Those of you who read our erstwhile comic adventures may remember that from time to time, we took some, um, liberties with characters from other properties. And while some of the material might have been protected under parody, our biggest defense was probably our utter failure to ever become popular, and the fact that we never tried to make money off of our endeavors. After all, trying to benefit off of someone else’s works, well, that’s just foolish, isn’t it?

Which is why when I came across this story on Neil Gaiman’s blog, my head almost exploded. Essentially, a fan fiction writer decided that she would self-publish her novel. Her Star Wars fan fiction novel. For sale. On Amazon.

I’d like to be nice and say that this is a ballsy move, designed to instigate a discussion on copyright in the electronic age, but no. No. Not a chance in bloody hell. This is actually just ignorance, compounded with stupidity. She even went so far as to address copyright concerns in a Q&A on her own website (which has since been apparently Alderaaned by Lucasfilm’s Death Star-flying lawyers).

Q: Having set Another Hope in an already existing universe, I find myself wondering if there was any concern on your part regarding copyrights?

No, because I wrote this book for myself. This is a self-published story and is not a commercial book. Yes, it is for sale on Amazon, but only my family, friends and acquaintances know it’s there.

Q: I also wonder how far a writer is allowed to write in a world and to use characters introduced by another author?

If it’s not a commercial project, I don’t see any problem.

[From A Writer's Life]

That…is why you fail.

At last check, the Amazon page for the book is still available, though to add insult to injury, it seems as though besides being a massive copyright violation, the book was, well, bad.

Now, I admit, I’ve written some fan fiction in my day; I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with it, ghettoized though it is destined to be. There is, however, a line in the sand, and I rather hope that this one person’s mistake doesn’t end up punishing a whole bunch of people who are just in it for the fun.