Question of the Day!

I'm not sure. I mean copyright is complex. Stephen Foster wrote a lot of songs but died penniless because he couldn't make any money off the performances of his work. That was in the days before copyright laws were a thing. His tunes were extremely popular and vaudeville troupes across America at the time made scads of money performing Stephen Foster's pieces.

But fanfic hmmm....it's not exactly plagiarism and as far as I know it doesn't directly harm the revenue or ratings of the content it's based on. Unless the story or novel or whatever's revenue relies solely on audiences clicking on their website or watching their show, I'm not entirely sure it's a problem.

Then there's the problem with recognition. If the author of a fanfic is claiming to have created the character from their own imagination, I can see how that would be an issue. Or if they make the character look bad publicly in front of millions of viewers...that could be a little dicey.

It's complicated.