Original or Copyright Infringement? Fanfiction Debates Both

There are many forms of literature, and fanfiction is often considered one of them. However, a new question arises: should fanfiction be rewritten and published as original work?

First, it is important to understand what fanfiction is. Fanfiction is a written piece of fiction based on characters or worlds that have already appeared in books, films, or other media. Readers take their favorite characters and headcanon—personal interpretation of characters or story—and then rewrite the story to fit said idea.

One of the first modern-day platforms to publish fanfiction was made in the late 60’s; it was a science fiction fan magazine called Spockanalia, which centered around the TV series Star Trek. Readers understood that these stories were written by fans who wanted to put their own spin on the original narrative.

A more modern example of this is Archive of Our Own (AO3), a fanfic-only dedicated platform. But what happens if an author on that site suddenly decides to publish their fan work as an actual book? A notable example is the well-known Harry Potter fanfiction, All The Young Dudes, or as many readers refer to it, as its abbreviation, ATYD, which is published on AO3.

This work is extremely popular within the Harry Potter fandom, with over 19 million reads and more than 300,000 kudos (likes), making it one of the most widely read works to be published on AO3. Despite its major popularity, there have been rumors that the author may attempt to publish a revised version as a book.

For this to happen, though, the author of ATYD would need to rewrite numerous elements of their story, particularly those that directly connect it to the Harry Potter universe. However, even after these changes, many readers would still recognize it as fanfiction. This raises the question: why?

One reason is that nothing on the internet can truly be erased. In fact, it is common for readers to download their favorite fanfics as PDFs, making it difficult for the earlier version of the work to stop circulating online. Additionally, once a large audience has read the original version, it becomes much harder for readers to be able to separate the book version from its fanfiction origins.

Overall, fanfiction exists in one big grey area for literature. In some cases, writers develop their headcanons to a point where the only recognizable elements of the original published source are the names of the characters.

Take The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood; it was originally written as a Rey and Kylo Ren Star Wars fanfic on AO3. You would never be able to guess that it was about Rey and Kylo Ren if you didn’t already know. Then there's the way more obvious instance, The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, which is ever so clearly a Harry Styles/One Direction fanfic.

So, what are the legalities and loopholes surrounding fanfiction sites such as AO3 and Wattpad?

First there's copyright laws, which grant original authors ownership over their fictional worlds, such as Stephanie Meyer, with the Twilight series.

If someone were to write Twilight fanfiction and then try to sell it without deviating from the original plot and characters, then that would be illegal; so sites like AO3 are technically legal because there is no selling, nor any money involved—that is called a non-commercial loophole.

Sites such as Wattpad and AO3 also have a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which protects them from legal issues for what users post that might include copyright infringement. As mentioned before, a method called “filing off the serial numbers” is commonly used to, well, get rid of original copyrighted parts of the story, including character names and changing location/setting. Of course, some authors still object to the concept of fanfiction, especially if it revolves around their published and copyrighted works.

The author of Interview With a Vampire, Anne Rice, had fanfiction websites take down fanfiction based on her work for a few years. She thought that the fanfics may alter and misrepresent the original source.

Another renowned author would be Diana Gabaldon, of the Outlander series. She has read fanfics based on her series and found it unsettling, as if the fanfic writers were taking control of something that was personal to her.

But there are plenty of authors who do support fanfiction, even if it’s about their work.

Author Neil Gaiman, who wrote Coraline and American Gods, thinks that fanfic is a natural way for fans to interact with stories they like. In fact, many authors first start out by imagining new headcanons about stories they love before they eventually go and write their own stories.