George R.R. Martin Hates Fanfiction, Even Though He Used to Write It Himself
The Game of Thrones author is famously opposed to fanfiction, but he also admits to having written it himself back in the day. What's GRRM's problem here, then?
Saying that George R.R. Martin, the world-famous author of The Song of Ice and Fire which laid the foundation for the record-breaking show Game of Thrones, is not a fan of fanfiction would be a massive understatement.
GRRM is what you would call the number one enemy of all fic writers as he wants them to go extinct in general.
According to Martin, fanfiction is a very deceiving and dangerous phenomenon; first and foremost, it puts the original author at risk.
GRRM typically addresses the issue of copyright infringement. An author that allows other people to use his world and characters risks losing the rights to his creation, claims Martin — and illustrates it.
One of his favorite cautionary examples is the case of Marion Zimmer Bradley, the author of the Darkover series. MZB loved and encouraged fanfiction to the point of reading it herself and participating in discussions.
Her fan community was more than happy with that, and so was she… Until one shameful story happened.
Marion once came across a piece of fanfiction that had the same idea she was using in her work-in-progress Darkover book.
Instead of coming to terms with MZB, the fan demanded full co-authorship and 50% of the sales and threatened Marion with a lawsuit if she didn't do that.
MZB had to scrap the entire book to avoid legal issues.
This is far from being the only such case, George Martin claims. The only right course of action for any book author is to protect their work from both legal and creative perspectives and not to encourage fanfiction in any way, shape, or form.
Otherwise, Martin claims, they risk ending up sued for their own copyrights.
It's no secret that GRRM himself used to write fanfiction, though. Doesn't this fact make him a hypocrite?
Well, no, it doesn't.
Back in his day, the author explains, the term "fanfiction" meant a completely different thing: those were simple stories written by fans for other fans.
That kind of fanfiction didn't use other people's characters and worlds and had its own ideas.
Modern-day fanfiction, on the other hand, denies authors the ownership of their works, and this is unacceptable, says GRRM.
Unless the original author gave you their express consent to use their worlds and characters, you must come up with your own ideas and not infringe on others' intellectual property.
Of course, George Martin applies all these principles to his own world of The Song of Ice and Fire. No one could describe it better than the man himself: "No one gets to abuse the people of Westeros but me."
Source: George R.R. Martin