Thanks for writing this, it’s insightful to hear it from a copyright holder in an open debate, as it was reading your posts on the Magic: the Gathering novels that directed me to this post.

To follow up on a comment you posted there about sci-fi/fantasy being the biggest genre for fanfiction and the Star Trek copying analogy above, the reason that I think people want to write derivative works for sci-fi/fantasy and not for period fiction like Gone With the Wind is because with these works the universe forms part of the IP in a way that it doesn’t for history. This may seem to be stating the obvious, and sorry if it is, but these genres open up huge vistas of storytelling possibility that others don’t.

So why not go off and write your own settings as well as stories and characters? I feel the answer to this lies in that the ideas people want to explore are so closely tied to the original IP that if expressed in another way they could amount to plagiarism. For an example of this, see the Da Vinci Code vs Holy Blood, Holy Grail case; sometimes the ideas and the IP are hard to distinguish.

Not sure exactly whether there was any end point to this, just an observation I felt needed to be made. Thanks for helping broaden my understanding!

That said–intellectual property is property. I own my copyrights regardless of what society accesses the material. In practical terms, though, it’s much harder to protect copyright in societies where the rule of law is weak and/or where the government itself doesn’t protect copyright (or only protests it when there is self-interest involved for that government). Additionally, sueing or shutting down copyright violators in another country can be VERY complicated and expensive (and there is no guarantee of success).

So, realistically, I don’t own my own intellectual property “more” or “less” depending on where it’s accessed; but my ability to enforce my rights varies quite a bit.

Precisely as explained above, someone who lifts a general plot (ex. a willful Southern belle is wooed by a blockade runner during the Civil War) may be guilty of being unoriginal and shamelessly imitative, but that is NOT derivative work and does NOT violate anyone’s licensing or intellectual property.

I’m happy to know you two are still out there, as I never was able to thank Miss Heyer.

I think the source of the problem is people wanting to write and publicly distribute derivative works =without= understanding intellectual property, the nature of authorization and licensing, or the differences between inspiration and derivation.

Whether there are violations of good taste or artistic sensibility is another matter….