As a follow up to Charlie's post on Harry Potter's publishers pursuing what they view to be copyright violations, take a look at this piece in the Boston Globe from the Sunday Magazine of 6/25/03, "Taking Liberties With Harry Potter" by Tracy Mayor.

Mayor explores the copyright issues --and copyright holders responses-- to the extensive fanfic stories and WWW sites that have emerged around the world and characters of Rowling's Potter novels. (A shorter piece on the same topic, "Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer," by Ariana Eunjung Cha appeared in the Washington Post on June 17. Cha's piece, in its penultimate paragraph, mentions the work of the Creative Commons, and that many of the fanfic authors assert a creative commons copyright on their work.)

Some interesting things:

1. In both pieces, its made clear that, according to Rowling's agent, the author doesn't want to go after fanfic sites per se. Cha gets the better quote:
   

   Rowling has unofficially sanctioned some fan-fiction sites by leaving them alone. To many of those that feature adult material, however, her agents have sent sharply worded cease-and-desist letters.

   The author is "flattered by genuine fan fiction," said Neil Blair, an attorney for the Christopher Little Literary Agency, which represents Rowling. But she has been alarmed by "pornographic or sexually explicit material clearly not meant for kids."

2. Further, both pieces also note that Warner Bros (movie and merchandising rights) Scholastic, and other stake holders in the Potter franchise don't want upset the fanfic base. These are people who see the movies multiple times, buy multiple copies of the book, and buy mugs, and other Potter related paraphenalia.

But what's also interesting, apart from the response of Potter copyright holders, is the awareness of copyright and the role of fanfic writers to the original. The Boston Globe piece in particular gets at this, noting that fanfic authors are very careful to distinguish "the canon" -- Rowling's work -- from "the fanon," work by fanfic writers.

Both pieces conveyed, I thought, the care with which fanfic writers form a community, obey rules and conventions that make sure to honor Rowling's work and to respect the ingrity and saleability of her work, to honor their own work among one another, and originality within the universe of their derivative creations.

The Globe piece offered a telling analogy. Potter for fanfic writers is like object-oriented programming. The original is demarked and clarified, but the variations and extensions of its parts, elements and characters from the world it creates, are there to be explored.

But most of all, when you think of all this, what you find is that by writing so fervently, fanfic authors are really very active readers.