I think I would have to disagree with the "unsung heroes" part of the NPR piece. I'm not sure fanfic writers are particularly heroic, just enthusiastic. Not that I don't love everybody here, but I feel heroic should be reserved for something stronger, like firefighters rushing into a burning building.
And Jareo's not really how I'd like the uninitiated to view fanfiction either. Most of us view fanfiction as a fun pastime, and therefore, aren't trying to infringe all over copyright laws. Because, unlike downloading music for instance, the products produced aren't available elsewhere for a fee. We're not depriving the original owners of the ideas nor are we profiting from what we're creating. Jareo was.
To me, what she did is just like what students do when they sell term papers. Writing the term paper isn't in itself a problem, because maybe you're one of those weird people, like me, who likes writing term papers. It's when you sell it with intent to defraud that it becomes one, because the original idea is no longer associated with its creator and someone else is profiting from the deception. And this troubles me, probably because today, for the third time this month, I caught one of my students plagiarising. How can you stop the kids if their parents are already doing it?
