Fic by permission

[rachelmanija]

The introduction I wrote for Project Blue Rose: Human Touch invites fans of the series to feel free to write fic for it, should they so desire, as long as they don't try to profit from it without my permission, use my characters without crediting me, or sue me. I have noticed that other individual authors have explicitly invited or given permission to their fans to do the same.

Does anyone know if any major American publishing house or TV/film production company currently has an official statement that fans are welcome to write fanfic based on its properties for their own or shared enjoyment, so long as they don't attempt to profit financially by it without permission and each work's individual creators have also given permission (or at least haven't forbidden it)?

I wonder if OTW is working on some sort of legal language so that companies can do just that.

I also wonder if such a move would generate goodwill and or even new interest in writing fic (if the works in question didn't already generate a lot), would cause an explosion of suspicion that there was some hidden catch, or have other consequences -- perhaps a massive failure to notice or care!

Comments

[paper-legends.livejournal.com]

Well, not exactly fic by fans, but by creative staff who worked on the Highlander TV series but are not professional writers; they gained permission (or were approached) by the copyright holders to make the book:

In one of the year's most unusual media tie-in events, the cast, crew and writers of a smash-hit TV series turn their creative talents to writing original fiction based on their own show. (http://www.amazon.com/Highlander-Evening-at-Joes-Various/dp/0425177491/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1)

The show is television's popular Highlander series. And these are the stories that have remained untold until now: character histories by the actors who play them...spin-offs of favorite episodes...plots that exist only in the producer's imagination. These all-new adventures of Duncan MacLeod and the Immortals offer a once-in-a-lifetime look inside the minds of the people who know Highlander best-because they created Highlander...

An Evening at Joe's includes short fiction by:

Don Anderson (Assistant Props Master)
Roger Bellon (Composer)
Dennis Berry (Director)
Laura Brennan (Script Coordinator)
Jim Byrnes ("Joe Dawson")
Anthony De Longis ("Otavio Consone")
Ken Gord (Producer)
Gillian Horvath (Associate Creative Consultant)
Peter Hudson ("James Horton")
Stan Kirsch ("Richie Ryan")
Donna Lettow (Associate Creative Consultant)
F. Braun McAsh (Swordmaster and "Hans Kershner")
Valentine Pelka ("Kronos")
Peter Wingfield ("Methos")

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

The nearest thing I've seen isn't very, insofar as it's not "major publishing house" but the authors themselves: policy (http://www.shadowunit.org/smf/index.php?topic=39.0), linked from the site sidebar (http://www.shadowunit.org/) for Shadow Unit.