Fan labor
Encyclopedia
Fan labor is a term used to refer to the productive creative activities engaged in by fans
, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction
al, fan fiction
al and review literature), visual or computer-assisted art, music, or applied arts and costuming.
Although fans invest significant time creating their products, and fan-created products are "often crafted with production values as high as any in the official culture," most fans provide their creative works for others to enjoy without requiring or requesting monetary compensation. Fans respect their gift economy
culture and are often also fearful that charging other fans for products of their creativity will somehow fundamentally change the fan-fan relationship, as well as attract unwanted legal attention from copyright holders. Although the skills that fans hone through their fan works may be marketable, only some fans find employment through their fan works.
In recent years, media conglomerates have become more aware of how fan labor activities can add to and affect the effectiveness of media product development, marketing, advertising, promotional activities, and distribution. They seek to harness fan activities for low-cost and effective advertisements (such as the 2007 Doritos Super Bowl Ad contest) at the same time as they continue to send out cease and desist
to the creators of amateur fan products—threatening legal action whose basis is increasingly being questioned by fandom rights groups like the Organization for Transformative Works
, which asserts the transformative and therefore legal nature of fan labor products.
In science fiction fandom
and media fandom
, fan labor activities may be termed fanac
(from "fannish activities"), a term that also includes non-creative activities such as managing traditional science fiction fanzines (i.e., not primarily devoted to fan fiction
), and the organization and maintenance of science fiction conventions and science fiction clubs.
is the most widely known fan labor practice, and arguably one of the oldest, beginning at least as early as the 17th century. Fan fiction stories (“fan fic”) are literary works produced by fans of a given media property, rather than the original creator. They may expand on an original story line, character relationship, or situations and entities that were originally mentioned in the original author’s work. Works of fan fiction are rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's owner, creator, or publisher, and they are almost never professionally published.
is artwork based on a character, costume, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist. Usually, it refers to fan labor artworks by amateur and unpaid artists. In addition to traditional paintings and drawings, fan artists may also create web banners, avatars, or web-based animations, as well as photo collages, posters, and artistic representation of movie/show/book quotes.
is a film or video inspired by a media source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan films vary in length from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to ultra-rare full-length motion pictures.
Fanvids are analytical music videos, created mainly by women in fandom since 1975 by synchronizing clips from TV shows or movies with music to tell a story or make an argument. “Vidders,” the creators of these videos, carefully match the audio and video components to tell a story or set a specific mood.
Fangames are video games made by fans based on one or more established video games; the vast majority of fangames that have been successfully completed and published are adventure games. Many fangames attempt to clone the original game's design, gameplay and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another only as a template. Fangames are either developed as standalone games with their own engines, or as modifications to existing games that "piggyback" on the other's engines.
Fans of video games have been creating machinima
since 1996. Machinima creators use computer game engines to create “actors” and create scenarios for them to perform in, using the physics and character generation tools of the game. The script, as performed by the computer-generated characters, are recorded and distributed to viewers online. These videos (and their creation) tend to be more popular with males.
, involving the writing and performance of songs inspired by fandom and other common filk themes. Filking is often done in small groups at conventions, often late at night after other official convention programming has ended for the day; additionally, there are now dedicated filk conventions in Canada, England, Germany, and the USA.
, creators assemble and sew costumes that replicate characters or fit with the setting of the target of fannish activity. Costuming often goes well beyond basic seamstress and tailoring, and may include developing sophisticated mechanics, such as hydraulics to open and close wings, or complicated manufacturing techniques, such as building Stormtrooper
armor from scratch by using vacuum molding and fiberglass application.
. In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services
are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. no formal quid pro quo
exists). Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community.
The gift economy manifests in fan labor practices through the writing and posting of a story (the gift given/exchanged), followed by the reading of the story (gift acceptance, completing the initial exchange), and finally, feedback to the original author and potentially passing the work along or linking to it for others to see (the reciprocal gift given).
The gift can also be surplus labor made in excess of the labor necessary from the worker, created not for other fans but rather to compel the original media property to notice their indebtedness and do something for the fans in return. These gifts are like offerings made to show the original producers that there is a lively fandom for their product, and possibly encourage the producers to make more. This was the case with the fans of the Firefly TV series
, who engaged in very visible fan activities, such as charity events, “guerrilla marketing
” activities, creation of fan videos, and filk in order to successfully convince a studio to green light
a movie sequel to the canceled TV series.
The organization of a gift economy stands in contrast to a barter economy or a market economy
. The gift economy of fandom is seen by many fans as a central tenet of “what makes fandom different.”
From an economic anthropology
viewpoint, the products of fan labor are a form of cultural wealth, valuable also for their ability to interrelate the fan works, the fan-creators, and the original media property itself through conversation and fan work exchanges. Fans, in other words, are “affines”
of media property and of other fans.
perspective, fan creative practices are labor that is done in a relatively routine way and that helps to maintain a connection to the media property itself (the "cultural ancestor" or "deity"). Through their fan labor, fans are able to replicate "the original creative acts of first-principle deities, ancestors or cultural heroes."
are popular. These choices also reflect the relationships fans construct of their view of their place within fandom, including how they relate to the media property and the corporate structures and products surrounding it. Fans are therefore engaged in "the individual and collective construction of overlapping and even conflicting practices, identities, meanings, and also alternate texts, images, and objects."
The goods that fans produce as a result of these rituals are imbued with social value by other fans. Fan works are valued as fandom products, and they also support the fan creator's desire to be valued by peers.
If there were legitimate pathways for fans to create products that could lead to fame and fortune (or at least a paying job), the tradeoff between getting paid and getting ahead in the community (cultural capital) might be enough of an incentive to encourage creative work by fans.
Fans are often also fearful that charging other fans for products of their creativity, such as zines, videos, costumes, art, etc. will somehow fundamentally change the fan-fan relationship, as well as attract unwanted legal attention from copyright holders. That fear has come true in more than one case, such as the removal from sale on Amazon.com
of a commercial fan fiction book set in the Star Wars universe. (see Another Hope
)
However, some fans engage in for-profit exchange of their creations in what is known as the “gray market”. The gray market operates mainly through word of mouth and “under the table” sales, and provides products of varying quality. Even though these are commercial activities, it is still expected that fan vendors will not make a large amount of profit, charging just enough to cover expenses. Some vendors attempt to not mark up their products at all, and will use that information in their promotional information, in an attempt to secure the confidence of other fans who may look down at fans making a profit.
Fan art
is exceptional in that artists have traditionally sold their works in public at conventions and other fan gatherings, as well as on their own web sites. Many fan artists have set up e-commerce storefronts through vendors such as CafePress and Zazzle
, which allow customers to purchase items such as t-shirts, totes, and mugs with the fan design imprinted on them.
Filking has also become more commercialized, with several filkers (The Great LukeSki
, Voltaire
, The Bedlam Bards, etc.) producing and selling filk cassettes, CDs and DVDs of their performances.
However, this state of affairs may not last as companies become more aware of how fan labor activities can add to and affect the effectiveness of media product development, marketing, advertising, promotional activities, and distribution. A business report called The Future of Independent Media stated, “The media landscape will be reshaped by the bottom-up energy of media created by amateurs and hobbyists as a matter of course [….] A new generation of media makers and viewers are [sic] emerging which could lead to a sea change in how media is made and consumed.” The 2007 book Consumer Tribes is devoted to case studies of consumer groups, many of them media fans, who are challenging the traditional media production and consumer product marketing models.
Companies, however, react to fan activities in very different ways. While some companies actively court fans and these type of activities (sometimes limited to ways delineated by the company itself), other companies attempt to highly restrict them.
is an example of an original copyright owner being willing to share the potential commercial gain to be made from derivative works by fans.
In Japan, doujinshi is often sold side by side with its original commercial inspiration, with no legal action from the original publishers.
Additionally, some corporations co-opt user-generated content as "free labor" As fans recognize the commercial value of their labor, the issue of companies abusing these volunteer creators of videos, stories, and advertisements (such as the 2007 DoritosTM Super Bowl Ad contest) by not providing an appropriate monetary reward is of concern.
s, in that they are creative additions or modifications to an existing copyrighted work, or they are original creations which are inspired by a specific copyrighted work. Some or all of these works may fall into the legal category of transformative works
(such as a parody
of the original), which is protected as fair use
under U.S. copyright law. However, corporations continue to ask fans to stop engaging with their products in creative ways.
of the U.S. Copyright Law, which judges if a work is copyright-infringing based on four tests:
However, these tests are not absolute, and judges may decide to weigh one factor more heavily than another in any given case.
Although some fan artists receive cease & desist letters
or find themselves running afoul of copyright law, they may argue that their “artistic interpretation” of a character or scenario makes it a transformative work upheld by the fair use doctrine.
The Organization for Transformative Works
is a fan-run organization that advocates for the transformative nature of fan fiction and provides legal advice for fan fiction writers, vidders, and other fan labor practitioners.
Chilling Effects is a joint web project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics, which covers the current state of copyright-related law suits, and has a special section devoted to fan fiction legal action and how to fight it.
rights. Because of new technologies that make media easier to distribute and modify, fan labor activities are coming under greater scrutiny. Some fans are finding themselves the subjects of lawsuits or cease & desist letters which ask them to take down the offending materials from a website, or stop distributing or selling an item which the corporation believes violates their copyright. As a result of these actions by media companies, some conventions now ban fan art entirely from their art shows, even if not offered for sale, and third party vendors may remove offending designs from their websites.
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al, fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
al and review literature), visual or computer-assisted art, music, or applied arts and costuming.
Although fans invest significant time creating their products, and fan-created products are "often crafted with production values as high as any in the official culture," most fans provide their creative works for others to enjoy without requiring or requesting monetary compensation. Fans respect their gift economy
Gift economy
In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
culture and are often also fearful that charging other fans for products of their creativity will somehow fundamentally change the fan-fan relationship, as well as attract unwanted legal attention from copyright holders. Although the skills that fans hone through their fan works may be marketable, only some fans find employment through their fan works.
In recent years, media conglomerates have become more aware of how fan labor activities can add to and affect the effectiveness of media product development, marketing, advertising, promotional activities, and distribution. They seek to harness fan activities for low-cost and effective advertisements (such as the 2007 Doritos Super Bowl Ad contest) at the same time as they continue to send out cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
to the creators of amateur fan products—threatening legal action whose basis is increasingly being questioned by fandom rights groups like the Organization for Transformative Works
Organization for Transformative Works
The Organization For Transformative Works is a non-profit organization that advocates for the transformative and legitimate nature of fan labor activities, including fan fiction, fan vids, anime music videos, and real person fiction...
, which asserts the transformative and therefore legal nature of fan labor products.
In science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
and media fandom
Media fandom
Media fandom refers to the collective fandoms focused on contemporary television shows and movies. Media fandom has a focus on relationships and is distinct from science fiction fandom, anime fandom, book fandom, music fandom, soap opera fandom, sports fandom, and video game fandom.-History:Media...
, fan labor activities may be termed fanac
Fanac
Fanac is a fan slang term for activities within the realm of science fiction fandom, and occasionally used in media fandom...
(from "fannish activities"), a term that also includes non-creative activities such as managing traditional science fiction fanzines (i.e., not primarily devoted to fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
), and the organization and maintenance of science fiction conventions and science fiction clubs.
Categories of fan labor activities
Fans use all art forms to express their creativity with regard to their fandoms.Literary arts: Fan fiction, reviews
Fan fictionFan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
is the most widely known fan labor practice, and arguably one of the oldest, beginning at least as early as the 17th century. Fan fiction stories (“fan fic”) are literary works produced by fans of a given media property, rather than the original creator. They may expand on an original story line, character relationship, or situations and entities that were originally mentioned in the original author’s work. Works of fan fiction are rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's owner, creator, or publisher, and they are almost never professionally published.
Traditional visual arts: Art and graphic design
Fan artFan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
is artwork based on a character, costume, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist. Usually, it refers to fan labor artworks by amateur and unpaid artists. In addition to traditional paintings and drawings, fan artists may also create web banners, avatars, or web-based animations, as well as photo collages, posters, and artistic representation of movie/show/book quotes.
Computer-aided visual arts: Fan films, fan vids, fan games, machinima
A fan filmFan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by...
is a film or video inspired by a media source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan films vary in length from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to ultra-rare full-length motion pictures.
Fanvids are analytical music videos, created mainly by women in fandom since 1975 by synchronizing clips from TV shows or movies with music to tell a story or make an argument. “Vidders,” the creators of these videos, carefully match the audio and video components to tell a story or set a specific mood.
Fangames are video games made by fans based on one or more established video games; the vast majority of fangames that have been successfully completed and published are adventure games. Many fangames attempt to clone the original game's design, gameplay and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another only as a template. Fangames are either developed as standalone games with their own engines, or as modifications to existing games that "piggyback" on the other's engines.
Fans of video games have been creating machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
since 1996. Machinima creators use computer game engines to create “actors” and create scenarios for them to perform in, using the physics and character generation tools of the game. The script, as performed by the computer-generated characters, are recorded and distributed to viewers online. These videos (and their creation) tend to be more popular with males.
Musical arts: Filking
Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandomScience fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, involving the writing and performance of songs inspired by fandom and other common filk themes. Filking is often done in small groups at conventions, often late at night after other official convention programming has ended for the day; additionally, there are now dedicated filk conventions in Canada, England, Germany, and the USA.
Applied arts: Costume construction
In costuming or cosplayCosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
, creators assemble and sew costumes that replicate characters or fit with the setting of the target of fannish activity. Costuming often goes well beyond basic seamstress and tailoring, and may include developing sophisticated mechanics, such as hydraulics to open and close wings, or complicated manufacturing techniques, such as building Stormtrooper
Imperial stormtrooper
The Imperial Stormtroopers are fictional soldiers from George Lucas' Star Wars universe. Stormtroopers are the soldiers of the imperial army under the leadership of the evil Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine and his commanders, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.They are shown in...
armor from scratch by using vacuum molding and fiberglass application.
Economic theories and models of fan labor practices
Having invested significant amounts of time, most fans provide their creative works for others to enjoy without requiring or requesting monetary compensation. Most fans are engaged in an economic model that rewards labor with “credit” such as attribution, notoriety, and good will, rather than money.Gift economy
The most common formal economic model associated with fan labor practices is a gift economyGift economy
In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
. In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services
Goods and services
In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility. It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax....
are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards (i.e. no formal quid pro quo
Quid pro quo
Quid pro quo most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back,...
exists). Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community.
The gift economy manifests in fan labor practices through the writing and posting of a story (the gift given/exchanged), followed by the reading of the story (gift acceptance, completing the initial exchange), and finally, feedback to the original author and potentially passing the work along or linking to it for others to see (the reciprocal gift given).
The gift can also be surplus labor made in excess of the labor necessary from the worker, created not for other fans but rather to compel the original media property to notice their indebtedness and do something for the fans in return. These gifts are like offerings made to show the original producers that there is a lively fandom for their product, and possibly encourage the producers to make more. This was the case with the fans of the Firefly TV series
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
, who engaged in very visible fan activities, such as charity events, “guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla warfare is about waging small intermittent attacks on different territories of the opponent with the aim of harassing and demoralising the opponent and eventually securing permanent footholds....
” activities, creation of fan videos, and filk in order to successfully convince a studio to green light
Green Light
Green light or greenlight may refer to:*The wavelengths of light perceived as green by the human eye*The green light on a traffic light*Green-light, formal approval of finance for film or TV production*Fishing light attractor...
a movie sequel to the canceled TV series.
The organization of a gift economy stands in contrast to a barter economy or a market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
. The gift economy of fandom is seen by many fans as a central tenet of “what makes fandom different.”
Relationships between fans
Instead of monetary reward, one of the major rewards of fan labor is the formation of relationships between fan creators and other fans. The relationships created through fan exchanges are often as important, if not more so, than the products exchanged. The focus on relationships separates fandom economic practices from the capitalistic practices of everyday life.From an economic anthropology
Economic anthropology
Economic anthropology is a scholarly field that attempts to explain human economic behavior using the tools of both economics and anthropology. It is practiced by anthropologists and has a complex relationship with economics...
viewpoint, the products of fan labor are a form of cultural wealth, valuable also for their ability to interrelate the fan works, the fan-creators, and the original media property itself through conversation and fan work exchanges. Fans, in other words, are “affines”
Affinity (sociology)
Affinity in terms of sociology, refers to "kinship of spirit", interest and other interpersonal commonalities. Affinity is characterized by high levels of intimacy and sharing, usually in close groups, also known as affinity groups. It differs from affinity in law and canon law which generally...
of media property and of other fans.
Deification of media property owner
From another economic anthropologyEconomic anthropology
Economic anthropology is a scholarly field that attempts to explain human economic behavior using the tools of both economics and anthropology. It is practiced by anthropologists and has a complex relationship with economics...
perspective, fan creative practices are labor that is done in a relatively routine way and that helps to maintain a connection to the media property itself (the "cultural ancestor" or "deity"). Through their fan labor, fans are able to replicate "the original creative acts of first-principle deities, ancestors or cultural heroes."
Ritual anthropology
Fans engage in skilled crafting, “routine acts” within a ritual economy. The types of material that fans produce and consume continually reproduce the structures and worldview of the fandom subset of the authors and readers, for instance, in terms of which shipsShipping (fandom)
Shipping, derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two fictional characters, typically from the same series, are in an intimate relationship, or have romantic feelings that could potentially lead to a relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with...
are popular. These choices also reflect the relationships fans construct of their view of their place within fandom, including how they relate to the media property and the corporate structures and products surrounding it. Fans are therefore engaged in "the individual and collective construction of overlapping and even conflicting practices, identities, meanings, and also alternate texts, images, and objects."
The goods that fans produce as a result of these rituals are imbued with social value by other fans. Fan works are valued as fandom products, and they also support the fan creator's desire to be valued by peers.
Fan products and money
There is a divide in fandom between those who want to see new models of remuneration developed and those who feel that "getting paid cuts fandom off at the knees."If there were legitimate pathways for fans to create products that could lead to fame and fortune (or at least a paying job), the tradeoff between getting paid and getting ahead in the community (cultural capital) might be enough of an incentive to encourage creative work by fans.
Ambivalence regarding monetary compensation
Fans who do their creative work out of paying respect to the original media property or an actor or to the fandom in general gain cultural capital in the fandom. However, those who attempt to sell their creative products will be shunned by other fans, and subject to possible legal action. Fans often classify other fans trying to sell their items for profit motives as “hucksters” rather than true fans.Fans are often also fearful that charging other fans for products of their creativity, such as zines, videos, costumes, art, etc. will somehow fundamentally change the fan-fan relationship, as well as attract unwanted legal attention from copyright holders. That fear has come true in more than one case, such as the removal from sale on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
of a commercial fan fiction book set in the Star Wars universe. (see Another Hope
Another Hope
Another Hope is a Star Wars fan fiction novel that became controversial when its author, Lori Jareo, released it for commercial sale.-Plot:...
)
However, some fans engage in for-profit exchange of their creations in what is known as the “gray market”. The gray market operates mainly through word of mouth and “under the table” sales, and provides products of varying quality. Even though these are commercial activities, it is still expected that fan vendors will not make a large amount of profit, charging just enough to cover expenses. Some vendors attempt to not mark up their products at all, and will use that information in their promotional information, in an attempt to secure the confidence of other fans who may look down at fans making a profit.
Fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
is exceptional in that artists have traditionally sold their works in public at conventions and other fan gatherings, as well as on their own web sites. Many fan artists have set up e-commerce storefronts through vendors such as CafePress and Zazzle
Zazzle
Zazzle is an online retailer that allows users to upload images and create their own merchandise , or buy merchandise created by other users, as well as use images from participating companies...
, which allow customers to purchase items such as t-shirts, totes, and mugs with the fan design imprinted on them.
Filking has also become more commercialized, with several filkers (The Great LukeSki
Luke Ski
Luke Ski is a parody, filk and rap artist who writes, records and performs comedy music. He had the #1 most requested song on the Dr...
, Voltaire
Voltaire (musician)
Voltaire , is a popular dark cabaret Cuban-American musician...
, The Bedlam Bards, etc.) producing and selling filk cassettes, CDs and DVDs of their performances.
Skill development
Fan works develop the skills of the artists, and fan works enable women to develop skills in encouraging environments that are traditionally male-dominated (such as website design or server maintenance). Only some fans, however, primarily in the computer game industries, find employment through their fan works.Third parties making money on fans' backs
Some companies purchase fan-created additions or game items. Other companies run marketplaces for fans to sell these items to other fans for monetary reward.Conglomerates and fans
Jenkins comments on the fan-media conglomerate relationship, saying, “Here, the right to participate in the culture is assumed to be ‘the freedom we have allowed ourselves,’ not a privilege granted by a benevolent company, not something they [fans] are prepared to barter away for better sound files or free Web hosting. [….] Instead, they embrace an understanding of intellectual property as ‘shareware,’ something that accrues value as it moves across different contexts, gets retold in various ways, attracts multiple audiences, and opens itself up to a proliferation of alternative meanings.”However, this state of affairs may not last as companies become more aware of how fan labor activities can add to and affect the effectiveness of media product development, marketing, advertising, promotional activities, and distribution. A business report called The Future of Independent Media stated, “The media landscape will be reshaped by the bottom-up energy of media created by amateurs and hobbyists as a matter of course [….] A new generation of media makers and viewers are [sic] emerging which could lead to a sea change in how media is made and consumed.” The 2007 book Consumer Tribes is devoted to case studies of consumer groups, many of them media fans, who are challenging the traditional media production and consumer product marketing models.
Companies, however, react to fan activities in very different ways. While some companies actively court fans and these type of activities (sometimes limited to ways delineated by the company itself), other companies attempt to highly restrict them.
Full support of fan activities
The payments to fan creators of content that is used in upgrades to the model train simulator TrainzTrainz
Trainz is a series of 3D train simulator computer games developed by Australian game developer N3V Games . First released in 2001, the series has a large online community that creates and shares user-created content. The game has been released in several versions, including localized versions...
is an example of an original copyright owner being willing to share the potential commercial gain to be made from derivative works by fans.
In Japan, doujinshi is often sold side by side with its original commercial inspiration, with no legal action from the original publishers.
Co-opting fan activities
Companies are now building in room for participation and improvisation, allowing fans to essentially color-by-number with franchise approval. Some, however, disagree that it is good practice for corporations to engage in and encourage fan activities. Stephen Brown, in his article for Consumer Tribes, Harry Potter and the Fandom Menace, writes, ”Fans, furthermore, are atypical. [….] They are not representative, not even remotely. Their enthusiastically put views are hopelessly distorted, albeit hopelessly distorted in a direction marketers find congenial. Isn’t it great to gather eager followers? [….] The answer, in a nutshell, is NO.”Additionally, some corporations co-opt user-generated content as "free labor" As fans recognize the commercial value of their labor, the issue of companies abusing these volunteer creators of videos, stories, and advertisements (such as the 2007 DoritosTM Super Bowl Ad contest) by not providing an appropriate monetary reward is of concern.
Eliminating fan activities
In recent years, copyright holders have increasingly sent cease & desist letters to vendors and authors, as well as requests for back licensing fees or other fines for copyright violations. Often, these cases are settled out of court, but usually result in the fan vendor having to stop selling products entirely, or significantly modifying their wares to comply with the copyright owner’s demands.Legal issues
Most fan labor products are derivative workDerivative work
In United States copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work .-Definition:...
s, in that they are creative additions or modifications to an existing copyrighted work, or they are original creations which are inspired by a specific copyrighted work. Some or all of these works may fall into the legal category of transformative works
Transformation (law)
In United States copyright law, transformation is a possible justification that use of a copyrighted work may qualify as fair use, i.e., that a certain use of a work does not infringe its holder's copyright due to the public interest in the usage...
(such as a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the original), which is protected as fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
under U.S. copyright law. However, corporations continue to ask fans to stop engaging with their products in creative ways.
Support for fans
Fan labor products may be protected by the Fair Use DoctrineFair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
of the U.S. Copyright Law, which judges if a work is copyright-infringing based on four tests:
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
However, these tests are not absolute, and judges may decide to weigh one factor more heavily than another in any given case.
Although some fan artists receive cease & desist letters
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
or find themselves running afoul of copyright law, they may argue that their “artistic interpretation” of a character or scenario makes it a transformative work upheld by the fair use doctrine.
The Organization for Transformative Works
Organization for Transformative Works
The Organization For Transformative Works is a non-profit organization that advocates for the transformative and legitimate nature of fan labor activities, including fan fiction, fan vids, anime music videos, and real person fiction...
is a fan-run organization that advocates for the transformative nature of fan fiction and provides legal advice for fan fiction writers, vidders, and other fan labor practitioners.
Chilling Effects is a joint web project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics, which covers the current state of copyright-related law suits, and has a special section devoted to fan fiction legal action and how to fight it.
Copyright holders fight fans
Recent years have seen increasing legal action from media conglomerates, who are actively protecting their intellectual propertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
rights. Because of new technologies that make media easier to distribute and modify, fan labor activities are coming under greater scrutiny. Some fans are finding themselves the subjects of lawsuits or cease & desist letters which ask them to take down the offending materials from a website, or stop distributing or selling an item which the corporation believes violates their copyright. As a result of these actions by media companies, some conventions now ban fan art entirely from their art shows, even if not offered for sale, and third party vendors may remove offending designs from their websites.
Works cited
- Appadurai, Arjun (1986) The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Brown, Stephen (2007) "Harry Potter and the Fandom Menace". In Consumer Tribes, B. Cova, R.V. Kozinets and A. Shankar, eds. pp. 177–193. Oxford, Elsevier.
- Clerc, Susan (2002) Who Owns Our Culture? The Battle Over the Internet, Copyright, Media Fandom, and Everyday Uses of the Cultural Commons. Dissertation, Bowling Green State University. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning Co.
- Coppa, Francesca (2007) "A Brief History of Media Fandom". In Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, K Hellekson and K. Busse, eds. pp. 5–32. London, McFarland.
- Cova, Bernard, Robert V. Kozinets and Avi Shankar (2007) Consumer Tribes. Oxford, Elsevier.
- Deuze, Mark (2007) Media Work. Cambridge, Polity Press.
- Fiske, John (1992) "The Cultural Economy of Fandom". In The Adoring Audience, Lisa A. Lewis, ed. pp. 30–49. London, Routledge.
- Gray, Jonathan, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (2007) Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World. New York, New York University Press.
- Hellekson, Karen and Kristina Busse (2006) "Introduction: Work in Progress". In Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, K Hellekson and K. Busse, eds. pp. 5–32. London, McFarland.
- Helms, Mary W. (1998)"Tangible Durability". In Access to Origins: Affines, Ancestors, and Aristocrats. M.W. Helms, ed. pp. 164–173. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- Isaac, Barry L. (1993) "Retrospective on the Formalist-Substantivist Debate". Research in Economic Anthropology 14:213-233.
- Jenkins, Henry (2007a) Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York, New York University Press.
- Jenkins, Henry (2007b) "Afterword: The Future of Fandom".In Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World. J. Gray, C. Sandvoss and C.L. Harrington, eds. pp. 357–364. New York, New York University Press.
- Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, New York University Press.
- Keen, Andrew (2007) The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture. New York, Doubleday.
- Kozinets, Robert V. (2007) "Inno-tribes: Star Trek as wikimedia". In Consumer Tribes, B. Cova, R.V. Kozinets and A. Shankar, eds. pp. 177–193. Oxford, Elsevier.
- Mauss, Marcel (1990) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. W.D. Halls, transl. London: Routledge.
- MacDonald, Heidi (2006) "Star Wars POD Fan Fiction Flap". in Publishers Weekly; May 1, 2006, 253, 18. p. 6.
- Polanyi, Karl (1957) "The Economy as Instituted Process". In Trade and market in the Early Empires: Economies in History and Theory. C.M.A. K. Polanyi, H.W. Pearson, ed. pp. 243–270. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.
- Thorne, Scott and Gordon C. Bruner (2006) "An exploratory investigation of the characteristics of consumer fanaticism. Qualitative Market Research; 2006; 9, 1. p. 51. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1352-2752.htm.
- Thorsby, David (2001) "Introduction". In Economics and Culture. pp. 1–18. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Tushnet, Rebecca (2004) "Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech and How Copying Serves It". In The Yale Law Journal. 114(3):535-590.http://www.jstor.org/stable/4135692.
- Tushnet, Rebecca (2007) "Payment in Credit: Copyright Law and Subcultural Creativity". In Law & Contemporary Problems. 70:135-174. http://law.duke.edu/journals/lcp.
- Wells, E. Christian and Karla Davis-Salazar (2007) "Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Materialization as Ritual and Economic Process". In Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, E. C. Wells and K. L. Davis-Salazar, eds. pp. 1–26. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.
- Wilk, Richard R. and Lisa C. Cliggett (2007) Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
- Woo, Jisuk (2004) "Redefining the 'Transformative Use' of Copyrighted Works: Toward a Fair Use Standard in the Digital Environment". In Hastings Communications and Law Journal. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis service, University of South Florida Library.
External links
- http://chillingeffects.org/
- http://transformativeworks.org/
- http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/5748 Coverage of the Harry Potter Lexicon Trial