Let's talk about fanfic.

Have you ever read fanfic about your work? Say, Newsflesh fanfic? I'm just curious, because I heard authors/screenwriters weren't legally allowed to do that because they might open themselves up for lawsuits.

The legal issue, as far as I know, goes back to the MZB case in 1992. Which, because the fan author in question has now posted her version of the story on the internet, is a little murky. What most people have heard is that MZB was threatened with a lawsuit by a fan author because she read the fan author's story and wanted to use the fan author's ideas. This is at this point contested now that, basically, the internet exists and people who didn't have a voice before have weighed in.

Reference: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley_Fanfiction_Controversy for relatively unbiased coverage of the case with various viewpoints and quotes.

This has been twisted into several different versions over the years, and because this was really pre-internet as we know it today, communication was limited. Most people didn't hear anything other than MZB's side. Even today, if a well-respected author claimed that a fan threatened a lawsuit, and the fan said otherwise, even with proof of e-mails, who would most people believe?

Ever since, this has been the "why authors cannot read fanfiction" case for 20+ years, even though there has not been a precedent-setting case in court.

I think that in the Internet era, unless the author commented on the fic, it would be awfully hard to prove that said author read the fic in the first place. Even if the author did comment, ideas are not legally copyrightable. I have read at least one published author who outright admitted in her dedication that she was writing mash-up fiction of two authors/settings she loved. She published something like 5 or 6 books, and was never sued.

In the wake of 50 Shades, there have been further novels contracted (I don't know if they have been published yet) that are fanfiction of Twilight and other popular YA novels. I have an IP attorney friend who has said that in her professional opinion, the reason there have been no lawsuits by the original authors is that they would be incredibly difficult to win.

Now, something I see as more of a concern for authors would be reading a fic and absorbing the idea and the language. I've seen in my own crit circles someone come up with a particularly witty turn of phrase, and months later, another critiquer wrote almost the exact wording. It's not uncommon, and one line is not going to be enough to sue, but if it happened repeatedly (and I have seen authors accidentally do this), there might be enough for a case. However, this is just as much a concern when reading... anything, really; it just seems to me it might be slightly more likely when reading fanfic that is based on your work and world.

This is really, honestly, not to denigrate authors who have chosen not to read fanfic. Nobody wants to be the test case, because lawsuits are expensive and stressful and take time away from the writing the author could be doing. Again, I say this not to judge authors, but to provide more info on the legal issues and why this is commonly repeated and many authors (especially those who were around when the MZB case happened) have chosen not to risk it. I can't speak for Seanan, but that's the general background.

This is true, but until 50 Shades, I've never seen it used as a selling point by the publishers for the books. I've seen two or three contracted since then where the publishers are trying to use "fanfic for Twilight, just like 50 Shades!" as a selling point. That's more what I meant.

Thank you for the explanation! This is super interesting.

That's what Seanan meant above when she said "I encourage and celebrate fanfic of my work, even if I can't read it right now." She can't read it because "I never read fanfic of XXX" is an excellent defense to accusations/lawsuits that you "stole" a plot idea from fanfic of XXX, and so, yeah, it's a terrible idea for an author to read fanfic of their own work that they're ever planning on writing more about.

I love fanfic in principle, even though I rarely make time to read it and never* write it, and tend to love the yuletide (and the like) fic I end up coming across in practice.

*Well, hardly ever, and then there's the X-men fanfic PBEM game I'm in that picks up when Louise Simonson ("Jones") stopped editing the series, and has pledges like "Jean will never come back". And, of course, if you include fairy tale and mythological fanfic, the rules change entirely.