1) Fanfiction is "just practice"--it's writing exercises by people who don't have the full set of literary skills to be pros. Therefore, like any rough draft, it shouldn't be public; the public has a right not to have eyesores inflicted on them.
This concept acknowledges fanfic as a literary process, but insists that its only legitimate purpose is as a learning exercise; anyone who wants to stick with it long-term (as a writer or reader) is showing a lack of taste that decent people need not support.
2) Fanfiction is "immoral"--writers made their creations; they get to decide how they are used. Arguments of this sort crash hard against modern re-tellings of Shakespeare and bible stories. A common followup is "writers who are still living get to decide...", as if the lack of a writer's direct voice changes the morality of the fanfic.
3) Fanfiction is "theft"--fanfic takes away money the author could be making. This argument has several variations, all of which collapse when faced with economic realities. There may be authors who've lost money because of fanfic, but that'd be hard to prove... while the number of books & tv shows with better sales numbers *and* incredibly high fanfic numbers is easy to prove.
---- Most of the anti-fanfic arguments seem to have a foundation in the idea that "copyright protection" is intended to allow authors' control over their works, rather than intended to foster creativity in society at large by way of allowing some autorial control.
But saying it that way squicks a lot of people. Even fans. It's hard to take a public stance for "Anyone can play with my ideas, even in ways I find deeply disturbing."
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1) Fanfiction is "just practice"--it's writing exercises by people who don't have the full set of literary skills to be pros. Therefore, like any rough draft, it shouldn't be public; the public has a right not to have eyesores inflicted on them.
This concept acknowledges fanfic as a literary process, but insists that its only legitimate purpose is as a learning exercise; anyone who wants to stick with it long-term (as a writer or reader) is showing a lack of taste that decent people need not support.
2) Fanfiction is "immoral"--writers made their creations; they get to decide how they are used. Arguments of this sort crash hard against modern re-tellings of Shakespeare and bible stories. A common followup is "writers who are still living get to decide...", as if the lack of a writer's direct voice changes the morality of the fanfic.
3) Fanfiction is "theft"--fanfic takes away money the author could be making. This argument has several variations, all of which collapse when faced with economic realities. There may be authors who've lost money because of fanfic, but that'd be hard to prove... while the number of books & tv shows with better sales numbers *and* incredibly high fanfic numbers is easy to prove.
----
Most of the anti-fanfic arguments seem to have a foundation in the idea that "copyright protection" is intended to allow authors' control over their works, rather than intended to foster creativity in society at large by way of allowing some autorial control.
But saying it that way squicks a lot of people. Even fans. It's hard to take a public stance for "Anyone can play with my ideas, even in ways I find deeply disturbing."