuska, (Oct. 24, 2001) (on file with author).
52 Id.
53 Id.
54 E-mail from Debbie Fulmer, (Oct. 26, 2001) (on file with author).
character’s history or future,” Fulmer said.55 “I love seeing the potential in

‘unconventional’ pairings — those which are not explored in a show or book’s
canon, and my writing allows me to create couples I might not otherwise get to
see.”56 A key perk of being a fan fiction author is getting feedback from other
authors and readers within the fan fiction community. Kellie Bindas, a 23-
year-old university admissions director, said “There is nothing quite like the
feeling of pouring your heart and soul and all your energy into a chapter, and
then being told that it’s actually good, that people like it, even love it. It’s a
rush.”57
In her book The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties,58 Rosemary
Coombe expands on these reasons and details the way in which cultural figures
fulfill an inherent human drive, particularly for women. Coombe first details
the fanzine phenomenon, out of which grew the modern proliferation of
Internet fan fiction. As Coombe reports, middle-class women started the very
first Star Trek fanzines in an attempt to explore and expand the characters and
their relationships.59 Early on, these women used the fanzines “to explore their
own subordinate status, voice frustration and anger with existing social
conditions, envision and construct alternatives, share new understandings and
express utopian aspirations.”60 Fan fiction, in turn, serves a purpose more
important than merely reworking existing stories. Fan fiction serves as a
medium for social comment, criticism or satire, allowing women to explore
their place in a male-dominated society. The much-ridiculed fandom staple,
the “Mary Sue” story, illustrates this purpose.61 While fandom uniformly feels
disdain for “Mary Sue” and her romantic endeavors, the vast majority of fan
fiction writers have, at one point or another, written a “Mary Sue” story.62
Most often, an author writes a “Mary Sue” story as one of their first forays into
fan fiction.63 Many academics and social theorists suggest that women use
these “Mary Sue” stories to “recreate their adolescent selves” in an attempt to
undo or minimize the pain, shame or regret they harbor from those years with
respect to themselves or their place in society.64
55 Id.
56 Id.
57 E-mail from Kellie Bindas, (October 21, 2001) (on file with author).
58 COOMBE, supra note 12.
59 Id. at 117-18.
60 Id. at 118.
61 See Part II-A-i (defining the “Mary Sue” story. “Mary Sue” stories, which are
uniformly scorned and mocked by the rest of the fandom, center around an ideal women
created by the fan fiction writer. The character is always an aggressive, sharp-witted, steel-
tongued mass of intellectualism who also happens to be young and beautiful. This character
will ultimately become the love interest of one of the main canon characters).
62 COOMBE, supra note 12, at 119.
63 Id.
64 Id. at 120.
Another identified way in which the writing of fan fiction allows women
(and more recently, gay men) to explore their role in postmodern society is the
writing of “slash” fan fiction, a very particularized and important subgenre of
fan fiction. Slash is fan fiction that features homosexual relationships between
otherwise heterosexual characters in a copyrighted work.65 The practice has
become increasingly widespread and is now prevalent in nearly every genre of
fan fiction.66 While fans and fan fiction authors might enjoy the stories,
several copyright and trademark owners are not nearly as happy, fearful that
the intimation that their characters are homosexual will tarnish their product’s
commercial nature.67 More than any other genre of fan fiction, slash carries
with it a slough of misconceptions. Contrary to popular belief, the vast
majority of slash fan fiction is not rightly categorized as erotica or sexually-
explicit fiction.68 In fact, most slash fan fiction centers around the
complexities of a relationship between two people of the same sex, and the
stories are normally characterized by their emphasis on emotion and feeling,
rather than the clinical aspects of a sexual relationship.69
During the infancy of slash, such writing was a definite underground
movement.70 Slash writers today still fear certain repercussions, and most still
write under a pseudonym, although the backlash today is nowhere near as
severe as it was in the early days of slash, when slash writers feared “social
ridicule, loss of employment and potential legal repercussions.”71 Even within
the fandom, there are still many writers who look down upon slash, perhaps
out of moral or religious concerns, but also because many perceive slash as
being unfaithful to canon or shedding a negative light on the rest of the
fandom. Despite the potential consequences of writing slash, the genre has
grown at exponential rates.72
Why has the writing of slash fan fiction become so popular? According to a
number of social and cultural theorists, a very basic desire to explore life, love
and sexual relationships drives slash authors.73 Many, if not most, slash stories
share a common endowment of one male with typically feminine
characteristics and another male with predominantly masculine characteristics,
65 See supra Part II-A-i (discussing slash fan fiction).

66 Stephanie Schorow, Net Life: For Young Fans, Stories Never End, BOSTON HERALD,
Aug. 6, 2002, at 36 (listing examples of slash fan fiction available online, including
Starsky/Hutch, Legolas/Aragorn of “The Lord of the Rings,” Sam Seaborn/Josh Lyman of
“The West Wing” and Justin/Lance of ‘N Sync).
67 See COOMBE, supra note 12, at 91, 120-21.
68 Id.
69 Id.
71 Id.
72 Jenkins, supra note 38 (detailing the continuous efforts of corporations to protect their
intellectual rights)
73 See BACON-SMITH, ENTERPRISING WOMEN: TELEVISION FANDOM AND THE CREATION OF
POPULAR MYTH 238-44 (Patrick B. Mullen ed., 1992).

thus giving both males the opportunity to explore traditional gender roles.
According to Coombe, this practice then allows women, as the perceived
subservient gender in society, the opportunity to “empower themselves and
their communities.”74
So far as the law is “not simply a set of prohibitions, but (is) an authoritative
and pervasive discourse that defines, shapes and is imbricated within the
everyday life of cultural practice,” the legal realm intersects with slash fan
fiction.75 Copyright law has legitimized the societal benefits embedded within
certain works primarily in the codification of the fair use doctrine.76 The
doctrine specifically carves out a role for commentary and criticism, meriting
such public feedback special consideration.77 As Coombe and several other
cultural theorists argue, fan fiction is a form of social commentary.78
According to the rationale of Henry Jenkins, fans do not view their respective
canons as “a privileged form of intellectual property,” but rather they view
themselves “as loyalists, fulfilling the inherent promise and potential for the
(canon) — a potential unrealized or betrayed by those who ‘own’ the
intellectual property rights in it.”79 The argument for fan fiction as a
fundamental form of social and cultural commentary is further strengthened by
authors’ use of their writings to explore gender roles, social movements and
political climates. Thus, on an elementary level, the writing of fan fiction
deserves the type of protection that Congress intended the fair use doctrine to
provide.80
III. OKAY, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A FAN FICTION AUTHOR, IS FAN
FICTION LEGAL?
A. Am I infringing on copyright?
Cutting straight to the chase, yes, writing fan fiction infringes on copyright
protections. Understanding what rights statutes and common law grant to
copyright holders is essential to understanding exactly why fan fiction is an
infringement. However, the main objectives of copyright law as a whole also
work to confine its scope:
The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors,
but to promote the progress of science and the arts. To this end, copyright

75 Id. at 124.
76 17 U.S.C. § 107.
77 Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257, 1265 (11th Cir. 2001)
79 Id. at 125. citing Henry Jenkins, Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten, 5 CRITICAL
STUDIES IN MASS COMMUNICATION 85, 87 (1988).

80 See Feist Publ’ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 349 (1991) (recognizing
that copyright law “encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information
conveyed by a work”).
assures authors the right to their original expression but encourages others
to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. . . .
This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which
copyright advances the progress of science and art.81
With this statement, the Supreme Court recognized in Feist Publications,
Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. 82 the importance of promoting the creation
of supplemental works of art. Indeed, courts generally seem to embrace an
attitude that copyright law should not be interpreted in such a way that would
stifle creativity.83
Before fan fiction authors can consider their defenses, they need to identify
two issues. First, they need to determine exactly what is at issue with the piece
of fan fiction. Second, they need to determine the precise right of the
copyright holder upon which this piece of fan fiction infringes. After this, fan
fiction authors may raise any available defenses to copyright infringement.
B. How far does copyright extend? There must be some limits to it, right?
Though authors sometimes borrow setting and plot devices, fan fiction’s
central issue is the borrowing of characters. Thus, the first critical inquiry into
copyright law a fan fiction author should make is whether characters can be
copyrighted.
Over the past few decades, the intellectual property protection of characters
has changed in several important ways. The result is a weakened, though once
strong, boundary between copyright and trademark law.84 Both the rise of
fandoms in the 1960s and the desire of intellectual property owners to protect
the profitability of their characters have caused the blurring of this boundary.85
As of late, courts are more apt to protect owners. Yet, this dissolves
“analytical boundaries between statutory copyright, statutory and common law
trademark, unfair competition, and dilution, thereby retooling traditional tests
of infringement to produce particularly strong, and at times, too strong,
protection for fictional characters.”86 Add to this convergence a lack of
uniformity among the circuit courts, and the need for a uniform legal approach
to the copyright of characters comes into light.
81 Id. at 349-50.
82 Id.
83 See, e.g. Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 211, 250 (1990) (explaining the fair use
doctrine is an “equitable rule of reason” allowing courts to avoid a strict application of

copyright statute where it would contravene the very creativity for which the copyright law
was designed to promote).
84 See Michael Todd Helfand, Note, When Mickey Mouse is as Strong as Superman: The
Convergence of Intellectual Property Laws to Protect Fictional Literary and Pictorial

Characters, 44 STAN. L. REV. 623, 641-43 (1992).
85 See id.
86 Id. at 641.
Early on, fictional characters did not merit much individual copyright
protection, especially literary characters.87 Pictorial characters were protected
under copyright law with more frequency due to their physical embodiment,
though many commentators have noted the irony in this, pointing out that
literary characters had less protection despite being “often considered
creatively and intellectually superior to ‘mere cartoons.’”88 Most
commentators agree that this irony saw its birth in the now-famed 1930
Learned Hand opinion set down in Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp.89
Hand’s opinion has been credited with creating the “sufficient delineation
test,” which mandates characters can only be protected if they are sufficiently
developed enough in the underlying work.90
In addition to the Second Circuit’s delineation test, the Ninth Circuit
inadvertently muddied the water some more when it created the “story being
told test” in the famed “Sam Spade” case.91 Rather than determining whether
the character Sam Spade was well-developed in the stories in which he
appeared, as the Second Circuit would have done, the Ninth Circuit decided
that copyright law can only protect a character when the character “really
constitutes the story being told.”92 Despite the Ninth Circuit’s best intentions,
no one is quite sure how to apply this test. According to at least one
commentator, “it is difficult to imagine a court ever finding a character to be
‘the story being told’” under the Ninth Circuit’s test.93
After both of these opinions were on the books, many scholars noted that
courts began granting an alarmingly expansive level of protection to characters
and, in so doing, began to commingle the separate doctrines of copyright and
trademark.94 As such, “[t]he popularity of a character began to implicitly, if
not explicitly, be factored into the analysis.”95 Two subsequent Ninth Circuit
decisions vividly illustrate this new phenomenon. In the first, Sid & Marty
87 Id. at 629 (explaining that the courts’ separate treatment of copyright and trademark
analysis rarely resulted in copyright protection for literary characters).

88 Id. at 631.
89 45 F.2d 119 (2nd Cir. 1930).
90 See id. at 121 (“If Twelfth Night were copyrighted, it is quite possible that a second
comer might so closely imitate Sir Toby Belch or Malvolio as to infringe, but it would not
be enough that for one of his characters he cast a riotous knight who kept wassail to the
discomfort of the household, or a vain and foppish steward who became amorous of his
mistress. These would be no more than Shakespeare’s ‘ideas’ in the play . . . . It follows
that the less developed the characters, the less they can be copyrighted; that is the penalty an
author must bear for making them too indistinctly”).
91 Warner Bros. Pictures v. Columbia Broad. Sys., 216 F.2d 945, 950 (9th Cir. 1954).
92 Id. (“It is conceivable that the character really constitutes the story being told, but if
the character is only the chessman in the game of telling the story he is not within the area
of protection afforded by the copyright”).
93 Helfand, supra note 84, at 633.
94 Id. at 644.
95 Id.
Krofft Television Productions v. McDonald’s Corp., the court looked at

subjective criteria under the “look and feel test” to determine that a copyright
in a set of fictional graphic characters had been infringed.96 The very next
year, the Ninth Circuit decided a second important case, Walt Disney
Productions v. Air Pirates.97 In this case, the court, in dicta, limited the “story
being told” test to literary characters and again affirmed its use of the “look
and feel” test.98
In the decades since these cases were handed down, owners of copyright in
fictional characters have been suing at an exponential rate.99 This has led to an
increase in inconsistent precedent for copyright protection of fictional
characters, with courts either fusing the tests100 or seeking to minimize their
reach.101 Instead of these more constrained approaches, perhaps the Krofft
court was heading in the right direction when it noted in dicta that it is “the
combination of many different elements which may command copyright
protection.”102 Undoubtedly, a more uniform approach to fictional characters
is desirable.
C. What rights do copyright holders actually have?

For now, the truth remains that the test for copyright protection of fictional
characters is something of an irregular guessing game. Yet, despite this
uncertainty, fictional characters do still receive copyright protection. Thus, a
fan fiction author needs to next determine the precise owner’s right in
copyright upon which a piece of fan fiction infringes. Most fan fiction centers
96 562 F.2d 1157, 1169 (9th Cir. 1977) (“The expression inherent in the H.R. Pufnstuf
series differs markedly from its relatively simple idea. The characters each have developed
personalities and particular ways of interacting with one another and their environment. The
physical setting also has several unique features”); see also Helfand, supra note 84, at 644
(equating the court’s use of the “look and feel” test to a test of secondary meaning in
trademark law).
97 581 F.2d 751 (9th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1132 (1979).
98 Id., at 755; see also Helfand, supra note 84, at 646 (noting the court’s attention to
Mickey Mouse’s prevalence in the public eye and its use of trademark law to decide a
copyright issue).
99 Helfand, supra note 84, at 626-627 (noting that the rise in profitability from fictional
characters has created in a multi-billion dollar industry, resulting in a predictable onslaught

of character infringement claims in the last two decades).
100 See, e.g. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. American Honda Corp., 900 F. Supp. 1287, 1296
(C.D. Cal. 1995).

101 See, e.g. Olson v. National Broadcasting Co., 855 F.2d 1446, 1451-52 (9th Cir. 1988)
(discussing whether the “mere chessman” language in the “Sam Spade” case was “mere
dicta”).
102 Krofft, 562 F.2d at 1169. See also Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co., 429 F.2d
1106 (9th Cir. 1970). It is possible that the Krofft court had a compilation approach in mind,
and such an approach may alleviate much of the headache the current fictional character
precedent has caused.
around widely distributed movies, television shows and novels, all of which
the copyright statute considers proper subject matter for protection.103
In order to prevail on a claim of copyright infringement, a plaintiff must
establish the two prima facie elements: (1) ownership of a valid copyright, and
(2) infringement of that copyright.104 Few defendants dispute the first element,
leaving most courts to spend the majority of their analyses determining
whether the defendant infringed a particular right of the copyright owner.105
Under the Copyright Act of 1976, a copyright owner is vested with certain
exclusive rights, namely the rights
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; (2) to
prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work; (3) to distribute
copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public . . .; (4) . . .
to perform the work publicly; [and] . . . (5) to display the copyrighted
work publicly . . . .106
Since characters can be copyrighted, with the caveats noted, a fan fiction
author infringes the owner’s first exclusive right in reproduction every time she
reproduces a character in fan fiction.107 Along the same lines, when that fan
fiction author then uploads his story onto the Internet and allows the public to
access it, she has violated the owner’s third exclusive right in distribution.108
Finally, a fan fiction writer is also guilty of violating the second exclusive right
in derivative works.109 The House Report on the Copyright Act of 1976
defined a derivative work as one that is “based upon the copyrighted work.”110
Accordingly, courts will likely consider fan fiction a derivative work because it
takes the copyright holder’s original creation and adds new characters, settings
or plotlines, thus creating a new and different work.111
103 17 U.S.C. § 102 (2000) (covering novels as “literary works” under subsection (1) and
movies and television shows as “motion pictures and other audiovisual works” under
subsection (6)).
104 Feist Publ’ns, 499 U.S. at 361.
105 See Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257, 1266 (11th Cir. 2001)
(illustrating that copyright ownership is rarely challenged); Twin Peaks Prods., Inc. v.
Publications Int., Ltd., 996 F.2d 1366, 1372 (2nd Cir. 1993) (same); Castle Rock
Entertainment Co. v. Carol Pub. Group, Inc., 955 F. Supp. 260, 264 (S.D.N.Y. 1997)
(same); but see Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 900 F. Supp. at 1293 (spending a good deal of
time determining that petitioner, owner of the copyrights to several, but not all, of the James
Bond films, nevertheless satisfied the ownership prong of the test).
106 17 U.S.C. § 106 (2000) (enumerating a copyright holder’s exclusive rights).
107 See 17 U.S.C. § 106(1). See also MAI Sys. Corp. v. Peak Computing, Inc., 991 F.2d
511, 518 (9th Cir. 1993) (holding that placing a document into RAM constitutes making a
copy).
108 See 17 U.S.C § 106(3).
109 17 U.S.C. § 106(2).
110 H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 62 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.A.A.N 5659, 5675.
111 See Tushnet, supra note 1, at 660.

In that a fan fiction author risks violating, at a minimum, three of the five
exclusive rights granted to a copyright owner under § 106, fan fiction authors
find themselves on the opposite side of the law. The burden then shifts to the
fan fiction author to argue any available defenses.
D. Do I have any defenses under copyright law?
1. Can’t I make some sort of implied consent argument?

In certain fandoms, implied consent may be the strongest argument a fan
fiction author can make. If the copyright owner has known about the fan
fiction writing and has either encouraged it or allowed it to continue
unchecked, the fan fiction author should be able to argue that the owner
impliedly consented, thereby quashing any subsequent attempts by the owner
to stop fan fiction distribution and creation. This argument, similar to that of
equitable estoppel, is strongest when “there is express consent by the copyright
owner or [he gives] some statement that he does not regard the defendant’s acts
as infringing or that he has no objection to the defendant’s work.”112 When a
copyright owner has made these sorts of implications, a defendant’s implied
consent argument should win.
Thus, fan fiction writers should know the attitudes of canon authors towards
fandom. The views of copyright owners concerning fan fiction encompass a
broad spectrum.113 On one extreme are owners such as Anne Rice, who
expressly forbid the writing of fan fiction and try to quash it.114 On the other
extreme lie owners such as Lois McMaster Bujold, who encourages the writing
112 Coleman v. EPSN, Inc., 764 F. Supp. 290, 296 (S.D.N.Y. 1991); see also Broadcast
Music, Inc. v. Hearst/ABC Viacom Entertainment Servs., 746 F. Supp. 320, 329-330
(S.D.N.Y. 1990) (discussing an implied consent argument in the context of the “unclean
hands” equitable doctrine).
113 See Jekkel, Corporate Bandwagon, at http://www.fanfiction.net/
column.php?columnid=38 (last visited Mar. 22, 2003) (providing a general feel of copyright
owners’ views by listing the fan fiction policies of a number of authors at the end of each
column).
114 See The Official Anne Rice Web site, at http://www.annerice.com (accessed Aug. 22,
2002) (on Apr. 7, 2000, on the front page, Ms. Rice had the following message for fan
fiction writers: “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me
terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your
own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my
wishes”). The message has since been removed, but Rice’s policy towards fan fiction
remains. See, e.g. Croatoan Fanfic: Where Has Anne Rice Fanfiction Gone?, available at
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/croatoan/ (accessed Apr. 11, 2003). See also Ursula K. Le
Guin’s Official Website, at
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/FAQ_Questionnaire5_01.html#FF (accessed Jan. 19, 2003)
(“Writing for your own pleasure is one thing but disseminating it is something else. It used
to be that fan fiction would reach only a specific audience — a close circle of friends and
acquaintances. But with the Web things have changed.”).
of fan fiction and even posts fan fiction on her personal Website.115 Most
owners seem to occupy the middle ground, tolerating fan fiction.116
In that many authors tolerate fan fiction writing, implied consent may be one
of a fan fiction’s strongest arguments. If the circumstances are right and the
fan fiction writer borrows from a consenting copyright owner, a court should
excuse the writing of fan fiction based on equitable grounds.
2. Isn’t what I’m doing a fair use?

In addition to implied consent, a fan fiction author can potentially make a
fair use argument. Of course, fair use, like implied consent, is an affirmative
defense that is raised only after infringement is established.117 At least one
court has posited that fair use should be an affirmative right rather than a
defense, but the majority view, and the view espoused by the Supreme Court,
remains that fair use is a defense.118 Four factors are considered in
determining whether a court will excuse a particular use as fair, as the
Copyright Act of 1976 sets out:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of
a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the
nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the
portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the
effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work.119
a. The Purpose and Character of the Use: “But I don’t make any money
off of this and am learning to become a better writer in the
process. That has to count for something, right?”
In determining the purpose and character of the use, two factors are most
important. These are whether the use is noncommercial and whether the use
supplants or transforms the original work.120 Noncommercial use is more apt
115 See The Lois McMaster Bujold FanFic Archive, at http://www.dendarii.co.uk/FanFic/

(last visited Mar. 22, 2003).
116 See, e.g. Journal of Neil Gaiman, Apr. 8, 2002, at
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal_archives/2002_04_01_archive.asp (articulating a view
typical among many copyright owners confronted with fan fiction: “As long as people aren’t
commercially exploiting characters I’ve created, and are doing it for each other, I don’t see
that there’s any harm in [fan fiction], and given how much people enjoy it, it’s obviously
doing some good. It doesn’t bother me”).
117 4 MELVILLE B. NIMMER AND DAVID NIMMER, NIMMER ON COPYRIGHT § 13.05
(LexisNexis 2002) (stating that fair use is an affirmative defense).

118 Suntrust Bank, 268 F.3d at 1260 n.3 (arguing in dicta that fair use should be
considered an affirmative right but acknowledging the court is bound by the Supreme
Court’s decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., which makes clear fair use is a
defense).
119 17 U.S.C. § 107.
120 See 4 NIMMER, supra note 117, at § 13.05(A)(1).

to constitute fair use.121 The main thrust behind this factor is a determination
whether the work “supersedes the objects” of the copyrighted work or whether
it adds something to it and alters it.122 As set out by the court in Campbell v.
Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., if a work transforms the original, it is less likely to
constitute copyright infringement, or, alternatively, the court is more likely to
excuse the infringement as fair use.123
In deciding whether or not to allow a particular work of fan fiction as a fair
use, the first question is whether the writing of a particular piece is a
noncommercial use. Fortunately for the fan fiction author, most fan fiction, by
its very definition, is a noncommercial usage.124 Fan fiction is mainly a
product of the Internet, and fan fiction authors do not make their readers pay a
fee to access the stories.125 One court has implied that when writers upload
their works onto the Internet and allow readers to access them for free, this is a
noncommercial use that weighs towards a finding of fair use.126 Following the
reasoning of another court, most fan fiction writers are not “in the business of”
copying copyrighted works because no money ever changes hands.127 The
ultimate purpose behind fan fiction writing is to satisfy innate desires, not to
make a profit.
Fan fiction authors themselves see their use as noncommercial.128 This is
evidenced by one of the defining elements of a work of fan fiction — the
disclaimer that usually appears atop the work.129 This disclaimer, written by
the fan fiction author, acknowledges that the author does not own the copyright
to the work and typically points out that the author is not receiving any sort of
financial benefit from the work.130
Several courts are more prone to find a defendant’s use is fair when the
defendant acknowledges that the material is borrowed from a copyrighted
source, such as by adding a disclaimer.131 Typical disclaimers in the fan
121 See Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984).
122 See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 569 (1994).
123 Id. at 579.
124 Supra Part II-C (explaining briefly that fan fiction is not professional writing
marketed for profit but rather is written to further a segment of popular culture).
126 See Suntrust Bank, 268 F.3d at 1269 n.24 (“[the author] did not choose to publish her
work of fiction on the Internet free to all the world to read”).

127 See Higgins v. Detroit Educ. Television Found., 4 F. Supp. 2d 701, 705 (E.D. Mich.
1998).
129 Id.
130 Id.
131 Karll v. Curtis Pub. Co., 39 F. Supp. 836, 838-39 (E.D. Wis. 1941) (holding that
defendant magazine’s reprinting of a few verses of a song was fair where the magazine
expressly attributed the authorship of the song to plaintiff copyright holder); but see Henry
Holt & Co. v. Liggett & M. Tobacco Co., 23 F. Supp. 302, 304 (E.D. Pa. 1938) (holding
that a cigarette manufacturer’s quoting of scientific research was not a fair use, despite the
fiction world include the following: “The following story is classified as Fan
Fiction. The characters of Xena, Gabrielle and others who have appeared in
the series, Xena: Warrior Princess, are the property of MCA/Universal
Television and Renaissance Pictures. I only borrowed them;”132 “BeastMaster:
The Legend Continues, its characters and images are property Tribune
Entertainment. This fan fiction is for fun and not for profit.”133
“Of course, there is always the almighty disclaimer of the fandom,” said 18-
year-old high school senior and fan fiction author Caroline Ratajski, “but then
I, on occasion, will borrow some other things, such as lines from movies. I put
a disclaimer, citing the line and the movie it was borrowed from.”134 When
asked, most fan fiction authors say they are not worried about copyright
liability because they believe their actions are non-infringing because they do
not derive a financial benefit from their works. “I make absolutely no profit
from my fiction and never really hope to. How can you sue someone who has
no income?” Ratajski asks.135
Ratajski’s comments identify the “general social consensus” among fan
fiction authors that their noncommercial works constitute fair use,136 although
the mere fact that an infringer lacks any intent to infringe will not shield him
from liability.137 On the other hand, fan fiction has a long history, and
copyright owners, as well as fan fiction authors, have come to regard it as a
reasonable and customary use.138 That this use has been tolerated for an
extensive period of time strengthens the argument that a court should excuse
fan fiction writing.139
In addition to noncommercial use, educational use is another kind of use
expressly included in the statute’s first fair use factor.140 Thus, if the purpose
attribution to the infringement).

132 L.Z. Clotho, Golden Moments, at
http://www.poky.net/xena/argo/golden%20momemts.htm (last visited Jan. 24, 2002)
(displaying disclaimer at the top of the Internet page).
133 Mydland’s Own BeastMaster Fan Fiction, at http://mydlands.fanspace.com/fanfic/
(archiving BeastMaster fan fiction) (last visited Apr. 11, 2003).

134 E-mail from Caroline Ratajski, (Oct. 22, 2001) (on file with author).
135 E-mail from Caroline Ratajski (Oct. 22, 2001) (on file with author) (raising the
interesting point that where some consider statutory damages to require willful intent, most
fan fiction authors may be able to negate an award because they do not view their activities
as infringement).
137 See Wihtol v. Crow, 309 F.2d 777, 780 (8th Cir. 1962) (holding that substantial
copying of a song will not be excused as fair use merely because the infringer had no
intention to infringe); but see Broadway Music Corp. v. F-R Pub. Corp. 31 F. Supp. 817,
818 (S.D.N.Y. 1940) (deciding that a lack of intent to infringe, while not determinative,
should be factored in to fill out the “whole picture”).
138 See supra Part II-B and C (detailing the personal and sociological importance of
cultural commodities such as fan fiction).

139 See id.
140 17 U.S.C. § 107(1) (“in determining whether the use made of a work in any particular
of borrowing from the copyrighted work is for educational ends, a court is

more likely to excuse the use as fair.141 For purposes of this Note, however,
whether or not fan fiction falls into the educational use category is not a clear-
cut inquiry.
Nearly all fan fiction in existence today finds a home on an Internet Web
site. The Web sites range from personal users’ pages, which usually only
provide links to stories, to the large, all-encompassing Web sites, such as
fanfiction.net, which has archived close to 500,000 works of fan fiction.142 A
common feature of the larger Web sites is the use of either bulletin boards or
help forums in which users are invited to post.143 In particular, most Web sites
also have sub-forums, fulfilling the collective purpose of helping fan fiction
authors improve their writing.144 Many fan fiction authors themselves admit
that the more they write, the better they get.145
Fan fiction authors may be able to argue that their development as writers
fulfills an educational use. When making a educational use inquiry, courts
tend to examine an alleged infringer’s purpose, and when there is a valid
educational purpose, courts are more likely to find fair use. Higgins v. Detroit
Educational Television146 is one of the leading cases on point. There, a
television station used the plaintiff’s copyrighted song in the opening and
closing segments of an educational television show that relayed an anti-gun-
violence message.147 Finding that the educational purpose behind the program
transformed the use of the song into a fair use, the court focused on the fact
that the program was not mass-marketed and was intended for use only by
case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include . . . the purpose and character of
the use, including whether such use is . . . for nonprofit educational purposes) .
141 See id.
142 See e-mail from Xing Li (Aug. 16, 2002) (on file with author) (writing as owner and
administrator of http://www.fanfiction.net, Li details the steep increase in the amount of fan

fiction posted to the Internet since 1998).
143 Id.
144 See FanFiction.Net, at http://www.fanfiction.net/columns.php (last visited Mar. 23,
2003) (linking visitors to 18 different editorial columns written to help authors improve the
quality of fan fiction writing).
145 Supra Part II; see also e-mail from Erin Bartuska, (Oct. 24, 2001) (on file with
author) (responding to the question “why did you begin writing fan fiction?” with “I was
having a great deal of trouble with characterization, the basics of writing, really. Fan fiction
was a great forum for learning to write”); e-mail from Melissa Jones (Oct. 27, 2001) (on file
with author) (“I write fan fiction because I enjoy writing; it’s something I’ve been doing
almost half my life. It has increased and strengthened my vocabulary and grammar”); e-mail
from Kellie Bindas (Oct. 21, 2001) (on file with author) (“I continue writing [fan fiction]
because it’s a wonderful way to improve my writing skills. I love writing so much that I
may someday actually try to write something with original characters. So I’m using my (fan
fiction) to my advantage in that regard. It’s getting me comfortable with my own abilities
and style”).
146 4 F. Supp. 2d 701 (E.D. Mich. 1998).
147 Id. at 703.

educational facilities.148 In addition, information given at the end of the

program relayed that a videotape of the program could be purchased, but “for
educational use only.”149
The Higgins opinion raised several implications for the fan fiction author,
but the degree to which the opinion will apply in a particular case depends on
the individual activities and motives of the fan fiction author. First, a fan
fiction author should question his or her motives to write. The fan fiction
author may have an educational use argument if one of the motives is to hone
writing skills. However, since the Higgins court focused on the fact that
educational use was the only purpose of using the song, the fan fiction author
may have to show that no other motives exist.150 This portion of the court’s
opinion undercuts the argument that fan fiction is fair use because the very
nature of most fan fiction is to fulfill a personal desire, which is a different
motive from writing development. Any educational purpose is usually
secondary.151
Parody is yet another means of protection potentially available to fan fiction
authors under the first fair use factor. The Supreme Court spoke to this issue at
length in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. and concluded that a parody of a
copyrighted work can be allowed as a fair use.152 According to the Court,
parody is “a ‘literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an
author or a work for comic effect or ridicule,’ or as a ‘composition in prose or
verse in which the characteristic turns of thought and phrase in an author or
class of authors are imitated in such a way as to make them appear
ridiculous.’”153 Under copyright law, a second-comer may use a work for
parody purposes if it creates a new work that comments on the original.154
Thus, the Court advises that “[t]he threshold question when fair use is raised
in defense of parody is whether a parodic character may reasonably be
perceived.”155 The Court warns that the artistic or creative nature of the
controversial work is not subject to evaluation, as such judgments are highly
subjective. A court should only inquire as to whether the “parodic element is
slight or great and copying small or extensive . . . for a work with slight
parodic element and extensive copying will be more likely to merely
148 Id. at 704.

149 Id.
150 See id.
151 Supra Part II-B (explaining the intrinsic value behind fan fiction).
152 510 U.S. at 579 (“We thus line up with the courts that have held that parody, like
other comment or criticism, may claim fair use under § 107”).

153 Id. at 580 (quoting AM HERITAGE DICTIONARY 1317 (3d ed. 1992); 11 OXFORD
ENGLISH DICTIONARY 247 (2d ed. 1989)).

154 Id.
155 Id. at 582; but see Dr. Seuss Enter., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc., 109 F.3d 1394
(9th Cir. 1997) (holding that to be a proper parody, the subject of the parody must be the
copyrighted work itself, and that a mere parody of a secondary subject in a manner that
appropriates the copyrighted work’s style or tone will not be excused as fair use).
‘supersede the objects’ of the original” than to constitute fair use.156 The
court’s rationale was that most copyright holders are not likely to license
parodies of their works.157 As Wendy Gordon has stated, parody is an
important element of contemporary society and therefore, courts should not
allow copyright owners to use their rights to the detriment of society.158
Thus, we have reached another inquiry relevant to the case of the fan fiction
author. The fan fiction author must determine whether his or her work is a
parody, since classifying it as such gives it an additional chance of being a fair
use.159 In her article, Tushnet alludes to the fact that “the poor fellow in the
red shirt who beams down with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy is going to be the one
of the four to die,” and offers that the distinction between parody and other
simple transformative use is hard to make.160 If this example is a parody, a fan
fiction author could argue that paying homage to a copyrighted work in a piece
of fan fiction is equivalent to a parody of that work.161 Such an inquiry
requires a thorough examination of the law, because the answer turns on the
precise way in which courts have developed the parody-as-fair-use common
law.
In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals determined that a
work is a parody “if its aim is to comment upon or criticize prior work by
appropriating elements of the original in creating new artistic, as opposed to
scholarly or journalistic, work.”162 The court stated that a parody is a
transformative use, and as such, it is necessary to determine whether the
alleged parody adds to the original.163 In determining that the book The Wind
Done Gone was a proper parody of Gone with the Wind, the court noted that
the latter half of The Wind Done Gone, although using several of Gone with the
Wind’s characters, created new plot elements not found in Gone with the
156 Campbell, 510 U.S. at 582 n.16, (quoting Bleisetin v. Donaldson Lithographing, 188
U.S. 239, 251 (1903)).
157 Id. at 592.
158 See Wendy J. Gordon, A Property Right in Self-Expression: Equality and
Individualism in the Natural Law of Intellectual Property, 102 Yale L.J. 1533, 1570 (May
1993); Tushnet, supra note 1, at 668.
159 See e-mail from Xing Li (Aug. 16, 2002) (on file with author) (explaining that many
of the stories housed on fanfiction.net are rightly categorized as parodies because parody “is
a very popular genre for writers on the site to work with”).
160 Tushnet, supra note 1, at 668 (referencing DAVID BROMWICH, PARODY, PASTICHE,
AND ALLUSION IN LYRIC POETRY: BEYOND NEW CRITICISM 328, 328-31 (Chaviva Hosek &
Patricia Parker eds., 1985)).
161 Id. (referencing BROMWICH (arguing that parody is always also homage to an original
work)); but see Castle Rock Entertainment v. Carol Pub. Group, Inc., 955 F. Supp. 260, 271
(S.D.N.Y. 1997) (commenting that a Seinfeld trivia book is an homage to rather than a
parody of the television series).
162 Suntrust Bank, 268 F.3d at 1268-69.
163 Id. at 1269, referencing Campbell, 510 U.S. at 579.

Wind.164 This language is especially helpful to fan fiction authors, who often
borrow characters from copyrighted works and transport them into new
settings and adventures, and usually also offer some sort of commentary on the
original.165
The Suntrust court determined that The Wind Done Gone was very clearly a
parody of Gone with the Wind because its aim was to satirize the positive spin
the popular novel puts on the Southern antebellum lifestyle.166 Most works of
fan fiction, on the other hand, do not undertake such a blatantly satiric purpose.
The Suntrust opinion might avail only the rare fan fiction author who aims to
truly satirize the themes of the original.
For fan fiction authors who do not write to satirize the original work, there
have been many cases dealing with fair use of fictional characters for parodic
purposes. Courts only seem to allow uses which keep character reference to a
minimum.167 For example, a television studio’s creation of a parodic program
centered on a bungling person acquiring extraordinary powers and occasionally
using a Superman-type line did not infringe upon Warner Bros. copyright in
the Superman character, partially because the television program did not
reference Superman by name, nor did it use his likeness.168 While this case is
not directly applicable here because the court was concerned with whether the
use was an infringement and not whether the use was a proper parody, it is
noteworthy nonetheless. For most fan fiction authors, this case spells trouble
and points out the major stumbling block fan fiction authors will face in
making a parody argument. Most works of fan fiction borrow the actual
characters and tend not to create larger-than-life character versions that mimic
the originals. The vast majority of fan fiction writers will not be able to use a
parody argument because many stories seek to remain true to canon and
portray the characters as realistically as possible. For a select few, however,
parody might be an appropriate defense. If the goal of a fan fiction author is to
take a piece of popular culture, such as a television show, and write a story that
164 Id. at 1270.

165 See e-mail from Xing Li (Aug. 16, 2002) (on file with author) (noting the substantial
numbers of stories housed on fanfiction.net that are classified as “parodies” of the original
copyrighted work).
166 Suntrust Bank, 268 F.3d at 1271.
167 See Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates, 581 F.2d 751, 757-58 (9th Cir. 1978)
(holding that copying the likeness of Walt Disney cartoon characters and portraying them in
a parody on their wholesomeness as acting in a vulgar and lewd manner engages in an
excessive amount of copying such that fair use is negated); Walt Disney Productions v.
Mature Pictures Corp., 389 F. Supp. 1397, 1397-98 (S.D. N.Y. 1975) (holding that
copyright owners to “Mickey Mouse March” could enjoin the parodic use of the theme in an
adult movie where the theme played for close to five minutes in the movie, while the
original theme was only two minutes long); but see Pillsbury Co. v. Milky Way
Productions, Inc., 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17722, 18 (N.D. Ga. 1981) (stating that a parodist
is entitled to a broader license to use an original work than a non-parodist).
168 Warner Bros., Inc. v. American Broad.., 523 F. Supp. 611, 616 (S.D.N.Y. 1981).
pokes fun at its popularity, the author might be able to claim a proper parodic
purpose.169
In summary, the purpose and nature of fan fiction weigh mostly in the favor
of a fair use finding, despite available arguments that the same purpose and
nature could also cut against a fair use finding. Of primary importance, fan
fiction is a noncommercial use that has a rich history of mainstream acceptance
by most copyright holders.170 Additionally, fan fiction authors can argue that
their work is either an educational use or valid form of parody, although these
arguments are admittedly weaker.171
b. The Nature of the Copyrighted Work: “Does it make a difference if the

original work is a TV show, movie or book?”
Under this factor, courts generally give more protection to works of fiction
and less to works of fact.172 Particularly in the worlds of science and fine arts
where scientific and literary creations provide wide social benefits, courts give
broader scope to the definition of fair use. Conversely, courts are less likely to
find a fair use in situations where business competition and financial
underpinnings exist.173 Also, unpublished works are usually given more
protection than published works, which has led many commentators to note
that published or widely-distributed works should receive less protection.174
For the fan fiction author, these general observations have several
implications, although this factor will not ultimately get the writer very far.
First, by definition all works of fan fiction are based on works of fiction,
including novels, movies and television shows.175 All such works of fiction
have gained popularity as a result of broad, often global, distribution.176 As a
preliminary matter, fan fiction authors should note that while fictional works
inherently receive greater protection, fictional works are also usually in wide
distribution, thereby bolstering a fair use argument. However, according to
Paul Goldstein, “It is the copyright owner’s efforts to keep its work closely
cabined, and not technical measures of publication, that determine the special
protection from the fair use defense.”177 As such, fan fiction authors should
169 See e-mail from Xing Li (Aug. 16, 2002) (on file with author) (explaining that parody
is a popular genre of fan fiction).

170 Supra Part II-B.
171 See Campbell, 510 U.S. at 581 (holding that all the fair use factors must be weighed,
thus rejecting a per se fair use defense for parody or educational uses).
173 See, e.g. Loew’s, Inc. v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 131 F. Supp. 165, 175 (S.D. Cal.
1955).
175 Id. at 676-77.
176 See America Online, Fan Fiction on the Net, at http://members.aol.com/
ksnicholas/fanfic/index.html (last visited Mar. 23, 2003) (indexing over 100 different fan
fiction pieces, all of which constitute broad distribution).
177 1 PAUL GOLDSTEIN, COPYRIGHT 1.4.2, at 1:12-:13. See also Sony Corp., 464 U.S. at
turn to the actions of the underlying copyright owners to determine the

potential applicability of this factor. Similar to the implied consent argument,
if a copyright owner has kept close control over the licensing and use of his
product, the fan fiction writer’s argument is probably weaker than if the same
argument is made in the face of a lazy copyright owner who tolerates use of the
work in other manners.178
c. The Amount and Substantiality: “C’mon, now — All I’m using are the
characters. Is that okay?”
The different types of fan fiction are varied and extensive, with some stories
merely borrowing characters and transporting them to an alternate time or
location, and other stories borrowing elements of character, time and setting
from the original copyrighted work.179 Consequently, several works of fan
fiction are more likely to receive fair use protection because of an insignificant
amount of borrowing.180 As should be obvious, the less of a copyrighted work
a secondcomer borrows, the more likely it will amount to a fair use.181 In the
world of fan fiction, this leads to an inquiry into whether (1) the borrowing of
characters and settings with the addition of elements and plots is small enough
to constitute fair use, or (2) the borrowing of these elements gets to the heart of
the original work in such a way that fair use is negated.182 Despite the erratic
and inconsistent tests used to determine the copyrightability of fictional
characters, they can be copyrighted.183 While a call for uniformity would be a
welcomed relief in most academic and practical circles, for the time being, a
fan fiction author seeking to apply the fair use doctrine must scour legal
precedent and compare his or her actions to the actions of countless copyright
defendants.
The first case of importance to the fan fiction author is the Ninth Circuit
case, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc.,184 also known
417 (indicating that a free, widespread broadcast of a television program supports a finding
of fair use).
178 See supra Part III-D-i.
179 Compar Kellie, Harry Potter and the Carnelian Key, http://www.schnoogle.com/
authorLinks/Kellie/Carnelian_Key/ (borrowing main characters, setting and plot elements

from the copyrighted Harry Potter world), with Karei, Years of the Snake,
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Karei/The_Years_of_the_Snake_Year_One/
(borrowing only a minor character from Harry Potter and adding additional characters,
settings and plots).
180 See Tushnet, supra note 1, at 677-78.
181 But see Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enter., 471 U.S. 539, 565 (1985)
(stating that “a taking may not be excused merely because it is insubstantial with respect to
the infringing work”).
182 See generally supra Part III-D-ii-1 (explaining that taking from “the heart” of a
copyrighted work is less likely to receive protection).

183 See supra Part III-B (discussing the copyrightability of fictional characters).
184 216 F.2d 945 (9th Cir. 1954).

as the “Sam Spade” case. In this case, the court noted that, at least in the genre
of mysteries, authors typically carry their leading characters from one story to
the next.185 Other novel genres, television shows and movie sequels also do
this, making the court’s findings just as applicable today. The court touched
on the world of fan fiction writers with its comment that “[i]t is conceivable
that the character really constitutes the story being told, but if the character is
only the chessman in the game of telling the story, he is not within the area of
protection afforded by copyright.”186 Thus, at least for fan fiction authors who
reside within the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit, fan fiction authors should
ask themselves whether the characters they took are “mere chessmen” in the
underlying story.187
The Ninth Circuit has stumbled repeatedly in trying to apply its test. This
has led to further confusion and uncertainty, much to the dismay of the fan
fiction author and others seeking to apply a fair use defense.188 For example,
the court in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. American Honda Motor Co., holding
that graphic characters are more likely to get copyright protection, relied in
part on Air Pirates, a case that discussed and left unresolved the potential
limits of the Sam Spade case to literary characters.189 However, the court then
noted that character is but one element to look at in making a fair use
determination, and “plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace . . . and
sequence of events” remain vital.190 Ultimately, the court analyzed the facts of
the case under both tests.191
For the fan fiction author, this court’s cautious analysis has several
implications. First, authors should ask themselves whether their canons are
literary works, such as novels or visual works. Visual works may include
television shows and movies. The American Honda rationale warrants more
protection to characters in television characters, which cuts against a fair use
defense.192 The second implication is that fan fiction authors should engage in
a compilation analysis of sorts in response to the American Honda court’s
185 Id. at 949.

186 Id. at 950.
187 See id. (discussing the Ninth Circuit’s test, the meaning of which remains unclear and
renders a proper application of its treatment in a fair use analysis uncertain).

188 See generally Part III-B (discussing the erratic treatment of fictional characters in
copyright law in general and in the Ninth Circuit in particular).

189 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., 900 F. Supp. 1287, 1295
(C.D. Cal. 1995) (citing Air Pirates, 581 F.2d at 755).

190 Id. at 1297.
191 Id. at 1296.
192 See id. at 1295 (providing a corollary argument to be made relating to the first fair use
factor’s attention to transformative use: despite the American Honda court’s reluctance to
find fair use in the borrowing of a visual character, a fan fiction author using such characters
might argue that his or her use is transformative, taking a visual character and transposing it
into a literary medium).
implied concern with the overall feel of a character.193 The more that a fan
fiction author can distinguish the character about which he or she is writing
from the character portrayed in the canon, the more likely fair use will be
granted under American Honda.
To cover all bases, the fan fiction author should also examine his or her
actions under the Second Circuit’s sufficient delineation test.194 Based on the
treatment of this test by subsequent courts, if a fan fiction writer significantly
delineates a character in his or her work, such that the character has received
an identity independent from the original canon, the character deserves special
copyright protection.195 Using this analysis, the fan fiction author should ask
whether the characters he or she has borrowed are the type of larger-than-life
characters such as Mickey Mouse or Superman, which have independent lives
beyond their pages or studio sets. For the majority of fan fiction authors who
merely use characters that are only capable of existing within their fictional
environments, the Second Circuit’s reasoning strengthens their fair use
defense.
d. The Effect on the Market for the Original: “Could a court really think
that I somehow take money away from the original?”
According to the Supreme Court, the effect on the market for the
copyrighted work is “undoubtedly the single most important element of fair
use.”196 Under this factor, uses that economically substitute for the original
work, thereby reducing market demand for it, are generally not protected by
the fair use doctrine.197 Turning to the Court’s Sony rationale, a more
fundamental type of market argument emerges, one relating to the goals of
economic efficiency in society as a whole and one originating with John
Locke. The argument goes that on the one hand, copyright owners have
important rights in their creations, but on the other hand, the owners should not
be allowed to hoard their creations in a way that would harm society-at-large.
Stamping out the writing of fan fiction would have negative effects on society,
and thus, most fan fiction should be excused as a fair use.198
193 Id. at 1297.

194 See Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d at 121 (“we are rather concerned
with the line between expression and what is expressed”).
195 See Anderson v. Stallone et al., 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11109, *20 (C.D. Cal. 1989)
(holding that the Rocky characters have been developed so extensively over a number of
movies that the characters deserve independent copyright protection).
196 Harper & Row Publishers, 471 U.S. at 566.
197 Campbell, 510 U.S. at 584.
198 This Note takes a non-categorical approach to fan fiction and recognizes that certain
types of fan fiction could very well cause great harm to the copyright holder. In that
situation, under a Lockean theory, allowing the individual work fan fiction to be excused as
fair use would cause more harm to the owner than would provide a reciprocal benefit to
society, so the work should not be allowed.
Professor Wendy Gordon notes that many of our society’s premiere creative
works affect society in such a profoundly psychological way that they become
“part of” an individual.199 When that happens, the individual begins to think
that “if I cannot use [these works], I feel I am cut off from part of myself. I
would prefer never to have been exposed to them rather than to experience that
sort of alienation.”200 Additionally, in today’s omnipresent media culture,
individuals are constantly subconsciously bombarded with a wide array of
cultural artifacts, and many times the individual will have no way of knowing
in advance how these will affect her.201 If an individual is deeply moved by a
cultural artifact, so much so that the individual feels drawn to create a new
worked based on the old, then that individual would be harmed if copyright
law forbids it.
Turning thus to fan fiction specifically, many commentators have noted that
fan fiction, as a noncommercial and transformative use, does not have a
noticeably adverse effect on the market for the original.202 Fan fiction authors
can usually argue that there is no harm to the copyright holder because their
practice is noncommercial and the two works are operating in different
markets, the fan fiction author existing in an online format and the copyright
holder existing in digital or print form.203
However, copyright owners have a very strong counterargument that they
should be able to determine how and when additional interest should be
spurred.204 Under this view, a copyright holder could determine whether or not
a particular use should be allowed, regardless of its potential to affect the
market or act as a substitute. The court in Castle Rock Entertainment v. Carol
Publishing Group, Inc.205 espoused this view in a case involving an
unauthorized trivia book based on the popular Seinfeld television program.
While noting that no evidence showed that the book had diminished interest in
199 Gordon, supra note 158, at 1569.

200 Id. at 1569.
201 Id. See also Jessica Litman, The Public Domain, 39 Emory L.J. 965, 1009 (1990).
202 See Tushnet, supra note 1, at 669-70 (noting that “enabling consumers to play with
and alter videogame characters has the potential to improve the market for the official
product,” something that holds true for fan fiction as well).
203
See Tushnet, supra note 1, at 671 n.94, citing 1 PAUL GOLDSTEIN, COPYRIGHT 1.4.2, at
1:12-:13; see also College Entrance Book Co. v Amsco Book Co., 119 F.2d 874 (2nd Cir.
1941) (commenting that when goods such as French booklets are competing for the same
market, a finding of fair use on the part of an alleged infringer is less likely, due to the
commercial nature of both products); Horn Abbot, Ltd. v. Sarsaparilla, Ltd., 601 F. Supp.
360, 367-68 (N.D. Ill. 1984) (holding that a book based on plaintiff’s Trivial Pursuit board
game was not fair use where it was prepared for commercial sale and would severely
undercut plaintiff’s financial market).
204 See Stephen M. McJohn, Fair Use and Privatization in Copyright, 35 SAN DIEGO L.
REV. 61, 93-94 (1998).

205 955 F. Supp. 260, 272 (S.D.N.Y. 1997).
the program or had reduced its value,206 the court nevertheless found against
the defendant book authors. The court focused its inquiry on determining the
“potential market” for the copyrighted work, including “potential derivative
works.”207 Importantly, the court did not consider the market for potential
derivative works to be all-encompassing, but rather found it to include “only
those that creators of original works would in general develop or license others
to develop.”208
The Castle Rock court then distinguished between a copyright holder’s
failure to develop a derivative work because of neglect, and failure to do so
because of a conscious decision.209 According to the court, if a copyright
holder made a specific decision not to create a derivative work, this would
severely undermine any finding of fair use on the part of a subsequent
creator.210 Thus, fan fiction authors should ask themselves whether the
copyright owner has specifically addressed the writing of fan fiction.211 If the
copyright owner has spoken out against it, this weighs against a fair use
defense for the fan fiction author.212
The Castle Rock decision, as a whole, might prove troubling for fan fiction
authors. The court expressed concern for a copyright owner’s choice to
prevent the market from being saturated with variations of the original.213 This
cuts against a finding that fan fiction is fair use, since copyright holders might
want to prevent different “versions” of the original. The Castle Rock court was
concerned with the commercial nature of the derivative author’s work and the
drain on the financial market for the copyright holder.214 While fan fiction is a
noncommercial use, this concern may nonetheless trouble fan fiction authors
because copyright holders frequently distribute novelizations of their movies
and television shows.215 For fan fiction based on television shows, courts
could regard the stories as infringing upon the potential novelization market
because they drain the potential profitability of novelization for the copyright
owner. However, most online fan fiction are works that the copyright holder
206 But see id. at 271 (noting to the contrary that the book, if anything, might bolster
interest in Seinfeld).
207 Id. at 271.
208 Id. (quoting Campbell, 510 U.S. at 592).
209 Id. at 272.
210 Id. (noting also that this argument would apply differently to parody).
212 Id.
213 Castle Rock Entm’t, 955 F. Supp. at 272.
214 Id. at 269; see also Marcus v. Rowley, 695 F.2d 1171, 1173, 1178-79 (9th Cir. 1983)
(holding that there will not be a finding of fair use when the copying of portions of a book
led others to refuse to buy the book but to rather rely on defendant’s copies); New Line
Cinema Corp. v. Bertlesman Music Group, Inc., 693 F. Supp. 1517, 1528 (S.D.N.Y. 1988)
(holding that defendant’s music video is nor fair use because it usurps the market for
plaintiff’s work).
would not market because they commonly contain additional characters or

portray the leads as acting out of character.216 While the Castle Rock argument
cannot be fully countered, this combined with the noncommercial nature of fan
fiction does soften its blow a bit.
Additionally, another court decision, Twin Peaks Productions, Inc. v.
Publications Int., Ltd., intimated that if a copyright holder has no interest in
occupying a derivative market, a defendant’s subsequent use is more likely to
be fair.217 Critical to the Twin Peaks opinion was whether the defendant’s
derivative work was a market substitute for the original, thus depriving the
copyright holder of profits.218
The Twin Peaks court was concerned that readers would buy defendant’s
book, a summary of the plaintiff’s television show episodes, and not feel the
need to watch the actual program or rent a videotape of it.219 Most fan fiction
authors should find this rational helpful because a user is unlikely to feel that
reading fan fiction online is an adequate substitute for the original when the
very nature of most fan fiction is to significantly alter the original.220
E. Hmm, that’s good to know. Moving on . . . wait, what? Trademark law, you
say?
Even if fan fiction is able to leap the copyright hurdle, a finding of
infringement is still a real threat under trademark law. In most works upon
which fan fiction is based, the individual characters are not only protected
under copyright law, by their delineation in a copyrighted work, but these
characters are often individually protected under trademark law.221 Of
importance to this issue is the recent “Barbie case,” Mattel, Inc. v. MCA
Records, in which a musical composition used the plaintiff’s trademarked
name.222
The Mattel court ultimately determined that defendant’s song “Barbie Girl”
was a parody of plaintiff’s product, but the court’s discussion and rationale is
important to understanding how trademark law applies to the realm of fan
fiction. The court stressed that trademarks represent “a limited property right
in a particular word, phrase or symbol, but cannot be used to allow trademark
owners to eviscerate all discussion of their marks they might find annoying or
offensive.”223 Thus, trademark law does not automatically preclude the use of
216 Id. at 670-71; but see Walt Disney Productions, 581 F.2d at 759 (expressing concern
with character saturation).
217 996 F.2d 1366, 1377 (2d Cir. 1993).
218 Id.
219 Id.
220 Supra Part III-A (arguing that the addition of extra elements to a work of fan fiction
constitutes a transformative work).

221 See generally Tushnet, supra note 1, at 674-76.
222 28 F. Supp. 2d 1120 (C.D. Cal. 1998), affirmed 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002).
223 Id. at 1141 (relying on New Kids on the Block v. News Am. Publ’g., Inc., 971 F.2d
302 (9th Cir. 1992)).

trademarked characters in fan fiction, but trademark owners may nonetheless

have a claim for tarnishment or blurring.224
This issue is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of fan fiction due
in part to the increased attention paid to “slash” fan fiction. Slash is fan fiction
that centers around homosexual relationships between characters that were
heterosexual in the original copyrighted work.225 Many trademark owners look
down on slash fan fiction, perhaps fearful that it will tarnish their trademarks
with the intimation that their protected characters are homosexual.226
As far as the fan fiction author is concerned, the first task is to determine
whether the characters he is writing about are trademarked. Fictional
characters cannot be trademarked solely for their own protection, but “they can
be trademarked when they are used to indicate the source of a product.”227
Thus, a fan fiction author does not need to worry about trademark law as long
as he is not using characters that also act as source-identifiers. However,
trademark law is implicated in several popular genres of fan fiction that
involve trademarked characters, such as Harry Potter, whose name and
likeness have been separately trademarked.228
After determining that a character is indeed trademarked, the inquiry must
continue for those fan fiction writers who chose to borrow these characters.
The first issue for these authors is whether their works could lead to a claim of
trademark dilution.229 This topic is particularly relevant to slash writers, who
find themselves and their stories in the limelight with the most frequency.
Courts have recognized that a claim of dilution can take two forms.230 The
first is a “blurring” or “whittling down” of the distinctiveness of the mark.231
The second is a “tarnishment” of the mark, which occurs when a defendant
224 Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Baily Combined Shows, Inc. v. Utah Div. of Travel
Develop., 955 F. Supp. 605, 614 (E.D. Va 1997) (“Blurring” is “the lessening of the
capacity of a famous mark to identify and distinguish goods or services.”); see also L.L.
Bean, Inc. v. Drake Publishers, Inc., 811 F.2d 26, 31 (1st Cir. 1987) (“Tarnishment” occurs
when a second comer uses a famous mark in such a way that diminishes the mark’s
goodwill or quality connotations.); Coca-Cola v. Alma-Leo U.S.A., Inc., 719 F. Supp. 725,
728 (N.D. Ill. 1989); Eastman Kodak Co. v. D.B. Rakow, 739 F. Supp. 116, 118 (W.D.N.Y.
1989); Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Inc. v. Pussycat Cinema, Ltd., 604 F.2d 200, 205 (2d
Cir. 1979).
225 See COOMBE, supra note 12, at 121-22.
226 See id.
227 Helfand, supra note 84, at 636.
228 See, e.g. Warner Bros., The Official Harry Potter Website, at http://www.harry
potter.com (last visited Mar. 23, 2003) (warning on the website’s front page that, “HARRY
POTTER, characters, names and related indicia and WARNER BROS., shield logo and
related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros.”).
229 See generally 3 J. THOMAS MCCARTHY, TRADEMARK AND UNFAIR COMPETITION, §
24.13 (3d ed. 1973).

230 Id.
231 Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 642 F. Supp.
1031, 1039 (N.D. Ga. 1986).

uses the mark in a way that “creates an undesirable, unwholesome or unsavory

mental association” with the mark.232 Copyright owners would arguably be
worried about the latter when it comes to fan fiction. Accordingly, this Note
will focus its dilution discussion on tarnishment. A good starting ground for
the analysis is the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, which provides that
The owner of a famous mark shall be entitled, subject to the principles of
equity and upon such terms as the court deems reasonable, to an
injunction against another person’s commercial use in commerce of a
mark or trade name, if such use begins after the mark has become famous
and causes dilution of the distinctive quality of the mark.233
To prove dilution, a party need not show “the presence or absence of (1)
competition between the owner of the famous mark and other parties, or (2)
likelihood of confusion, mistake or deception.”234
Based on the language of the statute itself, a trademark owner will most
likely lose a dilution claim against a fan fiction author. While the statute
favors the mark owner by not requiring a showing of confusion or competition,
the statute’s commercial use requirement will likely impede the owner.235 As
the court in L.L. Bean, Inc. v. Drake Publishers, Inc. made clear, a
noncommercial use of a trademark will not lead to a cause of action for
dilution .236 A court will entertain a claim for tarnishment or dilution only
when the defendant’s use of the mark is in a commercial setting, and the
accompanying House Report to the Federal Trademark Dilution Act makes this
clear.237
The comments of the courts and the legislature indicate good news for fan
fiction authors who borrow trademarked characters primarily because fan
fiction tends to be noncommercial.238 Additionally, the law makes the general
rule clear that others may lawfully use a trademark in a negative context, even
if the trademark owner finds the use offensive.239 Thus, it appears that fan
232 Id. However, the recent Supreme Court opinion in Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue,
Inc., 123 S. Ct. 1115 (2003), mentioned in dicta that it couldn’t find where the statute says
tarnishment was evidence of dilution.
233 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(1) (2000).
234 Id. § 1127.
235 Id.
236 811 F.2d 26, 33 (1st Cir. 1987) (holding that defendant’s noncommercial use of
plaintiff’s trademark in a pornographic magazine did not dilute the mark).

237 Id. at 29; H.R. REP. 104-374 at 4 (1996) (“The bill will not prohibit or threaten
‘noncommercial’ expression, as the term has been defined by the courts. Nothing in this bill
is intended to alter existing case law on the subject of what constitutes ‘commercial’
speech”); see also 141 CONG. REC. S19306, at S19310 (1995) (“The bill will not prohibit or
threaten noncommercial expression, such as parody, satire, editorial and other forms of
expression that are not a part of a commercial transaction”); 141 CONG. REC. H14317, at
H14318 (1995) (same).
238 See supra Part III-D-ii-1 (discussing the noncommercial nature of fan fiction).
239 See New Kids on the Block v. News Am. Publ’g, Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 307 n.5 (9th Cir.
fiction portraying trademarked characters in a light that is offensive to

trademark owners, including portraying characters as engaging in homosexual
relationships, is not a practice that is outright unlawful.240 Of particular
importance to slash fan fiction, sexual innuendo and sexual but nonobscene
speech “is entitled to no less protection than other forms of speech.”241 Thus,
when characters in a work of fan fiction are portrayed in a homosexual
relationship, this portrayal alone will not lead to a tarnshiment claim.242
As a final note, fan fiction authors will assuredly improve their legal status
by using disclaimers. Fan fiction authors typically use disclaimers to make
clear that their works are not in any way associated with the owners of the
copyright or trademark.243 Courts have held that disclaimers are a valid and
productive means by which defendants can distance themselves from the
plaintiff’s ownership interest.244 Therefore, fan fiction authors can place a
disclaimer in their work to further allay some of the fears of dilution or
tarnishment that a plaintiff trademark owner might possess.
IV. CONCLUSION: WELL . . . THAT WAS A LOT OF INFORMATION AT ONCE. CAN

YOU SUM ALL OF THIS UP FOR ME?
When confronting the numerous legal issues surrounding fan fiction, various
historical, sociological and cultural underpinnings of this genre become central
to understanding its place in today’s world. Consumers of fictional narratives
naturally ask “What happens next?”245 From the beginning of time, the
storyteller has expounded on cultural myths and legends, and simply because
these myths are now recorded into a fixed medium, the practice of retelling and
retooling them should not cease.246 The practice continued unchecked — and
in some instances, with much encouragement — until the birth of the Internet
and corporate control of copyrights changed the game.247 The Copyright Act’s
1992).
240 See L.L. Bean, Inc., 811 F.2d at 31.
241 Id. at 34.

242 See id. at 31 (noting that a court cannot find dilution or tarnishment of a mark solely
because the mark is portrayed in an “unwholesome” light. Rather, a mark is tarnished or

diluted only when consumer capacity to associate it with the appropriate product or service
has been diminished, especially where the mark is linked to shoddy quality or such); but see
Pillsbury Co. v. Milky Way Prods, Inc., 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17722, 29-30 (N.D. Ga.
1981).
243 Supra Part III-A (discussing the widespread use of disclaimers in the fan fiction
community).
244 See Consumers Union of United States, Inc. v. General Signal Corp., 724 F.2d 1044,
1052 (2d Cir. 1983) (“We are satisfied that the disclaimer is adequate to distance CU and
Regina”).
247 Id. (explaining that in our contemporary folk culture, “our core myths now belong to
corporations, rather than the folk”).

original aim was to ensure that authors had rights to their original expressions,
while also encouraging others to add to the ideas of the works, thereby
fostering creativity.248 However, in today’s market, the balance seems to have
shifted, and the goal of encouraging others to build onto established works has
been pushed into the background.249
This devaluing is unfortunate in light of the innate desires that fan fiction
can fulfill in people immersed in a society saturated with cultural icons.250 For
women in particular, the primary writers of fan fiction and fandom provide an
escape from traditional societal gender roles and permit a writer to explore the
contours of relationships in a postmodern society.251 This is increasingly true
with regards to slash fan fiction.252
Despite the personal benefits derived from writing fan fiction, it is copyright
infringement, nonetheless.253 Characters can receive copyright protection, and
when a fan fiction author borrows them without permission, he is violating a
number of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights.254
Notwithstanding the infringement, fan fiction authors can potentially use a
number of defenses to escape liability, although the success of these defenses
varies based on the individual piece of fan fiction involved.255 Thus, what
follows is a guide of sorts for a fan fiction author, in which potential
infringement claims are evaluated and suggestions are offered based on current
intellectual property precedent.
When trying to decide whether any defenses exist under the law, there are a
number of question a fan fiction author should ask. A good place to start is
implied consent because this defense is a fan fiction author’s strongest
potential argument.256 Many copyright owners are aware when fan fiction
authors use their work, yet they make no affirmative steps to prevent it. If a
fan fiction author is borrowing from the creations of such a copyright owner,
this fan fiction author will have a strong implied consent argument.257
Of course, not all fan fiction authors will be able to avail themselves of this
defense, but the fair use doctrine might yet provide relief.258 Under Section
248 Feist Publ’ns, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 349-50 (1991).
250 See COOMBE, supra note 12, at 89-92.
251 Id. at 119-21.
252 Id.
253 See supra Part III-A.
254 See supra Part III-C (arguing that the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute and
prepare derivative works are violated by fan fiction authors).

255 See supra Part III-D (explaining that the individualistic nature of fan fiction
effectively precludes taking a categorical approach).

257 See id.
258 See Part III-D-ii (explaining the fair use doctrine). Even if a fan fiction author has a
strong implied consent argument, that author should still examine his or her actions under
the fair use doctrine as well.
107 of the Copyright Act, a fan fiction author must evaluate four factors.259
Under the first factor, the purpose and character of the use, fan fiction authors
should ask themselves whether they are making any commercial profit from
their stories. If the answer is yes, a fair use argument will be extremely
difficult to make because courts are apt to say commercial use is not fair.260
Fan fiction authors can help make their use noncommercial by adding a
disclaimer atop their stories in which they forthrightly state they do not own
the copyright to the characters and are making no money off the stories.
Second, fan fiction authors should examine their motives for writing. If the fan
fiction author is primarily motivated by a desire to hone her writing skills, the
fair use argument strengthens.261 Finally, a fan fiction author should ask
whether the story is properly classified as a parody, which involves
determining whether the story’s purpose is to comment on or poke fun at the
original.262
Under the second factor, the fair use analysis turns to the nature of the
copyrighted work. This factor is not tremendously applicable because nearly
all fan fiction is based on fictional works, which receive greater copyright
protection.263 A fan fiction author who writes stories based on highly-popular
and widely-distributed works might have a stronger argument than the fan
fiction author who writes stories based on smaller, “cult classics.”264
The third factor is the amount and substantiality of the portion used, which
requires fan fiction authors to examine the borrowing of characters. Certain
fan fiction authors might only borrow a few characters or a basic theme and
subsequently add new characters and settings.265 The more fan fiction authors
engage in this addition of elements and retreat from wholesale borrowing of
the original, the more likely a court will find their use is fair.266
The final fair use factor relates to market impact. On a preliminary note, a
fan fiction author should argue that the copyright law’s underlying goals to
encourage a use that does not harm the original’s market or potential market
and to discourage any attempt by a copyright owner to monopolize that market
259 17 U.S.C. § 107 (The four factors are: “(1) the purpose and character of the use,
including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational
purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the
portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use
upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”).
260 Sony Corp., 464 U.S. at 455 (1984) (“Copying for commercial gain has a much
weaker claim to fair use than copying for personal enrichment”).

261 See Part III-D-ii-1 (discussing an educational use defense, however, the presence of
other motives, such as personal desires to expand on cultural icons, might impede such a
defense).
262 See Campbell, 510 U.S. 569, 579 (1994).
263 See Part III-D-ii-2.
264 See id.
265 See Part III-D-ii-3.
266 Id.
to the detriment of society.267 Although some have argued that copyright

owners should control potential expansion into derivative markets, if a
copyright owner has no interest in occupying a particular derivative market,
that market should open to subsequent users.268 Thus, if a fan fiction author is
writing based on an original work that is unlikely to distribute novelizations of
the work, the fair use argument strengthens.
Finally, copyright law aside, a fan fiction author also needs to keep an eye
out for any potential trademark liability, which could arise if a fan fiction
author is composing stories based on trademarked characters. This is
particularly relevant to slash writers, whose controversial works create a target
for a claim of trademark tarnishment. However, in order for a trademark
owner to succeed on a tarnishment claim, he will likely have to prove that the
fan fiction author used the mark in a commercial manner.269 Thus, because
most fan fiction is rightly categorized as a noncommercial activity, this claim
is relatively weak.
267 See Gordon, supra note 158, at 1608.

268 See Castle Rock Entm’t., 955 F. Supp. at 271; Twin Peaks Prods., 996 F.2d at 1377.
269 See 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(1) (1997).

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COPYRIGHT © 2003 TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY.

THIS VERSION DOES NOT

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

d. The Effect on the Market for the Original: “Could a

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

II. WHAT EXACTLY IS FAN FICTION?

A. Is all fan fiction the same?

7 Tranquility Amongst The Stars, Fan Fiction Glossary, at http://www.swtats.com/

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

8 Id. (referring to “canon” as a “holy text”).

visited May 8, 2003).

(Stanley Fish & Fredric Jameson eds., 1998).

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

2. Should the courts take a categorical approach to fan fiction?

B. Does fan fiction have a traceable history?

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

18 Tushnet, supra note 1, at 652.

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE (1935) for “discussing stunning creativity of Elizabethan era in

Libraries, available at http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html (last modified Nov. 22,

365, 379 (2000).

25 Id. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 8.

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

30 Masciola, supra note 21.

31 Folsom, 9 Fed. Cas. at 342.

32 Folsom, 9 Fed. Cas. at 348.

33 See, e.g. Stowe, 23 Fed. Cas. at 206.

34 Masciola, supra note 21; see Lorengo, supra note 26.

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

A basic knowledge of copyright law’s history helps in understanding its

(2000), available at http://www.whoosh.org/jenkins.txt (Mar./Apr. 2000) (explaining the

who reworked Lewis Carroll’s writings).

(Frequently Asked Questions), at http://www.lyricalmagic.com/fanficFAQ.html#origin (last

UNIVERSITY, at http://writersu.s5.com/history/shistory03tv.html (last visited Mar. 26, 2003).

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

publication.46 The next instance occurred in September of 1981, when

49 See Jenkins, supra note 38.

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

character’s history or future,” Fulmer said.55 “I love seeing the potential in

58 COOMBE, supra note 12.

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

65 See supra Part II-A-i (discussing slash fan fiction).

70 COOMBE, supra note 12, at 121.

POPULAR MYTH 238-44 (Patrick B. Mullen ed., 1992).

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

74 COOMBE, supra note 12, at 123.

78 COOMBE, supra note 12, at 123.

STUDIES IN MASS COMMUNICATION 85, 87 (1988).

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

doctrine is an “equitable rule of reason” allowing courts to avoid a strict application of

Convergence of Intellectual Property Laws to Protect Fictional Literary and Pictorial

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2

analysis rarely resulted in copyright protection for literary characters).

89 45 F.2d 119 (2nd Cir. 1930).

2003] FAN FICTION, FANDOM AND FANFARE

Krofft Television Productions v. McDonald’s Corp., the court looked at

C. What rights do copyright holders actually have?

characters has created in a multi-billion dollar industry, resulting in a predictable onslaught

(C.D. Cal. 1995).

B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. [Vol. 9:2