Fanfiction deserves respect too.

Tell the plagiarist (because that's what he/she is) to immediately remove your material from the site. Period. No one has the right to determine the placement of your fiction but you.

Good luck.

tomothecat said:

For years, I wrote hundreds of thousands of words in fanfiction. Now I admit, it was not my best writing. But it was a great outlet to keep me writing, hone my skills, and just generally cheer me up.

Now that I'm working on publishable endeavors, I don't write fanfiction as obsessive-compulsively as I used to. But I leave my fics posted on fanfiction.net, because it's an archive of my angsty teen pre-college writing, and I still receive comments from fans and flamers.

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Is any of that under your name, or under "tomothecat" - basically, what I'm asking is if you publish somthing, can the author of the published work be traced to being the same person as the fanfic that's up on a website? It seems to me that an agent or publisher, if they found out about it, would ask you to remove your fanfic from the web.

tomothecat said:

So it really bothered me when I opened my inbox this morning and had the following to emails (within about five hours of each other):

1:
About your fanfiction,
I was wondering if you would give me permission to post your fanfiction on my
website. It is , and I am endeavouring to turn it into a website for a
democratic people's culture, although it has not much on it right
now.Thanks,WateryGlow

and 2: Well, I can't wait for you to reply to me, but if you find it on the website,
please just don't sue me for it! I don't have much money, and I'm not trying
to make money off of it, okay?

Now I find this incredibly upsetting, not to mention rude. Asking for permission is one thing (I would have said no but thanks anyway, for the record). But not even waiting HALF a DAY before deciding "okay I don't feel like hearing from you, so I'm going to go ahead and post your hard work on my site without your permission."

Maybe it's just some mediocre fanfiction, but it's MINE.

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Well, yes and no. I presume your fanfic is based on characters from original works that are still under copyright, and you don't have permission to use them? If so, you're also violating copyright by using those characters, and the writing is not all yours.

Is this a grey area of the law? Do characters need to be protected by trademark to enforce them not being used by other authors?

tomothecat said:

I'm so mad!

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Don't worry, this guy could be in "a heap of trouble" because he's violating the rights of TWO entities in one fell swoop: Yours, and the original author's writings on which you based your fanfiction.

I think I'd CC any takedown notice directly to the offendor's host, and it might also be a good idea to not use words such as "fan fiction" or "fanfic" in your notice... But I didn't just say that, and I am not a lawyer, so you can't blame me for anything.

I know fanfic gets a "pass" on some sites (but be clear, NOT on Absolute Write, to maintain AW as squeaky-clean) and is apparently even encouraged on the site you indicated, but that doesn't make it perfectly legal and okay. From looking at the Wikipedia entry for that site, a dozen authors have notified the site and told it not to host any works derived from their writings. I'm a little surprised there aren't more. But for practical purposes, it looks like posting fanfic on the web is something you can "get away with" until the original author asks you not to.

Random off-topic question: Does anyone write fanfic based on public domain works or characters?

It doesn't matter a hill of beans whether the writing in question is fanfic or fantasty or true crime or mystery or whatever. The fact is, plain and simple, this person is totally out of line. I would order him to cease and desist IMMEDIATELY.

I'm not a fan of fanfiction, just for personal reasons. I don't know if what this person did was based merely on the fact that he/she thought your work might be "free for all" because it's fanfic and not original fiction--basically, this situation could apply to any writer of online material. I've been asked before if someone could post some of my writing on their new site, and mine isn't fanfic.

That being said, the person who asked me this didn't go ahead and post my work without my permission! The legality of fanfic aside, this was wrong to do, and seems to indicate more a disrespect for the writer than for the work (fanfic or not).

Can you reply to their comment, or e-mail, or maybe Google your own work to see if/where it's been posted...? Maybe then you could ask it to be removed.

UGH, I would so flame that little bletch. I wouldn't even want the twink to link to anything of mine.

Fanfic or no, what a person writes belongs to that person.

tomothecat said:

And this is the response I get:

You don't have anything to worry about the stories are already removed.
Still, it's quite a shame. I thought you were a nice person. I'm not one to
complain, though.

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Wow! So now because you told a thief she was not allowed to steal your work, you're the one who's not the nice person? :O

*shakes head*

What a sad little attempt at a guilt trip.

I hope she's actually taken the stories down.

Don't waste another breath on the person... after you make sure she actually took it down.

And if she didn't take them down, I would file a complaint with her web host charging that she is publishing stolen work. When a thief is uncooperative, that's often the best way to get things straightened out.