Fan fiction or a tribute?

Pup said:

People often talk about deductable business expenses as if that means they're free, but it just means a company can deduct them from its income for tax purposes. If a small company is in a low tax bracket, that might reduce every $1,000 in costs to $800 in costs and it'll never reduce it below around $500. That's still going to hurt.

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Yes, but if the suit is thrown out, they can still publish.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Because what's the difference between Robert Jordan writing a Conan novel and some fan? What about all the Star Wars and Star Trek novels? And people have been building upon Lovecraft's Cthuhlu mythos for decades -- are those authors, some very well respected, writing fanfic?

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Quite possibly, but does it matter? If you enjoy it, and there aren't ethical considerations (like whether it's taking money from the original creator), does the label make that much difference? A label isn't going to change how well the piece is written, how original the handling of the elements are, or whether it holds together as a work in its own right.

A lot of the online fan fiction isn't very good, but it doesn't become better if the serial numbers are filed off or it gets picked up as an official part of the franchise. The label changes, but the writing doesn't.

Whereas I know diddley about squat.