FANFICTION UNIVERSITY

SURF-IT Fellow Lauren LewisProfessor Rebecca Black

(Professor Bill Tomlinson)

WHAT IS FAN FICTION?

Fan-produced fiction based on an existing corpus

Over 1 million posted online Thriving community in several online forumsLiveJournalFanFiction.Net

Voluntary literary practice among adolescentsELLs

Peer edited and reviewedBeta-reading

THE M.O. OF FANFICTION UNIVERSITY

To tap into this existing community and foster these literary practices

Matching up authors and betasWriting resourcesTo provide a supportive community where members can work together to hone their craft

the current page is highlighted if it is on the main navigation bar

LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION

REGISTRATION, LOGIN, AND LOGOUT

spec anddisplay

flash notice oflogging in

profile link

fanfictions

friend listingand controlpanel

USER HUB AND USER PROFILES

RELATIONS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

FriendshipsUsers can e-mail each other using the double-blind e-mail system in place

Community listing which has full-features searching and browsing

display all userswith last namesstarting with thechosen letter

COMMUNITY INDEX

FANFICTION

COLUMNS

Released on a weekly scheduleColumns will display in a manner echoing fanfictions

CategoriesSimilar to popular columns found in the fanfiction community online

AUTHOR-BETA MATCHING

Soon, the site should match authors and betas

User-generated “tags”Fan fictionsBeta area of profile (if filled out)

A result list will be give to the user showing the betas which match the fan fiction’s tags most closely

Contacting option

WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT?

©

AUTHORS’ FEELINGS J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, has expressed being flattered by fan fiction, and has explicitly permitted it with certain caveats

Meg Cabot, author of “The Princess Diaries” “says she was delighted to discover that her books had inspired hundreds of stories by fans”

Anne Rice has posted on her blog that “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes”

FAIR USE FOUR-PART TEST

PurposeNatureAmountMarket effect

RELEVANT CASES

Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. 1994“Pretty Woman” case

Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co. 2001Gone With The Wind vs. The Wind Done Gone

Higgins v. Detroit Educational Television 1998

Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc., et al v. RDR Books, et al.Harry Potter Lexicon Case

IS FAN FICTION FAIR USE?

Educational meritVarious amounts of borrowing from source material

“Transformative”