Fan Fiction: the Concept and Legal Nature

The article gives the author’s view regarding fan creativity as a derivative work. In this regard, such concepts as «derivative work,» «fan fiction,» «fandom,» «fiction writer» were analyzed. The author analyzed the emergence of fan fiction in society, elucidated the attitude of the authors of original works to fan fiction writing. It is revealed that the attitude is quite loyal, but sometimes critical, because due to insufficient research of fan creativity, it is often considered that fan fiction is low-quality, illegal and unoriginal work created exclusively by teenagers for relaxation. It seems that fan fiction cannot teach anything, be good in style and plot, especially with borrowed characters, which is the most acute point, since Russian law protects the character more than the plot. However, this opinion is fundamentally wrong, because often fiction writers, after writing derivative works, begin to publish their own original works and often they become popular, they are filmed and they acquire their own fans. In addition, sometimes the most loyal authors of the originals listen to those who create something new from the plot and the characters created by them, and can include some specific moments in the original work to the delight of fans, because it is always good to know that you had a hand in something absolutely amazing. As a result, the author concluded that relations in the field of fan creativity are insufficiently regulated in Russia and the basic concepts in legislative acts are not regulated, which leads to such a critical assessment of these works. The article also highlights the main problems of creating such works and presents the author’s proposals for solving them. Thus, the main problem is the lack of consolidation of this phenomenon in legislative acts, which often leads to violation of people’s privacy and copyright infringement on the part of both the author of the original work and the ficwriter.

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