Fanart is everywhere. It’s in hidden sketchbooks, hiding around on DeviantArt, and on that one Instagram page that you followed in 2013 that posted a mini-avengers comic that made you laugh.
But, where exactly did fan art come from? What is the general public reaction to fan art? Are there different types? Can there be legal issues with fan art?
The concept of fanart actually came into being long before our existence. In fact, some Ancient Egyptian paintings can even be considered fan art. Fanart was always a small key part of fandoms, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that fanart became more popularized (thanks StarTrek!) FanArt started as simple pen-and-ink drawings, but has evolved to colored copies and beyond today thanks to copying and home printer technology ⁽¹⁾.
Alas-the wonderful invention of the internet, a great way to share ideas, etc, etc. Yet, all that repeated nonsense is extraordinarily true in fandoms- especially seen throughout fan art. There’s no better way to share your drawings than through a quick Twitter post or a YouTube speed draw lapse.
Although fanart is a great way to share the artist’s skills, it also causes legal issues.
Fanart is categorized as fanwork, which already blurs the line between copyrighted content and fan content. At what point do fanart or fanworks cross the line and become copyright susceptible?
Copyright laws protect the rights of the original work, and theoretically, any artist wishing to create a work derivative from that should do so with the copyright holder’s permission and/or have a license to share and sell the fanart ⁽²⁾. Some claim that fanart falls under fair use, and shouldn’t be treated through copyright laws
There’s a sort of unspoken rules that most big sites go about to prevent trademark disputes.
1.) They agree to not profit from or sell copies of their creations. Though some of the communities run ads to cover hosting costs, most do not turn any profit and the individual authors never sell their works
2.) Second, they always proclaim that their work is unofficial and has no connection with the creators.
3.) They respond to requests from the copyright holder to remove content and work with the creator as needed.
Nevertheless, fanart is typically ignored by copyright holders and there are few trademark disputes (it gets the word out for free-who wouldn’t want free advertising?). Although the selling of fanart continues, at certain, bigger conventions, the seller needs to have a copyright license to sell their wares.
Lastly, I would like to shine a light on the Harry Potter Lexicon. A devoted Harry Potter fan created a website and book as a guide to the Harry Potter series, a project he worked on for seven years. It included spells, characters, creatures, and analyzed the series and many other interesting tidbits that would astonish any common muggle. Unfortunately, a trademark case was made against it and ruled a modified version needed to be published. Fortunately, there’s the (mainly) original version online that can be found here! Hopefully, you will geek out reading magical theories as much as I did.