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.

  • Lmaydev@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I believe they technically need permission to use original characters and settings. But they may fall under parody depending how different they are.

    But the things they add are 100% owned by them.

    So if a company wanted to they could absolutely get it all taken down.

    And likewise they should be able to stop these people printing their work.

    But it is all very complex and depends entirely on how much they used from the original.