Roasting the Fanfiction Potatoes

Fanfiction has always been in the frilly edges of copyright law. Though authors can ban all forms of it, most authors realise that a few fan stories aren't really a problem.

Unless the fan tries to sell the fanfiction, at which point blind eyes can no longer be turned. It's like arriving at the police station with photo albums depicting all your bank heists.

The latest in the saga of selling fanfiction is Russet Noon, a 'tribute' novel for Twilight*. This latest fanfiction seller takes the biscuit for humourous interpretations# of copyright:

When fictional characters become such an intricate part of the popular psyche, as is the case with the Twilight Saga, legal boundaries become blurred, and copyright laws become increasingly difficult to define.

But have no fear. There's an easy way to get copyright and prevent the whole psyche thing happening to you:

Characters are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to draw them.

Quite where this is going, nobody knows. Will the Russet Noon potatoes ever have their story told? Will it go as far as a court case**? Until then, I've been working on my copyright protection:

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* In case you missed it, Twilight is a vampire romance by Stephenie Meyer.

** If the lawyers aren't already at work on this, I'm a potato.

# Looks like the link was taken down, but I'll keep it there for reference purposes.