kshacker 15 hours ago

How do the sequels affect this? I read this once more in the same discussion so I am curious.

Let's assume the 1st book goes public. I should be able to use those characters and their known relationship in any which way, no? What's wrong with that, copyright wise?

StopDisinfo910 a day ago

Have you noticed how the abundance of fan fictions have completely killed famous book series? Me neither.

  • actionfromafar a day ago

    No, but I think it might happen if copyright lapsed in 14 years.

    • wongarsu a day ago

      Presumably people would consider a Song of Ice and Fire sequel by GRRM to be "official" and everything else "fanfiction", even if the fanfiction manages to appear in bookstores

    • Jolter a day ago

      But it would only lapse after 28, assuming the author is still interested in pursuing it. 28 years is plenty, IMO.

    • joquarky 13 hours ago

      *28 years, unless you were not invested enough in your work to bother renewing it.

  • nkrisc a day ago

    What fan fiction?

    • tialaramex a day ago

      Just in case you're actually unaware, the Organization for Transformative Works https://archiveofourown.org/ Archive Of Our Own (typically shortened to AO3) is where a tremendous amount of such fiction is archived.

      • nkrisc a day ago

        So where can a mainstream consumer purchase or borrow a paperback edition of those stories?

    • fragmede a day ago

      This is not an endorsement of the work, but there's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I hear 50 Shades of Gray is another fanfic that went mainstream.

      A book nerd could come up with a much longer list, but I know there's a ton more illegal unlicensed! Harry Potter fan fic.

      • cool_dude85 21 hours ago

        50 Shades is decidedly not a fanfic for the exact reason that it couldn't be sold as one.

        • bentley 14 hours ago

          Quoting Wikipedia:

          “The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction series originally titled Master of the Universe and published by [E. L.] James episodically on fan fiction websites under the pen name ‘Snowqueen Icedragon’.”

    • hnben a day ago

      exactly.

      • nkrisc a day ago

        Because copyright lasts longer than 14 years.

        • bryanrasmussen a day ago

          as much as I think the copyright 14 years thing is one of the more contemptible ideas well to do programmers have on how to improve things by making things worse for people who make less money, I don't think copyright is longer than 14 years is the only reason works by the original author of a series earns more money than fan fiction.

Jolter a day ago

For a novel of middling success, like Game of Thrones ca 2004, as is the argument here? Why would anyone write and publish that sequel? Nobody would buy it if it was not from the original author.

Aloisius 18 hours ago

I mean, that sounds like a win from the point of view of copyright.

The whole purpose of copyright is to promote the creation of new works after all. In GRRM's case, the more successful his works became, the less he wrote which is kind of the opposite of what copyright was intended to do.