#younger fans are going to be more familiar with E.L. James

[racnarath]

I have a lot of thoughts on this - for one, there seems to be at least two or three different issues being argued in this thread (OP was probably talking about the $100+ mass market production of a draco/hermione fanfic that shows up on Etsy when you look for general bookbinding stuff, some people are talking about the legality of fanfic, others about the morality of money in fandom) - but for now I think I'll bring up this point. What about zines?

Zines often charge money. They often include, if not exclusively focus on, fanfic. They're sold new online and at cons, and old prints are on ebay and the like. I see from Fanlore's page that there's been a long debate about no money charged versus coverage for materials versus compensation for time and labor. I've never really seen a debate here though about the legality/ethics of them here though.

The only real difference I can see between a zine being made for sale and this bookbinding debate is that the zine (presumably) has the permission from the author and the author is aware that their work will be put into a mass-produced item that will charge money.

Fellas, fellas

Why on earth are you BUYING PHYSICAL BOOKBOUND COPIES OF FANFICTION????

ACTUALLY WHY ARE YOU EVEN BOOKBINDING FANFICTION TO SELL?!?!?!

IF ANY OF YOU DO EITHER OF THESE THINGS, GET OUT!! I AM NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN.

In all seriousness though, authors on AO3 have begun to pull their works off of the site to avoid getting sued by people stealing their works to make a pretty bound book for profit. Entire accounts could be shut down as well.

Listen, I’m all for saving favorite works by printing them out and putting them in a binder, or learning how to make a bookbound copy yourself and/or assembling one with a pre-made and purchased fancy binding for a fanfic FOR YOURSELF or AS A GIFT to someone, but making bindings with and putting fanfiction in it TO SELL is where I draw the line.

Literally the entire point of AO3 is that you can read it FOR FREE.

It is DISRESPECTFUL for people to make money off of hardbound copies because guess what, the original creators of these fics get nothing. We are literally only writing fanfiction for our own pleasure.

Buying and selling book-bound fanfiction is also ILLEGAL YOU DUMB SHITS. People who are selling content while claiming to be a book binder is a misconception of their services. Book binders make the covers and all that, not the actual content of the book. Selling fanfiction is also an immediate violation of copyright law / Creative Commons licenses. The original fan work will get erased from the internet.

Fanfiction is already a legal grey zone since they are works being written about are protected by copyright. Copyright holders can in fact go after writers as well as the person who sold the fanfiction.

This also goes for people who steal fanart and, claim it as theirs, and put a price on it.

Don’t make it worse.

rest assured, we can still write our fanfics and make our art.

Buying a binding for you to assemble onto your own fanfiction or fanfiction you printed for PERSONAL USE is fine.

HOWEVER,

Bookbinding fanfiction for profit is literally ruining things for everyone. DON’T.

If I see any of them on Etsy, I swear to god-