If the same law applied to written works, then it seems like retelling an entire story in your own words would be permitted, in the same way that covering a song is permitted.

In music, the law acknowledges that the original writer deserves compensation and credit for the value they contributed to the product. But it seems to indicate that ‘cover songs’ benefit society as a whole, and should therefore be automatically permitted, provided that proper compensation and attribution is provided.

I think it is interesting that re-telling a song is allowed (no matter how close it sounds to the original recording), but re-telling a story is not.

I definitely think fan fiction is different in several ways. The writers are creating something original, like musicians who take a small sample of an existing recording but create something new from it. And, fan fiction operates outside the marketplace, but it has actually helped promote the original works, in some cases.

I know some authors feel differently about fan fiction, though, and don’t tolerate any of it, no matter what the intent is of the ff writer.

Here’s a second scenario you didn’t ask me about, but could have occurred: Later in her arguments, she asked if what she had done would be to re-tell my entire story in her own words, would that have been plagiarism? According to some court findings I looked at, yes. And according to the way I would have felt about it, yes! That action still would have been stealing my core creation, the plot, the structure, the character interactions and other elements that were my ideas. It still would have had the eerie “her name is on my idea!” feeling associated with it.

And fanfic is different. I think nearly everyone viscerally understands how and why it’s different and if they claim not to, nothing I say here will change that.

JCP – Thanks for coming by! If the plagiarist *had* credited you as the original creator, would you feel differently about this issue? I know it’s hard to say after it’s happened, but I’d really like to know. Thanks!

In case anyone doesn’t read through all the links, I state repeatedly that I have no problem with fanfic/homage. This incident was my novella with the character names changed and a fanfic writer’s name on it. Her readers didn’t appreciate the plagiarism any more than I did. They took all the action to get her to remove the posts — though of course she still claims she wasn’t doing anything wrong; she wasn’t aware this type of “fusion” had gone out of vogue.