Using Social Norms to Regulate Fan Fiction and Remix Culture - Introduction - I. Three Norms That Regulate Fan Fiction and Remix Culture

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Asher

Examines how social norms govern fan fiction and remix culture, focusing on three key norms: socially acceptable and somewhat encouraged amateur remix, the norm against commercializing fan fiction, and competing norms among rights-holders about tolerance for noncommercial use. Reviews regulatory options in a shifting-norm environment and engages Lessig’s vision of remixing, addressing how fan fiction and remix can be evaluated as fair use. Analyzes how norms generate costs for commercial owners.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages67

Reading Time2 h 49 min

AccessFree to download

Using Social Norms to Regulate Fan Fiction and Remix Culture

Three Norms That Regulate Fan Fiction and Remix Culture

Regulatory Options in a World of Shifting Norms

Lessig’s Vision of America: Millions of Kids in OrangeJumpsuits

Much Fan Fiction and Remix Are Fair Use

Norms as Generators of Costs to Commercial Owners

ARTICLE | USING SOCIAL NORMS TO REGULATE FAN
FICTION AND REMIX CULTURE | | --- | | STEVEN A. HETCHER†
INTRODUCTION 1869
I. THREE NORMS THAT REGULATE FAN
FICTION AND REMIX CULTURE 1874
A. The Norm of Socially Acceptable and Somewhat
Encouraged Amateur Remix ................................................1880
B. The Norm Against Commercializing Fan Fiction...................1884
C. Competing Norms Among Owners Regarding
Tolerance of Noncommercial Use ..........................................1887
II. REGULATORY OPTIONS INA WORLD OF SHIFTING NORMS 1891
III. LESSIG’S VISION OF AMERICA: MILLIONS OF
KIDS IN ORANGEJUMPSUITS.........................................................1895
IV. MUCH FAN FICTION AND REMIX ARE FAIR USE 1900
V. NORMS AS GENERATORS OF COSTS TO COMMERCIAL OWNERS 1928
CONCLUSION 1934
INTRODUCTION
Fan fiction and remix culture have been and are continuing to explode both in terms of social relevance and sheer quantity of new | † Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School (Yale Law School, J.D. ; University of Chicago, M.A.; University of Illinois at Chicago, Ph.D.) . I would like to gratefully acknowledge the research and administrative assistance of Casey Fiesler, Pam Holland, and Nicole Lytle, as well as the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. I would also like to thank the Symposium participants for their many helpful comments. (1869) 1870 University of Pennsylvania Law Review [Vol. 157: 1869 works produced and available.1 Fan fiction is simply that: fiction created by fans, typically of popular commercial works, such as the Harry Potter book and film series. Rebecca Tushnet’s path-setting article defines fan fiction as follows: “‘Fan Fiction,’ broadly speaking, is any kind of written creativity that is based on an identifiable segment of popular culture, such as a television show, and is not produced as‘professional’ writing.”2 Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co. could be called the first fanfiction case, but Alice Randall, the author of the parody at issue in Suntrust, is better described as an antifan of Gone with the Wind.3 The case turned on a defense of criticism and parody, not specifically on the fanlike nature of the work.4 However, if Randall’s book counts as fan fiction, then it is not the case that there is no settled fan-fiction case law, a claim that sometimes has been made.5 As technology has advanced, fan fiction has evolved into “fanworks” or, alternatively,“fanvids.”6 A related but more general term is 1 See Matthew Mirapaul, Why Just Listen to Pop When You Can Mix Your Own?, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 20, 2001, at E2 (“In postmodern culture, in which existing elements are routinely cut, pasted and blended into new works, computers are providing handy tools for these transformations, and the Internet is supplying an eager audience for the results.”) . Like amateur musicians who produce derivative musical works, amateur authors maintain hundreds of literary “fan fiction” websites publishing stories about popular characters from television shows like Star Trek and The West Wing. Id. 2 Rebecca Tushnet, Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law, 17 LOY. L.A. ENT. L. REV. 651, 655 (1997) [hereinafter Tushnet, Legal Fictions] . 3 Tushnet’s definition does not mention that the works must be created by fans. Thus, the definition would not exclude the work of antifans such as Alice Randall. Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, a brilliantly scathing critique of the racism embedded in Gone with the Wind. See generally Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257, 1276 (11th Cir. 2001) (holding that Randall was entitled to a fair use defense for The Wind Done Gone and lifting the injunction issued against its publication); ALICE RANDALL, THE WIND DONE GONE (2001) . 4 See Suntrust, 268 F.3d at 1267-76 (analyzing Randall’s fair use defense in terms of paro5dyS)e.e, e.g. ,

FAQs

论文主要研究什么问题？

探讨社会规范如何规范并影响同人小说与remix文化的发展，并讨论在规范不断变化的环境下可能的监管路径。

文中提出的“三种规范”分别是什么？

包括对“可接受且被一定程度鼓励的业余remix”的规范、反对把同人小说商业化的规范，以及权利人之间就非商业使用容忍度而产生的竞争性规范。

作者如何看待同人小说与remix的合理使用（fair use）？

指出大量同人小说与remix可以被视为fair use，并将相关讨论与transformative用法的概念张力联系起来。

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Asher