Morality of Writing Fan Fiction Based on Literotica Stories

[Otto26]

Short version: I read a story on Literotica that I liked. It was published on the site 13 years ago and the author has been inactive since. Attempts to contact the author have gone unanswered. I'd like to write a sequel to the story (with a disclaimer indicating it's based upon characters the other author created and pointing them to the original story) and publish it as fan fiction. I intend to be respectful of the author's material (this isn't a Blood and Honey hit-job). If asked by the author I would remove my story.

This seems like it would be okay under the site rules. Your thoughts?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Done in the way you are describing, it's somewhat frowned upon by the author community as we sometimes tend to twist morality in self-serving ways. Laurel has some rules and guidelines about it but there is no real consistency in dealing with such stories from what I have seen.

From my point of view, assuming you are going to let the readers know that you are continuing another author's story and that you are going to put a link to it in your foreword or something, it's no different than writing regular fan fiction. If you are okay with fan fiction I see no reason why this is any different. The original author might get pissed off if they ever return to the site but since you said you would take the story down if they asked, again, I see no difference from fan fiction.

 

[Bamagan]

Short version: I read a story on Literotica that I liked. It was published on the site 13 years ago and the author has been inactive since. Attempts to contact the author have gone unanswered. I'd like to write a sequel to the story (with a disclaimer indicating it's based upon characters the other author created and pointing them to the original story) and publish it as fan fiction. I intend to be respectful of the author's material (this isn't a Blood and Honey hit-job). If asked by the author I would remove my story.

This seems like it would be okay under the site rules. Your thoughts?

Under the site rules, which indicate you must have either the copyright to the work you are publishing, or the permission of the owner of the copyright, it is not okay to take someone else's story and make a continuation, sequel, prequel, etc. If it gets reported, it is likely to get taken down, especially if the original stories are still on the site, which will make it easy to verify that you aren't the copyright holder and therefore were probably being untruthful when submitting the new story.

 

[SimonDoom]

The Site is, unfortunately, a bit unclear on this issue. This is my opinion.

I think fanfiction, properly understood, involves works based on works by famous authors. I don't believe it includes works by Literotica authors. I don't believe that one should write sequels or derivative works of Literotica authors, period, ever, without permission.

This is what I understand Literotica's policy to be as well, but it's not entirely clear and it appears that Literotica does not consistently follow a policy on this issue. So one can take from that what one wants.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Things in the real world aren't usually black and white (my family is, but that's a different matter). But Literotica is a subdivision of reality, and there are some rather compelling reasons not to do this that way. Some of those have been elaborated already. What you can do is create your character and write your story for that person. Simply put, don't do what you're discussing without getting permission first.

 

[Britva415]

Or, write whatever you want but change names and locations and don't present it as connected or related in any way to the piece or the author that inspired it.

 

[StillStunned]

Or, write whatever you want but change names and locations and don't present it as connected or related in any way to the piece or the author that inspired it.

The "Dennis L McKiernan" approach.

 

[Otto26]

Or, write whatever you want but change names and locations and don't present it as connected or related in any way to the piece or the author that inspired it.

Nope. If I write fan-fiction based on some work a Lit author wrote then I'm going to point everyone to that author and urge them to go read the inspiration. That's just a version of plagiarism. Yes, I recognize this as a widely accepted mechanism for avoiding copyright infringement in fan-fiction but it rubs me the wrong way.

 

[THBGato]

It's bizarre, isn't it, that there is category on Literotica called "Fan fiction" and we're all fine with that. Yet, every time this question comes up (and I can think of three other threads on this in the past year) 90% of respondents always say: "No, you can't do that."

So, my question is, why would it be okay for us to write, say, a piece of Stars Wars fan fiction without Disney's express permission, but not okay to write fan fiction of another's Lit story?

Are we just a special case of authors or something?

 

[StillStunned]

It's bizarre, isn't it, that there is category on Literotica called "Fan fiction" and we're all fine with that. Yet, every time this question comes up (and I can think of three other threads on this in the past year) 90% of respondents always say: "No, you can't do that."

So, my question is, why would it be okay for us to write, say, a piece of Stars Wars fan fiction without Disney's express permission, but not okay to write fan fiction of another's Lit story?

Are we just a special case of authors or something?

My view, which I've mentioned once or twice in those other previous threads, is this. No-one's going to mistake Star Wars fanfiction for the writer's original creation. No matter how much you write, no matter how excellent it is, no-one's ever going to think it's your world.

That risk does exist with less-known works. You could become the de facto owner of something that another writer originally created. Even if your works are much better, and you write a hundred stories to their one, and you create a whole world around their tiny little village - even then, the seed of the idea was theirs. All your ideas were sparked by someone else's, and now you've appropriated that one idea and claimed it as your own.

 

[THBGato]

My view, which I've mentioned once or twice in those other previous threads, is this. No-one's going to mistake Star Wars fanfiction for the writer's original creation. No matter how much you write, no matter how excellent it is, no-one's ever going to think it's your world.

I picked Star Wars because I've read very little fan fiction BUT I have read a Star Wars fan fiction piece on here.

However, does your argument hold true if it was fan fiction of, say, Jamaica Kincaid, or Samuel Selvon, or any even less well-known authors?

That risk does exist with less-known works. You could become the de facto owner of something that another writer originally created. Even if your works are much better, and you write a hundred stories to their one, and you create a whole world around their tiny little village - even then, the seed of the idea was theirs. All your ideas were sparked by someone else's, and now you've appropriated that one idea and claimed it as your own.

Anyone here ever read any poetry by Arthur Brooke? No?

But you know one of his stories - Romeo and Juliet.

 

[SimonDoom]

Nope. If I write fan-fiction based on some work a Lit author wrote then I'm going to point everyone to that author and urge them to go read the inspiration. That's just a version of plagiarism. Yes, I recognize this as a widely accepted mechanism for avoiding copyright infringement in fan-fiction but it rubs me the wrong way.

It's not. Let's be 100% clear about this. There is no such thing under the law as an "attribution" defense to copyright infringement. If you infringe, you infringe, and giving the author credit gives you no legal protection.

Most fanfiction probably IS infringement but it is tolerated for practical not legal reasons.

Those practical reasons do not, in my opinion, apply to works based on literotica authors.

 

[StillStunned]

I picked Star Wars because I've read very little fan fiction BUT I have read a Star Wars fan fiction piece on here.

However, does your argument hold true if it was fan fiction of, say, Jamaica Kincaid, or Samuel Selvon, or any even less well-known authors?

I'd say that Lit would probably shy away from any IP that's not immediately recognisable to a large chunk of society. But that's just my supposition. Personally I wouldn't even try, and I'd expect those writers to get pretty upset if they found such fanfic.

 

[MillieDynamite]

On what @SimonDoom said. The practical reason (or one of them) is that most Fan Fiction for major properties doesn't detract (or add to) the actual universe you're the fan of, but might, and often does, promote the original work. In other words, Disney will make more money with fan fic allowed than spending money to squash it.

 

[8letters]

Short version: I read a story on Literotica that I liked. It was published on the site 13 years ago and the author has been inactive since. Attempts to contact the author have gone unanswered. I'd like to write a sequel to the story (with a disclaimer indicating it's based upon characters the other author created and pointing them to the original story) and publish it as fan fiction. I intend to be respectful of the author's material (this isn't a Blood and Honey hit-job). If asked by the author I would remove my story.

This seems like it would be okay under the site rules. Your thoughts?

From what I can tell based on what gets published here, the site owner Laurel views copyright issues as being between authors. Unless the original author asks that your story be taken down, your story will stay up. To me, anything within the site rules is fine.

 

[HeyAll]

Personally I don't think there's anything wrong that that, so long as you clearly explain the situation at the top.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Then again there's Hustler v Falwell Supreme Court decision - So treat it explicitly like parody, perhaps?

(No, I ain't a lawyer, nor am I getting anything from this, so you gets what you pay for.)

 

[Otto26]

Then again there's Hustler v Falwell Supreme Court decision - So treat it explicitly like parody, perhaps?

(No, I ain't a lawyer, nor am I getting anything from this, so you gets what you pay for.)

This, also, I will not do. I'm not going to parody this author's work. I enjoyed it a great deal and wish they were writing more and I would try to respect his work in my imagined sequel. Which may or may not happen. I've got a lot of writing already on my plate and I'm not going to spend time writing something that the site would reject.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I picked Star Wars because I've read very little fan fiction BUT I have read a Star Wars fan fiction piece on here.

However, does your argument hold true if it was fan fiction of, say, Jamaica Kincaid, or Samuel Selvon, or any even less well-known authors?


Anyone here ever read any poetry by Arthur Brooke? No?

But you know one of his stories - Romeo and Juliet.

As an author of a piece of Star Wars fan fiction I can weigh in on this with regards to the choices I made. My story features entirely original characters who spend most of the story on space ships I made up and a planet I concocted entirely, as well as two planets from Bioware's Old Republic setting.

The most prominent things I borrowed were aesthetic concepts like The Force, Jedi and Sith, hyperspace and lightsabers.

I then used these elements to tell an entirely original story where, from at least one point of view, a Jedi was the bad guy, and this was the point. I wanted to write a story where the good guys and the bad guys were very clear in the beginning and less clear later on. I started working on it after seeing The Force Awakens, and being very underwhelmed by that movie's refusal to do anything interesting with the premise, and before The Last Jedi went so hard on *subverting expectations* that I cringe using those words even now.

I attempted to do something transformative with my work, which puts my usage under Fair Use copyright protection (whether I succeeded is up for debate). I'm not trying to monetize it, and I made mention at the beginning that familiarity with Bioware's Old Republic setting was important. Anyone nerdy enough to be that deep in Star Wars lore would likely understand which parts are original and which aren't, because really it's about credit. To drill down further, the parts I borrowed were created by George Lucas and Drew Karpyshyn, two creatives whose work was bought by one of the largest corporations in the world.

In other words, (functionally) nobody is going to take my work out of context and think it's all me.

I agree with Simon's position from a class consciousness position. Don't steal or borrow from anyone who uses Lit as their primary platform. We're all very small. If you're gonna steal, steal from the rich. They can afford it.

 

[Writer61]

I would be a bit cheesed off if someone wrote something using one of my characters. It is complimentary but it might conflict with my own plans for him/her.

You have done the right thing by trying to contact the author, but what is "the statute of limitations"?

If you have other things to write, focus on those.

 

[StillStunned]

I would be a bit cheesed off if someone wrote something using one of my characters. It is complimentary but it might conflict with my own plans for him/her.

A bit ago someone was selling a book on Amazon that contained at least three of my stories. Complimentary, like you say, but stealing even so.

 

[lovecraft68]

And.....Drink!

 

[Otto26]

A bit ago someone was selling a book on Amazon that contained at least three of my stories. Complimentary, like you say, but stealing even so.

That's not the same situation at all. That's out and out theft. How would you have felt if they had written genuinely new pieces based on your work, fulsomely credited you, and pointed readers at your inspiring works?

I'm not yet convinced that my proposed course of action is a problem. That's very likely a me thing, admittedly. In 2006 one of my stories published on Lit expressed my interest in seeing the tale told from the point of view of a different character and expressly invited readers to create their own renditions of my story. Not to justify my position, just to give you an idea of where I stand on the issue. I might hate what someone produced, particularly if they chose to deliberately mock or tear down the original piece (which, ironically, is permitted on this site under the parody label) but a part of me would be absolutely chuffed that my work inspired someone else's work.

I genuinely don't see this as taking from the original author but building on to it. I can see where views on this may differ greatly, particularly for those of you struggling to make a business of this.

 

[Writer61]

A bit ago someone was selling a book on Amazon that contained at least three of my stories. Complimentary, like you say, but stealing even so.

Using characters is bad enough, whole stories is another level entirely.

 

[Writer61]

In 2006 one of my stories published on Lit expressed my interest in seeing the tale told from the point of view of a different character and expressly invited readers to create their own renditions of my story.

Fair enough and good for you. But quite different from presuming permission as you propose.