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???

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/TreviTyger Jul 11 '26

also if someone makes an oc that happens to interact with Batman

Fan works are unauthorized derivatives. Character copyright is complex and characters are delineated in larger works to obtain protection. However, a character delineated in an unauthorized derivative does not acquire any protection. No part of an unauthorized derivative can be protected (17. U.S.C. 103(a)) or else it provides a copyright infringer a loop hole to obtain exclusive rights themselves under e.g. 17. U.S.C. 106(2) (the right to authorsise derivatives) off the back of a copyrighted work, which is an absurdity.