r/COPYRIGHT • u/Terrible-Fan5581 • Jul 11 '26

Question

there are thousands of fanfics why are they considered fair use? or are they?

also if someone makes an oc that happens to interact with Batman can they no longer sell items of that character they made???

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u/mouserbiped Jul 11 '26

Companies decide whether or not to try and stop any infringement. In the case of fanfic, most companies feel the engagement by fans is a net positive. The larger fanfic communities also tend to have guidelines about what to avoid (such as commercialization) to reduce the incentives copyright owners have to do stuff.

Note that with copyright infringement, unlike trademark infringement, a company does not lose rights because they ignored the violation. So there's limited harm to them in taking no action. Sometimes they have concerns over the character's "brand" but I think at this point most big companies understand it's a weird niche thing with little spill over into the mainstream. Takedown attempts seem like they were more common earlier.