You want comments? Okay, here's one that's gonna hurt.
But you REALLY need to know it.
Mercedes Lackey has gone on record saying that she will
allow NO fanfics based on her world of Valdemar, and if any are
discovered, she will sue and sue until the author has nothing
left for her to take.
Actually in response to this question,
"Q: Please don't flame me for this! My friend and I just created a
Hawkbrother fanclub that has our fanfiction on it (our fanfiction is not
published anywhere except online). We honestly didn't know that all
fanfiction needed a release form until just recently, and we were told that
the release form doesn't have anything to do with web fanfiction. So we
wanted to know whether you permitted web fanfiction or not and, if so, what
sort of legalities we need to go through. Also, we'd like to know if you
permit unofficial webrings (my friend and I also began a mini-ring. It's
actually just a "Links" page, but we thought we'd give it a fancier name).
If you do not permit any of these online activities, my friend and I will
prompty shut down the site. We're very sorry for the inconvenience. "
She made this response,
"A: We don't allow online fanfiction or online games, MUDs, MUCKs or MUSHs;
anything else is fine."
Also she had ths to say,
"A.Reading and critiquing fan fiction or original fiction:
We don't. No exceptions.
Here's why. Some time ago, Marion Zimmer Bradley ended up having to cancel
the idea of EVER writing a particular book, because a fan (who shall remain
nameless) demanded equal collaborative credit and money, if she used a
particular "idea" that had come from a fan-fiction story. It got to the
point where the fan threatened to sue Marion if she did not get equal
collaborative credit and money (and remember what I said in the paragraphs
above). As the fan actually had somehow gotten an agent and had the
resources to do just that, Marion scrapped the book altogether---one which
was greatly anticipated and would have been integral to her Darkover series,
may I add. When I was co-writing a Darkover book with Marion, the same fan
had the chutzpah to send ME a manuscript---which, needless to say, I
returned unopened.
As a consequence, our agent (I have the same agent as Marion, Russell Galen
of Scovil Chichak Galen) wanted us to forbid people to write fan-fiction
altogether. And lest you think that can't be done, there are several authors
and their publishers who have successfully done just that, Chelsea Quinn
Yarbro for one; all it takes is a lawyer. Neither Marion nor I wanted to
deprive people of the enjoyment of playing in our worlds, so we compromised;
anyone who publishes their fan fiction in amateur fanzines has to send us a
complicated release form saying basically that they know this is MY
intellectual property and that they understand that their work essentially
becomes my property, so long as it references my world and characters.
Not that I would ever take advantage of that, because the second part of the
compromise is this: I NEVER READ FAN FICTION. There are no exceptions. It
gets filed away unread, in the presence of a witness. So if, by any chance,
something in one of our books looks like an idea in someone's fan fiction,
it is purely coincidental, and was arrived at by logical extrapolation from
previous plots. I can and will prove in a court of law (if I have to) that I
could not possibly have "stolen" anyone's ideas."
I found these questions and answers on www.firebirdarts.com in their Ask
Misty section.