It was a. . .a pokemon fanfic.
Whoa. Okay, even I have never sunken that far...
As for intellectual property-rights-stealing, here's my take:
Most of the original author/creators LOVE it when fans write their own stuff. Why? Because it promotes their product, it builds a fan base, and it keeps the excitement going. And if they don't love it, most of the time they just have to ask and it will be "taken down."
I can think of the perfect example of this: Gargoyles. This TV series was created by Greg Weisman and flew brilliantly for several seasons... and then bombed when Disney decided they could do without him. While he went on to other things, a significant fan-base remained and created its own online writing project wherein the series was continued. We're talking about 20 authors getting together online to brainstorm plots, turn out outlines, assign writers, etc.
And Greg was thrilled. He never read any of it to eliminate any legal qualms in the future, but he made himself available to answer any and all questions.
Today, and this is like a decade later, Greg is now hard at work CONTINUING his original series in comic book form. Why? Because the fan base was able to sustain itself for so long that finally Greg was able to convince someone with the power to help him that the project could work.
So in that case, it was the fans themselves that enabled the series to survive. Personally I am thrilled, and I'm proud that I can say my teenage self got a significant education in the writing/editing process by participating in such an effort.
