Legal Issues With Fan Fiction - Fan Fiction Outside The United States

Fan Fiction Outside The United States

In Great Britain, Discworld author Terry Pratchett, while emphasizing that he is careful not to read fanfics, has voiced the opinion that "everything works if people are sensible" and doesn't mind "so long as people don't put it where I can trip over it". However, Pratchett emphasizes that the Discworld and all its characters are ultimately his intellectual property, and stresses that "it is not a franchise".

Neil Gaiman, another English author who has written such works as Stardust, Coraline, and American Gods, says he does not mind fan fiction as long as the author notes that the characters are the intellectual property of another and so long as the fiction is not for profit.

In countries such as Russia, where copyright laws are more lenient or less well enforced, it is not uncommon to see fan fiction based on the work of popular authors published in book form. Sergey Lukyanenko, a popular science fiction author, went as far as to incorporate some fan fiction based on his stories into official canon (with permission of the writers of the said fan fiction). Perhaps the most famous case, however, is Dmitri Yemets' Tanya Grotter book series, a "cultural response" to Harry Potter, which provoked a lawsuit from J. K. Rowling.

In Japan, the dōjinshi subculture is similar to a combination of the United States subcultures surrounding underground comics, science fiction fanzines, and fan fiction. Many dōjinshi works are manga-format fan fiction, which in Japan is, while not strictly legal, generally tolerated and usually encouraged, being looked upon as a form of free advertising or a breeding ground for new talent, most famously the group CLAMP and Love Hina author Ken Akamatsu.