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Abstract:
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"I don't think that any of the policies underlying copyright would be undermined if the uses that Professor Tushnet describes were on the 'no copyright owner control' side of that line. Fan creations are usually good for business. Star Trek was just one of a bunch of TV series canceled for poor ratings, until some women got together at science-fiction conventions and started exchanging home-made Star Trek short stories based on the premise that Kirk and Spock were lovers. Fan fiction, fan art, and a generation of people who attended science-fiction conventions to dress up in Klingon costumes gave Star Trek a second life that was far more commercially successful than the first. Paramount built the remnants of Star Trek into a multimillion-dollar franchise initially on the backs of creative fans. Similarly, fans who continued to try to live in the Star Wars universe for a generation after the Return of the Jedi gave George Lucas the audience base he needed to foist on us three Star Wars prequels, Jar Jar Binks, a universe of flimsy plastic toys, and $100 replica light sabers in your choice of Jedi colors. Why not, then, allow fannish creativity to blossom without limit?"
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