Intellectual Property Law

A while back I blogged about the stated preferences of Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight series of books) with respect to online uses of her unpublished manuscripts.  While trolling various authors’ official websites, I found another interesting comment by a vampire book writer about unauthorized uses of her work, this time with direct reference to fan fiction.  Readers of this blog may remember that Stephenie Meyer’s concern was with unauthorized publications/disseminations of early drafts of her own work – which led to some comments in response about how authors might feel about fan fiction, although this was not Meyer’s stated concern.

I understand that views vary on the extent to which an author can or should want to control fan fiction activities, and I’m not specifically commenting here on the extent to which the law should support (or not support) authors in having this kind of control.  What interests me is what authors seem to think the law is with respect to fan fiction and how they feel about it in the sense of their own authorial investment in the creation of their works.

The following is an extract from the FAQ section of Charlaine Harris’ website.  She is the author of the popular Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery Series, which has been turned into a successful TV series, True Blood, on HBO.

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