Somehow, I came across an article saying that Anne Rice hates fan fiction of her books so much, she actually threatens to sue-even after people remove the stories.
What’s the scoop behind this?
You know that sort of pisses me off. An author should be honored that people are writing fan fics about their work. I would be if I could ever get anything published. I could understand if the fan fic writer was making money off of them, but to my knowledge they don’t.
Define harassment :). Is it harassment to use the law to get people to stop doing something you don’t want them to do with your property? From Rice’s POV, she might find it harassing to see her characters used by other writers. Legally she is entitled to ask fan fic writers to cease and desist. Why is that harassment?
I love fanfic and from my experience in the fanfic subculture, it must be very rare to make money off of fanfic.
Also, almost as standard practice, authors put disclaimers acknowleging that the characters do not belong to them. Which is more than, say, sketch comedy shows like MadTV and SNL do for characters that THEY use/parody.
Some people become obsessed with the “vision” they have for a creation of theirs that they can’t stand the thought of someone else touching it for whatever reason. J.D Salinger comes to mind, there’s also been several authors who’ve ruined the film adaptation of their works because they didn’t understand the differences between movies and novels.
Given some of the things I’ve read about Anne Rice, I’m inclined to think that she’s a bit of a nutter.
Well, Anne Rice does that the ability to sue, if she so desires. She has more than a general copyright granted to everyone who publishes anything, which would only allow her to sue for lost profits due to copyright infringement. She (or her publisher) submitted the novels to the US Copyright Office pre-publication which allows her to sue for both harms incurred AND punative damages.
So yes, she has the ability to sue. Should she? Personally, I wouldn’t. But Anne Rice has that right and she can use it if she so chooses. I don’t think we can blame her for using what’s legally been granted to her to protect her hard work. I, as the reader, have the right to say I’m disgusted with her actions and choose not to subsidize her work.
Though this is all on the assumption the question in the OP is, in fact, true.
http://www.angelfire.com/va/mpirespecs/ARFanFic.html
Ummmmm, I don’t think so. That’s just bizarro world that Rice would make her fans fight to convince publishers that her books will never be pirated. I don’t know if that’s what you read, Guin, but it’s weird in the extreme.
I’ll totally nail my colours to the mast and say I’m totally in sympathy with an author who doesn’t want or like fan fic and says so. I also think authors who like and support fan fic are cool. Authors who don’t feel honoured by someone taking and working a character they have sweated blood over are perfectly entitled to feel that way.
OK, I admit I am drawing on a hazy memory from a discussion about copyright on the Amber mailing mailing list last year, but I seem to recall it being mentioned that Anne McCaffrey (I THINK) once encouraged her fans to write in her world, she enjoyed reading it. But then she somehow, because of the fanfic, lost the rights to one or more of her own characters.
I thought I had seen it mentioned on the boards before. I’ll go see if I can dig up a cite.
Here is a page on Anne McCaffrey’s position on fan fiction. It is part of a much larger, excellent site that lists many authors and what their positions are: http://www.writersu.net/?link=authpolicy
Here is Anne Rice’s position.
I think the problem that AR is referring to happened to Marion Zimmer Bradley. The page is lengthy but should give you a good idea of why authors sometimes have to take steps to protect their ideas, their worlds and their livelihoods.
It’s sad that it is necessary to say this, but I’ll say it again. It is totally, completely, absolutely up to the author as to what is tolerated or not tolerated. Authors are individual creators. Many revel in the adulation of their fans; others find the intrusion creepy and repellent. It is their decision what to allow, not yours.
Even works created by large soulless corporations really are the product of someone sweating blood over a keyboard. Please remember that the next time you make them feel honored by ripping them off.
While I understand her desire to see people create their own characters, I find it hard not to classify Anne Rice as anything other than pathetic. Especially when, from all accounts that I have heard, she herself has done more to ruin her own characters than anyone else
Excellent sites exapno! Really interesting stuff. Like I needed an excuse to slack off for the afternoon ;).
I’m deeply unimpressed that there is a Marion Zimmer Bradley we will probably never read though.
Yes, thank you. I don’t read either of them so it didn’t make a huge impression on me, just a dent.
I would say this is harassment:
From the Writers University link.
I don’t mind if she asks people not to write fan fiction. I think it’s over the top to sue, but yes, she has that right.
However, it seems that she goes about it in ways that are not at all very professional. I think she’s a wee bit off the beam, to put it mildly.
I agree, Primaflora. I just meant the way she went about it. I love fan fiction-particularly Star Wars fan fiction (especially smut fan fiction-I’m a bad girl).
AS someone pointed out, she stole the Sleeping Beauty tale, and revamped it. Okay, fine.
However, I think it’s less that she is worried about copyright infringments and more that she’s too obsessed with her characters. If you’ve ever heard her go on about them…
That’s all. It just seems she’s kind of weird.
Yeah, after poking around on those sites, I think she’s missing a few kangaroos in the top paddock.
So in principle I support her but her methods seem bizarre and to have gone too far. A C and D is one thing but to do what it is claimed she did is Not Normal.
I think Anne Rice needs a bigger heaping helping of “Get the Hell Over Yourself” Berry flavored Kool-Aid than any living author. In addition to her views on fan-fic (and let’s face it, no fan could write a more pointless, predictable, vapid waste of pulp featuring her characters than she can) it’s also in her contracts that she cannot be edited, which explains a lot about her writing. (Editing, it seems, is for no-talent hacks like Mark Twain and Truman Capote and Anne Tyler [born the same dd/mm/yy as Anne Rice, btw] consent to editing, but Anne’s words are needed for posterity).
I do wish her the best on dealing with the recent health problems and the death of her husband, however.
H’uh? No EDITING? WTF?
That’s so bizarre.
Oh well. Her characters are always so seriously annoying, too. I did like the Mayfair Witches-well, the first book, but after that, it was just too stupid for words.
I liked it until the end, when
Lasher was born and instantly became an adult, violating every known rule of physics, then proceeds to copulate with Rowan every two minutes for the next several months
and after that I just didn’t care and couldn’t follow it. Plus, Anne, NOT EVERYBODY ON EARTH IS BISEXUAL! Some men really are gay, some really are straight, the same for women, and most people really don’t date Glen on Tuesday and Glenda on Thursday.
OTOH, she’s sold 200 million books and I haven’t, so…
God, I used to love Anne Rice’s books so much. The last few years, though . . . gah!
I can see an author not wanting an editor to have the final word, but I get the impression you mean that Anne doesn’t even consider an editor’s opinion on things. Which to me seems insane. I don’t suppose you know at what point in Anne’s career her manuscripts ceased to pass through an editor’s hands? Although I suspect if I went back and reread some novels I could figure it out myself.
Authors always get the last word. Editors can only suggest, not insist. Of course editors can also decide not to buy a book if an author doesn’t do what they want them to do ;).
I’d like a cite for Rice’s being able to insist on no editing. What kind of editing? Copyediting? Line-editing? It sounds like an urban legend to me because I cannot imagine any publisher agreeing to no form of editing whatsoever. That would mean an author could send in any type of tripe.
Oooops, OK so maybe that’s what happened with Rice.
prima gave up several books ago flora
However, the case of parody is specifically protected under the law (case law, IIRC); while “derivative work” – what would describe most fanfic – falls very clearly under the copyright statute, in which (much to many people’s surprise) publishing is publishing is publishing, and whether or not you charge money for it is irrelevant.
Which does not change that if the report is true, Rice has adopted an asininely extremist attitude as to how to deal with ficwriters