Without weighing in either way on fanfic = gay marriage, I will say that I, at least, do see corporate entities trying to extend copyright periods for longer and longer and do away with fair use loop holes and writers forbidding fanfic as elements of the same general trend toward more and more extensive monopolies on intellectual property rights. One is matter of legislation and business (the DMCA, for example), and one is a matter of the author's personal opinion/choice, but both stem from the belief that ideas can be owned, and that only a single legal entity should get to benefit from them.
Fanfiction was not always illegal -- unauthorized sequels to and spin-offs of Samuel Richardson's Pamela were practically an entire genre in mid-18th century publishing -- nor was fiction using someone else's characters and plots always looked down upon or viewed as "stealing." The "lazy-derivative-theft" concept of fanfiction I would argue is at least partially a product of the environment created by modern copyright law.
If I recall my 18th century lit classes and that one lecture in Introduction to Archives properly, I think copyright was actually created to prevent printers from printing and selling unauthorized copies of another publisher's books (i.e. piracy), not to prevent writers from using another writers' characters. I believe that element was added later, as copyright laws became more and more extensive and more and more intermingled with trademark law.
I mostly know copyright legislation as it pertains to scholarsand archivists (i.e. orphan works, James Joyce's nephew, and so on), though, so I could be wrong.
here via metafandom
Fanfiction was not always illegal -- unauthorized sequels to and spin-offs of Samuel Richardson's Pamela were practically an entire genre in mid-18th century publishing -- nor was fiction using someone else's characters and plots always looked down upon or viewed as "stealing." The "lazy-derivative-theft" concept of fanfiction I would argue is at least partially a product of the environment created by modern copyright law.
If I recall my 18th century lit classes and that one lecture in Introduction to Archives properly, I think copyright was actually created to prevent printers from printing and selling unauthorized copies of another publisher's books (i.e. piracy), not to prevent writers from using another writers' characters. I believe that element was added later, as copyright laws became more and more extensive and more and more intermingled with trademark law.
I mostly know copyright legislation as it pertains to scholarsand archivists (i.e. orphan works, James Joyce's nephew, and so on), though, so I could be wrong.