You're comparing a past interpretation of copyright law vs. a current understanding of how it works.
While I agree that the current legal environment in the U.S. is far more restrictive than it was even 50 years ago, that still does not get away from the fact that when a copyright right owner sends out a cease-and-desist it is not anywhere near being a violation of someone's civil rights.
So for the purposes of this argument (despite the fact that elfwreck seems to think that the First Amendment somehow applies to fanfiction), enforcement of copyright issues is irrelevant. For as long as all of us here have been alive, copyright owners have every right to control their works, with some notable exceptions (fair use, parody, for example). However, fanfiction does not and never has fallen into any of those categories (at least not in the U.S.).
The reason why fanfiction and the greater category of fanworks has been allowed to thrive is because, in essence, most copyright holders have turned a blind eye or have gone the wink-wink-nudge-nudge route. But watch how quickly that wink-wink-nudge-nudge disappears the second a fan tries to cash in. And rightfully so.
That's not to say that I like the current U.S. climate for copyright law (I don't), but at the same time copyright is very much a necessity because it protects as much as it restricts. (For example, without copyright law, Warner Brothers could've simply taken the Harry Potter books and made movies of them without paying JKR a dime.)
However, at no point in my lifetime has fanfiction ever been considered a-okay with the copyright laws, so it isn't like it's actually new to anyone. (I'm also starting to wonder if anyone actually reads or understands their own fanfiction disclaimers when they slap them on their stories, because I'm beginning to guess they don't.)
Let me circle around back to my point:
There is no sane way you can possibly say that fanfiction is like same-sex marriage (which is what the OP actually said, and is actually what people are taking issue with). They are not even on the same planet of equivalencey. Hell, they're not even in the same universe.
Re: here via metafandom
While I agree that the current legal environment in the U.S. is far more restrictive than it was even 50 years ago, that still does not get away from the fact that when a copyright right owner sends out a cease-and-desist it is not anywhere near being a violation of someone's civil rights.
So for the purposes of this argument (despite the fact that
The reason why fanfiction and the greater category of fanworks has been allowed to thrive is because, in essence, most copyright holders have turned a blind eye or have gone the wink-wink-nudge-nudge route. But watch how quickly that wink-wink-nudge-nudge disappears the second a fan tries to cash in. And rightfully so.
That's not to say that I like the current U.S. climate for copyright law (I don't), but at the same time copyright is very much a necessity because it protects as much as it restricts. (For example, without copyright law, Warner Brothers could've simply taken the Harry Potter books and made movies of them without paying JKR a dime.)
However, at no point in my lifetime has fanfiction ever been considered a-okay with the copyright laws, so it isn't like it's actually new to anyone. (I'm also starting to wonder if anyone actually reads or understands their own fanfiction disclaimers when they slap them on their stories, because I'm beginning to guess they don't.)
Let me circle around back to my point:
There is no sane way you can possibly say that fanfiction is like same-sex marriage (which is what the OP actually said, and is actually what people are taking issue with). They are not even on the same planet of equivalencey. Hell, they're not even in the same universe.