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IS FANFICTION ETHICAL?
A Study of

by
Hannah Wilson-Bettis
Student ID: B321231

This project is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of
Bachelor of Arts degree of Loughborough University
2016

Supervisors: Adrienne Muir and Sally Maynard
Department of English and Drama

Abstract
The purpose of this project is to conclude whether the public think that fan fiction
is ethical
...
This has
been achieved by analysing the opinions and behaviours of people in the online
fanfiction community, which has then been cross-examined in turn to draw conclusions
on the level of social acceptance of a previously unacknowledged genre of fiction
...

Also, my friends and family that have been in constant support throughout this
project; with special mention to my Nan and my boyfriend, who was happy to sit
through sometimes endless ramblings when I was getting my ideas together
...


3

Table of Contents
Abstract
...
3
List of Tables and Figures
...
8
1
...
8

1
...
8

Aim(s):
...
8
Chapter 2: Literature Review
...
1 Definition of Fan Fiction and Introduction
...
2 Authors versus Fans: Historical Reactions to Fan Fiction
...
3 How the Internet Changed Fan Fiction
...
4 Recent Popularity of Fan Fiction
...
5 Different Perceptions of Fan Fiction
...
6

Literature Review Summary
...
15
3
...
15
3
...
15
3
...
1 Introduction
...
2
...
15
3
...
3 Limitations and Ethical Considerations
...
3 Research Design and Epistemology
...
3
...
17
3
...
17
3
...
1 Purpose, Use and Implementation
...
4
...
18
3
...
18
4

3
...
1 Online Questionnaire Preparation and Format
...
5
...
18

3
...
3

Limitations and Ethical Considerations
...
5
...
20
3
...
21

3
...
1 Introduction
...
6
...
21
3
...
3 Sampling
...
64
...
22
3
...
5 Limitations and Ethical Considerations
...
7

Semi-Structured Interviews
...
7
...
22
3
...
2

Preparation, Implementation and Purpose
...
7
...
22

3
...
4

Content Analysis
...
7
...
23
Chapter 4: Research Findings, Analysis and Discussion
...
1 Introduction
...
2 Online Poll
...
3 Questionnaire Analysis
...
3
...
25
4
...
2 Qualitative Data Analysis
...
3 Cyber-Ethnography
...
Error! Bookmark not defined
...
4 Semi Structured Interviews
...
35
Chapter 5: Conclusions
...
1 Conclusions
...
2 Aims and Objectives Evaluation
...
39
4

To investigate the laws surrounding intellectual property and copyright and

how these coincide with ethical issues
...
39
6

To draw conclusions on whether the fan fiction is truly ethical from the research

conducted
...
3 Possible Recommendations to the Book Trade
...
4 Suggested Further Research
...
42
Appendices
...
45
Appendix 1
...
45
Appendix 2 – Questionnaire
...
56
Appendix 4 – Semi-Structured Interview Agenda
...
58
Appendix 6 – Coding Templates
...
1 Questionnaire Qualitative Data
...
2 Cyber-Ethnography collected data
...
3 Interview Data
...


6

List of Tables and Figures
Figure 1
...
20
Figure 4
...
25
Figure 6
...
26
Figure 8
...
28
Figure 10
...
29
Figure 12
...
30
Figure 13
...
32

7

Chapter 1: Introduction
1
...
The introduction of the internet has enabled
fan culture to expand, online communities who share a common popular culture interest1
are now easily able to share their ideas and fiction on an international scale
...
The most notable case of which
is E
...
James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, hence is use as a case study within this research
...
2 Aims and Objectives
Aim(s):
This study will aim to investigate the history of fan fiction and the impact that it
has had on authors and publishers
...


Project Objectives:
1
...
To collaborate views on fan-fiction in the form of a literature review
3
...
To conduct primary research in order to collect new data and opinions
around the ethics of fan fiction from a more generalised perspective
5
...
by Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Anton Kirchhofer, Sirpa Leppänen,
(Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009) pp
...
1 Definition of Fan Fiction and Introduction
If we define fanfiction as ‘any story created by a fan about a movie, book,
television show, or other media artefact’2, it can be argued that books such as the
beloved Bridget Jones’ Diary, by Helen Fielding, which is loosely based on Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice, is fan fiction
...

Fanfiction stories are non-canonical where the canon is the body of information
considered to be officially correct about a show, book, or movie
...

The introduction of the internet has immensely expanded the ease of
accessibility to fan fiction, and as such the debate over ethics, naturally, is growing with
it
...


2
...
The outcry against fan fiction is evident as early as
1614, poor reproductions causing authors to respond:
‘In 1614, Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda (a sock for some unknown
writer) wrote a sequel to Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote… In his
dedication of the continuation (whatever its inspiration), the real Cervantes
claims that the real Quixote is ‘“with his spurs, and on his way’ … so as
to dispel the loathing and disgust caused by another Don Quixote who,

2McGee,

Jennifer, ‘“In the End, It’s All Made Up”: The Ethics of Fanfiction and Real Person Fiction’ in
Communication Ethics, Media & Popular Culture (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
...
162

9

under the name of Second Part, has run masquerading through the whole
world” 3
‘That’s pretty much how Anne Rice feels about fanfiction too
...
The characters are copyrighted
...
“’5
...
’6
Similarly, George R
...
Martin has told fan fiction writers to ‘get their own
stories’
...
This in itself presents an area for discussion, as Martin dislikes only the idea of
fan fiction, and has no examples to base this prejudice upon
...

Rice’s statement that the characters are copyrighted highlights the legal element
of the ethics debate
...
Both aforementioned authors appear to have an issue with fan
fiction due to its quality
...

‘I first read Wide Sargasso Sea before coming to Jane Eyre
...
30
4 Jamison, Anne Elizabeth, Fic, Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, (Published Online: Smart Pop,
December 2013) pp
...
com/ReaderInteraction-MessagesToFans
...
, 2005) pp
...
R
...
smh
...
au/entertainment/books/george-rr-martinhands-off-my-characters-20131108-2x6fb
...
81
9 Shoard, Catherine, ‘Annie Proulx bemoans torrent of 'pornish' Brokeback fan fiction’ in The Guardian,
September 2008 ...
com/film/2008/sep/17/heathledger
...
’10
Conversely, author of the Harry Potter series J
...
Rowling was initially very
openly supportive of fan fiction, however, ‘Rowling was also surprised by the amount
of sexually explicit fan fiction written about her characters
...
’11
This suggests then that sexually explicit fan fiction is different from other fan fiction and
hence has different ethical implications
...
3 How the Internet Changed Fan Fiction
‘[T]he World Wide Web, moved fandom and fanfiction into entirely new
realms’ 12
...
Fan fiction
on a small scale such as this rarely caused upset, even though the publisher were
profiting from this organised distribution
...
When the mode of distribution shifted to the internet, this underground literature
became easier to create and make available for anyone to see, including the authors
that abhor it
...
4 Recent Popularity of Fan Fiction
As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, fan fiction is growing in popularity
with the rise of the internet
...
independent
...
uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-widesargasso-sea-by-jean-rhys-876227
...
usfca
...
, 2005) pp
...
39
12

11

their works without censorship
...
There is, however, a reason that Amazon have only managed to obtain
licences for these works of fiction, in that not all authors and/or publishers agree that
fan fiction authors profiting from their work is an ethical form of income, as will be
addressed within this study
...
L
...
James ‘transposed the largely chaste
love story’ of Edward and Bella from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight ‘into a sexually
explicit register
...
As this is such a high profile example, it shall
be used as a case-study within this research, which will also be useful in setting a
baseline for which to refer back to
...
15

2
...
Pimenova argues that fan
fiction communities use their stories as a form of literary criticism16
...
Busse and Hellekson support Pimenova’s
ideology, arguing that ‘a scholar researching the work of, say, Margaret Atwood would
not write to Atwood and ask whether it is acceptable for her to work on Atwood’s texts;
the very idea is ludicrous
...
nybooks
...
net ...
net/topic/20103/38133044/1/>
[accessed on: 20/02/2016]
16 Pimenova, Daria, Internet Fictions ed
...
54
17 Bauer, Carola Katharina, Naughty Girls and Gay Male Romance/Porn: Slash Fiction, Boys’ Love
Manga and Other Works by Female “Cross-Voyeurs” in the U
...
Academic Discourses (Hamburg: Anchor
Academic Publishing, 2013) pp
...
‘Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is taught
as regularly in college classrooms and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre’19 as a book that is
seen to be revolutionary in its commentary on race and feminist issues, even though the
story is at its heart a prequel to Jane Eyre
...
6 Literature Review Summary
It is apparent from the literature that many different opinions are held about fan
fiction
...
On the other hand, some authors are
indifferent and others openly support the creation of fan fiction
...
The internet has enabled self-publishing to grow and
make earning from fan fiction easier whilst publishing houses are capitalising on the
fan fiction that already has a growing fan base
...
The academics views tend to be more focussed
on whether fan fiction has an educational value and can therefore be justified as
ethical
...
38
19Hellekson, Karen and Kristina Busse in The Fan Fiction Studies Reader ed by Karen Hellekson and
Kristina Busse (Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2014) pp
...
theguardian
...

To conclude, the literature reviewed above provided the research with a number
of different perspectives as well as giving direction as to what needs to be investigated
further
...


14

Chapter 3: Methodology
3
...
Firstly, to identify the awareness and presence of fan fiction with the general
public, including the sources that fan fiction may be accessed and knowledge of fan
fiction that has crossed over into the mass market
...
In addition to a literature review, cyber-ethnography, including: polls, surveys and
observation will be employed to collect data
...


3
...
2
...
As part of the initial
research, the literature review aimed to provide historical context and insight into a
long-debated and highly controversial topic
...
2
...
Whilst interesting, finding relevant
information through this method was difficult, and as such, refining search terms has
been an essential part of the process
...
Findings were critically analysed on their subjectivity and reliability,
their academic value and on how they fulfilled the aims and objectives
...


Dawidowicz, Paula, Literature Reviews Made Easy: A Quick Guide to Success (Charlotte, North
Carolina: Information Age Publishing, 2010) pp
...
This strategy produced the information
that formed the basis of the research, which was then revised and revisited as the
project progressed
...
2
...
However, this research gave glimpses into what the public
may think and gave useful direction for the research
...

The ethical considerations within the literature review consist simply of the
articles that are cited within the literature review are correctly credited
...
3 Research Design and Epistemology
In order to fulfil the aim and objectives of the project, a sequential mixed
methods approach was assumed, after establishing that this was the most appropriate
approach
...
The “imported” strategies are supplemental to the major or core method and
serve to enlighten or provide clues that are followed up within the core method
...
’23 The benefits of this approach clearly outweighed the difficulties created
by the time constraints, mixed methods offering a broader perspective, with more
reliable data and gave the opportunity for comparing both types of data to provide
more accurate, generalizable findings
...
, ‘Principles of Mixed Methods and Mulitmethod Research Design’ in Handbook of
Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research ed
...
190
23 Morse, Janice, M
...
by Abbas Tashakkori and Charles Teddle (Sage
Publications: London, 2003) pp
...

‘If the purpose of the research is to describe or discover, to find meaning, or to
explore, then the theoretical approach will be inductive
...
This inductive approach will be conducted through the
distribution of questionnaires, polls, cyber-ethnography and semi structured interviews
to ‘systematically observes the phenomena under investigation’ which then allowed the
research to search ‘for patterns or themes in the observations’ and from this develop ‘a
generalization from the analysis of those themes’
...


3
...
1 Limitations and Ethical considerations
There are limitations to using a mixed methods approach
...


3
...
4
...
toluna
...
, ‘Principles of Mixed Methods and Mulitmethod Research Design’ in Handbook of
Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research ed
...
193
25 Morse, Janice, M
...
by Abbas Tashakkori and Charles Teddle (Sage
Publications: London, 2003) pp
...
273
27 Morse, Janice, M
...
by Abbas Tashakkori and Charles Teddle (Sage
Publications: London, 2003) pp
...
, ‘Principles of Mixed Methods and Mulitmethod Research Design’ in Handbook of
Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research ed
...
195
24

17

3
...
2 Limitations and Ethical Considerations
As a simple one question poll, there is no depth in answers, however, as a simple
indicator of a baseline, to use a framework to refer back to, it fulfilled its purpose
...


3
...
5
...
An initial pilot study of 4 people was undertaken to eliminate
ambiguity and ensure clarity which resulted in some minor phrasing and formatting
changes but the questionnaire was otherwise unchanged
...

It consisted of 19 questions, divided into six sections, most of which used a
multiple choice, check box format which allowed participants to select from very clear
answers
...


3
...
2 Sampling
I chose to use an online format as ‘online questionnaires and e-mail interviews
can significantly broaden a cohort of respondents’ 29 and as my study intended to
produce information that can be applied to the general public, a large and diverse
sample was desired
...
5
...
The use of forced choice answers or pre-coded questions limits the scope
of answers possible to receive, but as the questions asked are relatively simple, and
were successful in the pilot, this should not cause an issue
...
1177/0038038508094565 pp
...

The questions in my survey that required more complex answers employed
scales rather than prescribed answers in order to eradicate researcher influence
...

I acknowledge that by using the aforementioned samples and the method of an
online questionnaire, my research is somewhat limited; both in depth of response and
because online questionnaires favour the more computer literate, and by nature are
more likely to appeal to a younger sample
...
Within my findings none of the results can be connected to particular
participants
...
’31

30Bryman,

Alan, Research Methods and Organization Studies (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) pp
...
1177/0038038508094565 pp
...
As fan fiction is largely based online now so this was suitable form of collecting
data,

however,

online

surveys are more likely to
receive respondents from
this

age

category,

especially when distributed
through social media
...
Of the
63 respondents, n=26 of
FIGURE 2

the respondents were male
and n=36 were female,

(see figure 2, above)
...
Again, as part of the ethical considerations, the researcher
avoided researching vulnerable groups by discarding data from participants aged 18
and over
As with all the data collected, the questionnaire had to comply with the Data
Protection Act, and as such no names were submitted on questionnaire and the email
addresses of respondents have not published in this research
...


3
...
2 Content Analysis of Questionnaire Qualitative Data
Content analysis is ‘a method for systematically describing the meaning of
qualitative material
...
33 This allowed the

32

Schreier, Margrit, Qualitative Content Analysis in Practice (London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2012) pp
...
youtube
...

33

20

researcher to look for patterns between the multiple methods used within the study with
as little subjectivity as possible
...
6 Cyber-Ethnography
3
...
1 Introduction
For many years now, the internet has been a part of day to day life, the
introduction of smart phones and the rapid spread of high-speed internet has
encouraged the use of social networking
...
Social
networking sites ‘contain vast stores of multimedia material regarding even the most
marginal social movements or groups’, such as fandoms and therefore they are an
appropriate platform from which to conduct ethnographical research
...
6
...
This makes it a supplementary method, and therefore relies on
being compared to the primary research: the online questionnaire and poll
...
This was essential in providing a clear picture of the public
opinion of fan fiction, as by and large the questioning of its ethics provoked angry
responses in many cases
...


3
...
3 Sampling
When conducting my cyber-ethnography, I chose to use discussion boards and
comments sections from useful articles to study responses
...


34

Hine, Christine, Virtual Ethnography (Sage Publications Ltd, 2003) pp
...
64
...
At that time, the coded data
was sorted into analytical categories so as to infer meaningful conclusions
...
6
...
- Busse and Hellekson state the ‘fans perceive the space where they
create their artworks as closed35’
...


3
...
7
...

There were also issues, as outlined in the previous sections with the generalisability of
the samples
...


3
...
2 Preparation, Implementation and Purpose
The online questionnaire acted as preparation for the participants that took
part in the semi-structured interviews
...
7
...
1177/0038038508094565 pp
...
Hence, the researcher selected a participant selected from each
age group that participated within the survey
...


3
...
4 Content Analysis
As mentioned in the methodology for the other data collection methods, the
researcher used Gibbs’ approach to coding to carry out the content analysis
...


3
...
5 Limitations and Ethical Considerations
A Limitation of this form of data collection was the small size of the sample,
however, this was a supplementary sample
...
Also, the agenda design was formulated to include no questions
that would purposefully cause psychological distress
...
1 Introduction
The research was designed to fill gaps in the knowledge that were identified
in the literature review
...

To fill these gaps, the cross sectional analysis of both qualitative and
quantitative data was needed to produce a reliable conclusion
...


4
...
The remaining
76 respondents did not know how they felt about the issue, as shown in figure 3 below
...

However, as such a large percentage of the respondents are indecisive, it is unclear
whether this is actually the case or whether those respondents are unclear on what fan
fiction is as this poll was not part of a larger survey
...
As this sample had a male response rate of only
n=29 (see figure 4, overleaf), this is only of 12 of 115 respondents, making it not
particularly significant
...
Of these respondents
n=17 thought was unethical and it was n=25, (see figure 4, below)
...
This is significant as the majority of fan

FIGURE 4
fiction writers and readers are women36, suggesting that they would be naturally more
apathetic to fan fiction authors
...
3 Questionnaire Analysis
4
...
1 Quantitative Data Analysis
The questionnaire consisted of fourteen quantitative questions, some of the
responses for which are displayed below, others have been included before in section
3
...
3
...
36
36

25

FIGURE 5
Of the sample, 32
...
These statistics offer context, and put into perspective people’s knowledge of all
fiction and subsequently their potential knowledge and interest in fan fiction
...

Of the n=63 participants, n=30 (48
...
n=32 (51
...

While n=32 participants had never read fan fiction before many of the
participants seemed to have a good idea of what fan fiction was
...
This
suggests that there is a
potential for the publishing
industry to profit from fan
fiction, but that this would
only appeal to a small
percentage

of

the

population
...
It may also be down to the negative reputation and review
of fan fiction, or because of the ethical issues on profiting from other people’s work
...

In spite of nearly half of the sample having responded that they have read fan
fiction before, only 8
...
These
answers also give insight into whether participants may be biased
...

Of
32
...
5%, or n=27 did not
consider it to be fan fiction
and 24
...


FIGURE 9
30
...
4%, or n=43 that said it would not, (as displayed in figure 9)
...
Just 21% of respondents (n=13) made a decision, n=6 (9
...
3%) deciding no, (shown in figure 10, above)
...


28

The contrast of the two was supposed to show the difference in opinion between
what is considered to be high literature and other forms of fan fiction
...
32% (or n=20)
of participants said that using other authors’ ideas in new stories was completely
acceptable as shown in figure 11, above
...
19
...
Only 22% of participants thought that the use of
other people’s ideas in new stories was in any way unethical, with none of these
responses at the extreme end of the scale
...
The responses to this were
29

slightly different
...
The
summary of these statistics are as follows: 6
...
7% (or n=11 participants) thought that it was completely acceptable
...
The difference in the recording of ‘completely acceptable’ between
the question asking about all fan fiction and sexually explicit fan fiction, moving from
32
...
7% respectively
...
7% (n=11) had no opinion either way on
the topic, slightly lower than the result from figure 11
...
For the responses for the question about sexually explicit material, please see
figure 11
...

In figure 13 above, the respondents made a decision between which parts of
the canon fan fiction writers should be able to use for their stories
...
9% (n=8) of the
30

respondents said that only characters should be used; 11
...
5% (n=40) thought
that fan fiction should be able to draw on both locations and characters and just 11
...


FIGURE 14
Another part of the ethics debate is whether the authors of the original books
should be able to press charges against persons whom write fan fiction, and in the
authors’ minds infringe on their copyright
...

This contradicts the information collected in the previous data sets, as 41
...
This spread of data makes it difficult to draw clear
conclusions as to where the participants on the unethical side of this debate stand
...
It is significant however, that the
majority of respondents answered no, showing that the participants of this study on the
whole believe that fan fiction is ethical
...
2
...

Before being given the definition used for this study, the participants were
asked what fan fiction meant to them
...
The remaining 70% defined fan fiction fairly well,
mentioning alternative versions and adaptations
...
Whilst these were anomalies, the fact that they

32

were present at all was significant, and supports the direction in which this study is
investigating, (refer to appendix 6
...

The second qualitative question concerned the sources that the participants of
the study had encountered, in order to provide insight into the potential market for fan
fiction
...

Within the online sector, fanfiction
...
com where the two
highest recorded examples, with fanfiction
...


4
...
3
...

The discourse rich comment section of Ewan Morrison’s article in The Guardian;
‘In the beginning, there was fan fiction: from the four gospels to Fifty Shades’37 was a
valuable source to collect data
...
Between the critique of Morrison, there was some
valuable information on how people react to the ethical debate on fan fiction
...
3
...
This represents the constant debate and support for different
opinions on a social platform, most of these comments disputing definitions of fan fiction
issues and the ethical considerations that Morrison raised in his argument, (see appendix
6
...


Morrison, Ewan, ‘In the beginning, there was fan fiction: from the four gospels to Fifty Shades’ in The
Guardian ...
com/books/2012/aug/13/fan-fiction-fifty-shades-grey>
[accessed on 10/02/2016]
37

33

4
...
3 Cyber-Ethnographic Findings on Ethics
The data collection revealed that in n=13 or 0
...
The writers
of these comments gave reasons such as ‘infringing on copyright’ to justify their answers
...

While many authors of the comments did not fully commit to one side of the
argument, there was, as was expected a strong defence of fan fiction
...

Even with this higher percentage of comments being in favour of fan fiction, as
aforementioned, the opinions were not black and white
...

This sample can then be compared to the second online ethnographic study the
researcher conducted
...

Whilst this sample was smaller, only assessing n=50 comments, it still provided
some significant statistics
...
In contrast, there were just n=2 mentions of fan fiction as ‘immoral’
and/or ‘unethical’
...


4
...
4 Motivations Behind Writing Fan Fiction
During the data collection, the comments also created a picture of the reasons
fan fiction authors have for writing their fiction, with a total of n=46 separate mentions
of possibly reasons
...
Therefore,
the researcher can assume that this is an accurate portrayal of motivations
...
Another n=7 comments noted that fan fiction is a good
way to refine the writing skills of aspiring authors; n=8 used fan fiction as a form of
34

critique against the original novel and n=9 comments highlighted that fan fiction was
simply a way of expressing ideas within a fan community
...

In the smaller sample observed on techdirt
...
The researcher recorded one instance for each of the motivations
discussed for the previous site, except the use of fan fiction for attention (see appendix
6
...


4
...
4
...
None of these participants has previously written
fan fiction before and therefore were not predisposed to ethically defending their own
work, allowing the researcher to collect more generalizable information
...
4
...
The researcher
expected this, as it concurs with the results of the online survey
...
This ties in with the prejudice that the media has recently
created about fan fiction, branding it as a lesser art form than what people consider
to be traditional published literature
...
4
...
The more similar the story
to the original, the more unethical it was deemed, the participant stated that having a
story that was too close to the inspiration was like “ripping off the original author”
...
A
similar response was collected from participants B and D, but participant F stated that
“it is not fair to make money from other people’s ideas, at all”, insisting that it was only
fair to profit from original work
...
“Well,” said participant E “if they have put work
into making something creative, why shouldn’t they be able to sell it? All stories are
based

4
...
4 Protection for Authors
When participants were questioned about legal protection for the authors of
the original works, none of the participants were sure where the legal parameters were,
however, they all had opinions on the subject matter
...
Participants A, B, D and F agreeing that authors should be able to take legal
action against fan fiction writers
...

Conversely, participants C and E, as with the previous section of the interview,
reported the opposite point of view to A, B, D and F, stating that fan fiction authors
were “doing nothing wrong” by borrowing ideas for their own stories
...


4
...
5 Discussion
The interviews appear to show that whilst some people are not entirely certain
which side of the ethical debate they belong to, it is apparent that if done on a caseby-case basis, the participants would be able to make a decision on whether they
thought that particular piece of fan fiction was ethical or not
...
The remaining 33% of participants
were steadfast in their defence of using other people ideas, claiming that most of
literature is recycled anyway, and that this was simply the next logical step
...
5 Fifty Shades of Grey as a Miniature Case Study
4
...
1 Introduction
As has been mentioned in previous sections, Fifty Shades of Grey is the most
well-known piece of fan fiction, due to its’ recent popularity over multimedia
...


4
...
2 Primary Research in Relation to Fifty Shades of Grey
The survey revealed that 35% of participants did not agree that it was ethical
to sexually subvert chaste characters, which is what E
...
James did with Stephenie
Meyer’s characters
...

Within the same survey however, only 32
...
An astonishing 69
...


4
...
3 Applications
This shows how examples of fan fiction could be systematically assessed to
determine the public opinion on their ethicality
...
1 Conclusions
The findings have presented the conclusion that of the participants of the
questionnaire, by a small margin, believe that fan fiction is an ethical practice
...
The semi-structured interviews yielded a slightly more negative view of
fan fiction that the other two methods, but not severely enough to change the summation,
which is that the primary data collected found that the majority of participants in this
study deem fan fiction to be ethical
...
As a lot of the sources covered
in the literature review were about authors of original works it was expected that there
would be some bias, but not the degree that the analysis revealed
...
The sample of respondents
was also overwhelmingly young and therefore more research should be done into
various age ranges, as detailed overleaf
...


5
...
The objectives and consequently the aim
of this project has been partially achieved, but due to the broad nature of the research
question, more research is needed to affirm the findings
...


38

1&2 To compare historical attitudes to fan fiction to modern attitudes and to collaborate
views on fan-fiction in the form of a literature review
It is difficult to measure how well these particular objectives have been fulfilled
...
2
...


4 To investigate the laws surrounding intellectual property and copyright and how
these coincide with ethical issues
This objective has only been briefly covered
...
As
the study progressed it became apparent that the legal implications

5 To conduct primary research in order to collect new data and opinions around the
ethics of fan fiction from a more generalised perspective
The researcher collected a wealth of both primary and secondary research for this
study
...


6 To draw conclusions on whether the fan fiction is truly ethical from the research
conducted
The researcher complied the information together at the end of the study in
summary, however, as with all inductive study, there is always the risk that the
results will be inconclusive
...


5
...

From both the poll and survey results it seems apparent that there is a market for fan
39

fiction, even without the guises that have been applied to Fifty Shades of Grey, but this
market would be niche, at least to begin with
...
In this case, publishers could perhaps market fan fiction as a new genre
...
Hence, there is a market for high quality fan fiction, such as Jean
Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, the only issue with this approach being the grey area
between what is and is not high literature
...

As a side note, if a publishing house was able to acquire fanfiction
...
com and somehow develop a membership system to create revenue,
as the popularity of these sites would ensure there was some profit
...

For all these recommendations to work, there would almost certainly need to be
a less prejudicial attitude to fan fiction, possibly some widespread dissemination of
good quality fan fiction to cancel out the overwhelming amount of bad media coverage
that it has received since the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomena began
...
4 Suggested Further Research
Whilst somewhat insightful, the findings of this did not totally answer the broad
research question, “Is fan fiction ethical?”
Further research could include a repeat of the survey that was conducted within
this study on a larger and more diverse sample in order to generate more
generalizable data
...

Also, to support the aforementioned recommendations research could be
conducted to determine whether fan fiction is more ethical if it distinguishes itself as fan
fiction by either crediting the original author or by being published in a fan fiction
genre
...
In this
case it seems pertinent to conduct more case specific research in order to eradicate
ambiguity and create a clearer picture of the specific ethical points that raise issues
...
net
...
net/topic/20103/38133044/1/> [accessed on:
20/02/2016]
Bauer, Carola Katharina, Naughty Girls and Gay Male Romance/Porn: Slash Fiction,
Boys’ Love Manga and Other Works by Female “Cross-Voyeurs” in the U
...
Academic
Discourses (Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2013)
Bryman, Alan, Research Methods and Organization Studies (London: Unwin Hyman,
1989)
Busse, Kristina and Karen Hellekson, ‘Identity, Ethics and Fan Privacy’ in Fan Culture:
Theory/Practice edited by Katherine Larsen and Lynn Zubernis (Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012)
Dawidowicz, Paula, Literature Reviews Made Easy: A Quick Guide to Success
(Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, 2010)
Eakin, Emily, ‘Grey Area: How ‘Fifty Shades’ Dominated the Market’ in NYR Daily
(July 2012) < http://www
...
com/daily/2012/07/27/seduction-andbetrayal-twilight-fifty-shades/> [date accessed 26/04/2016]
Fish, Laura, ‘Book Of A Lifetime Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys’ in The
Independent (July 2008) ...
co
...
html> [date accessed: 27/04/2016]
Graham Gibbs, Thematic Coding, 2016
...
com/watch?v=B_YXR9kp1_o> [accessed 28 April 2016]
Hellekson, Karen and Kristina Busse in The Fan Fiction Studies Reader ed by Karen
Hellekson and Kristina Busse (Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2014)
Hine, Christine, Virtual Ethnography (Sage Publications Ltd, 2003)
Jamison, Anne Elizabeth, Fic, Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, (Published
Online: Smart Pop, December 2013)
Jenkins, Henry, ‘Textual Poachers’ in The Fan Fiction Studies Reader ed by Karen
Hellekson and Kristina Busse (Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2014)
42

McGee, Jennifer, ‘“In the End, It’s All Made Up”: The Ethics of Fanfiction and Real
Person Fiction’ in Communication Ethics, Media & Popular Culture (New York: Peter
Lang Publishing Inc
...
theguardian
...
, ‘Principles of Mixed Methods and Mulitmethod Research Design’ in
Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research ed
...
190
Murthy, Dhiraj ‘Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies
for Social Research’ in Sociology October 2008 24:
DOI:10
...
R
...
smh
...
au/entertainment/books/george-rr-martin-hands-off-mycharacters-20131108-2x6fb
...
by Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Anton Kirchhofer, Sirpa
Leppänen, (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)
Rice, Anne, ‘Important Message From Anne on “Fan Fiction”’ in Anne’s Messages to
Fans (Published Online: 2008) < http://annerice
...
html> [accessed on 04/11/2015]
Rose, Mark, ‘The Public Sphere and the Emergence of Copyright’ in Privilege and
Property: Essays on the History of Copyright (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers,
2010) pp
...
1
Shoard, Catherine, ‘Annie Proulx bemoans torrent of 'pornish' Brokeback fan fiction’ in
The Guardian, September 2008
...
com/film/2008/sep/17/heathledger
...
273
University and San Francisco School of Law: Copyright Law, Fan Fiction and Copyright
Law, ...
edu/internetjustice/2013/fan fiction-and-copyright-law/> [accessed
date: 18/10/2015]

44

Appendices
Appendix 1 - Online Poll

Appendix 1
...
I would like to invite you to take part in an
informal interview for my final year project at Loughborough University, as I am
interested in your opinions of the ethics of fan fiction, and believe they would be very
valuable to my research
...
The
interview will take no longer than 15 minutes, everything you say shall be kept
confidential, and you will be able to stop the interview at any time
...


If you have any questions, or wish to withdraw from the study at any time, please do
not hesitate to contact me
...
Do you have any questions for me?

57

Appendix 5 – Interview Information Sheet
Thank you for agreeing to participate in this confidential and informal
interview
...


-

With your permission I shall be recording today’s interview
...


-

You may stop the interview at any time if you no longer wish to participate and
any previous data collected will be discarded
...


-

Only persons over 18 may participate
...


-

The interview is part of a final year project for a BA Publishing and English
undergraduate degree in the Department of English and Drama at
Loughborough University
...
wilson-bettis-13@student
...
ac
...
1 Questionnaire Qualitative Data
What does fan fiction mean to you?
Categorised answers

No
...
of times recorded

Analytical
categorisation

Fifty Shades of Grey
Fanfiction
...
com

1

Archiveofourown
...
com

1

4chan
...
2 Cyber-Ethnography collected data
In the beginning, there was fan fiction: from the four
gospels to Fifty Shades – guardian article
Categorised answers

No
...
com
Categorised answers

No

---

Title: Dissertation Project
Description: This is my full dissertation project for the 3rd year of my Publishing and English BA degree. Will hopefully be useful as an example to base your project on

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