Staff Writer: Nailah Randle
Recently an author came under fire for her book series, which was seen as Plagiarizing Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Lauren Roberts, the author of Powerless, was recently criticized for her book not only holding many similarities to Red Queen, but also for having scenes in her books almost directly taken, word for word, from the other books. In the fallout following all this backlash, fans of Powerless claimed that Roberts’ book was not plagiarism, but if it was, then fanfiction should also be seen as plagiarism.
The main argument being made is that Powerless is plagiarizing Red Queen due to a multitude of obvious similarities. Both books feature a poor girl born into a society that separates people into 2 categories, with the girl being part of the lesser category, there’s a love triangle between the main character and 2 half-brothers in both stories, she joins a set of trials (called “The Bowl of Bones” in red queen and “The Bowl” in Powerless), she meets the main love interest while stealing coins from him, and the second prince in both stories forces the main character into an engagement in both stories.
Certain parts of Powerless are taken almost work for word from Red Queen. At one point in Red Queen, the main character, Mare’s, sister, who was a talented seamstress, has her hands broken and is no longer able to sew, “Her eyes are on mine as he brings the butt of his gun down, shattering the bones in her sewing hand.” (Aveyard, 41). In the same vein, Powerless features a scene where Adena, the main character, Paedyn’s, friend, is also a seamstress also has her hands broken and is no longer able to sew, “They broke her fingers. Her sewing hands.” (Roberts, 455).
Powerless fans are claiming that if Powerless is plagiarism, then so is fanfiction. This argument, while it may seem valid on the surface, quickly falls apart upon further investigation of copyright laws.
The Copyright Act of 1976 states that literary works receive copyright protection if they are original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Most fanfiction can fall into the category of derivative work because it is based upon existing works and then modified and transformed into a new story.
As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced distributed or made into something for money without permission from the owner. Because fanfiction is usually not distributed for money, this argument is invalid. In the few examples of fanfiction being published and distributed for profit, they are modified to be less similar to the story they are derived from and made into their own story.
For example, Fifty Shades of Grey is a Twilight fanfiction, Dorian Grey was originally Edward Cullen and Anastasia Steele was originally Bella Swan, however when the book was published, their names were changed so that the characters weren’t stolen from Stephanie Meyers, and the story itself was already so far removed from Twilight that there was no real way to tell that it’d originally been a derivative of Twilight unless the reader had that prior knowledge.
Another exception which protects fanfiction writers from copyright infringement is the Fair Use Index. The Fair Use Index states that 4 factors should be looked at to evaluate fair use; purpose and character of the use (commercial or nonprofit), nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
While Fair Use does protect fanfiction writers, it should not be used as a catch-all because of its case-by-case nature. In the context of fanfiction sites such as fanfiction.net, Wattpad, and archiveofourown, most works on those sites will never be published and sold for profit because they are purely for the enjoyment of the fans of a certain media.
Not only is fanfiction tagged to tell whoever may read the work what it’s based off of and what characters are taken from that original source material, many authors also leave notes stating that they do not own the characters or the original story that their work is based on.
The issue with Powerless is that Roberts didn’t try to make an effort to change the story and characters in a way that made them her own; she just changed their names and hoped no one would notice. Fanfiction is written by fans for fans with the knowledge of both parties that the author doesn’t own the characters or the media it is based on. The Copyright Act of 1976 and everything it entails, protects fanfiction, not plagiarism.