Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.

Etsy sellers are turning free fanfiction into printed and bound physical books, and listing them for sale on online marketplaces for more than $100 per book. It’s a problem that’s rattling the authors of those fanfics, as well as their fans and readers.

Several sellers, easily found on Etsy and very popular, each with hundreds of five-star reviews, are selling copies of fanfiction taken from sites like Archive of Our Own (Ao3) and reselling them as bound books. The average price of these bound copies is around $149. Some sellers claim that they’re simply covering the cost of materials, while others just sell the books, usually with the fanfiction writers’ Ao3 username on the cover.

  • cbarrick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    IANAL, but my understanding is…

    Generally, fanfics are in a fair-use area because they are based on another person’s copyrighted material. Therefore you cannot profit from them. That also means that the authors of fan fics have little copyright protection.

    That said, if someone is selling the fics, that person is violating the copyright of the original author (but not necessarily that of the fic author).

    • uis@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      because they are based on another person’s copyrighted material.

      Then everything is fair-use because everything is based on another person’s copyrighted material.

      if someone is selling the fics, that person is violating the copyright of the original author (but not necessarily that of the fic author).

      Also not true. Copyright protects form, not content. If you publish content in another medium(for example oroginal was cartoon and you publish book), then no sane country’s court will rule against you because another medium is good proof that work is not even just modified form.

      • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Then everything is fair-use because everything is based on another person’s copyrighted material.

        Lol

        This is about fanfiction. There’s a HUGE difference between fanfiction and using tropes or cliches common in other media.

      • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        everything is fair-use because everything is based on another person’s copyrighted material.

        Of course not. There is a large amount of works in public domain.

        And fictional characters, those that fan fiction typically uses, come about with the understanding that characters can be separated from the original works they were embodied in.

        Copyright protects form, not content.

        It protects the fictional characters themselves. If you make an oil painting of Harry Potter, it’s still a copyright violation.

    • flamingos-cant@ukfli.ukEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Fanfics are 100% copyright infringement, there’s no fair use/dealings defence of them. There’s just little point for corporations to go out and enforce their copyright, fanfic authors likely don’t have much money and it’d be a PR nightmare. Obviously this equation changes when people start to profit of fan work, it’s why AO3 doesn’t allow direct links to donation pages.