When is it...

[BanditIRA]

When is it socially acceptable to finish another authors work?


Is it acceptable to do so without their permission if the story has be untouched for more than a year? What about more than 3 years?


What if you have found there is no way to contact them and ask if its ok?

 

[S-Des]

I don't know, but good question. I'll be anxiously awaiting the answer. It's come up twice for me and I put away both stories because I couldn't contact the original author. I've seen comments on stories where the writer says that he hopes the original author doesn't mind (so I'm guessing he didn't ask), but that's really risky. If the author sees it and complains, boom...your story is taken down and you did all that work for nothing.

BTW, if no one has an appropriate answer, someone here might know the author in question. It might be possible to reach him/her.

Good luck.

 

[BanditIRA]

Actually there were a few stories in mind, but nothing exactly specific at the moment. I do ask though that anyone with any thoughts on this please feel free to post. I would like to see where this discussion will lead, and what any other persons thoughts would be.

 

[minsue]

I don't think it's ever appropriate to finish an author's series (which is what I assume you mean) without their permission. But that's just me.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

It's socially acceptable to do it 70 years after the author's death or 100 years of publication in case of anonymous works.

 

[angela146]

How does copyright law work for sequels? Are all fan-fiction stories an infringement (if the author hasn't been dead long enough)?

Can anyone provide a link to something authoritative that discusses this issue?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

How does copyright law work for sequels? Are all fan-fiction stories an infringement (if the author hasn't been dead long enough)?

Can anyone provide a link to something authoritative that discusses this issue?

I don't know how authoritative Wikipedia is (OK, I know it isn't, but it's the quickest to find reference ), but here is what it has to say about it:

According to current United States copyright, copyright owners have the right to control or restrict the publishing of "derivative works" based on their material, though they do not receive ownership of those works. For example, in the famous case of Anderson v. Stallone, 11 USPQ2D 1161 (C.D. Cal. 1989), Sylvester Stallone successfully pursued an action for copyright infringment against an author who wrote a proposed script for Rocky IV. The owner of the original work (film, TV show, etc.) therefore has some legal power over fan fiction through their ability to sue the creator of the derivative work for copyright infringement. Generally, authors who do not want derivative works being written without their direct permission and/or the ability to control it, request to major archives the removal and banning of such derivative works based on their own. There has yet to be a case of a major archive failing to comply with such a request, and many of them feature a full list of authors whose work cannot be the source of a fan fiction on their site.

 

[angela146]

Thanks, Lauren. That's close enough for me.

 

[TheEarl]

I'm gonna have to go with Min on this one. Even if the author's apparently abandoned the work, then it's still not right to publish a sequel without permission. Sorry.

The only exception to that is fanfiction and, even then, you must be so careful. If you can't do it justice, then you shouldn't do it.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

.....

 

[Weird Harold]

Is it acceptable to do so without their permission if the story has be untouched for more than a year? What about more than 3 years?

Unless the author has posted a notice that the work has been abandoned, there is no legal way of finishing it without the author's permission.

I have seen stories, apparently abandoned for as much as five years, suddenly resumed by the original author. I've also found additional chapters by the original author posted on other sites after it's apparently been abandoned on the site where I orignally found it.

I wouldn't even consider an "unauthorized continuation" of an internet story for at least seven years after the last posting I can find anywhere on the 'Net.

Like Fan-fiction, such unauthorized continuations or sequels are technically copyright infringements but are unlikely to raise any objections.