Can you plagiarize fan fiction?

No. It is derivative work and a violation of copyright (which is why you can’t copyright a piece of fanfic, or sell it). Not plagiarism unless you’re copying text from someone else.

Is real person fanfiction legal?

Real People Fiction, or RPF is fanfiction featuring real people, usually celebrities. This is generally considered a bit more taboo than fanfiction, and even FanFiction.net has banned it from its site, although you can find it on other fanfiction sites like Archive of Our Own.

Is it illegal to sell fanfiction?

In general, the answer is no. Fan fiction is a derivative work under US copyright law and it cannot be legally published without permission of the copyright holder.

Can I sell fanfiction?

Technically, unless one is commissioned to write a TV tie-in or movie tie-in, which counts as official fan fiction, you can’t legally sell your fan fiction. Or, you do what the author of 50 Shades did and change the names and situation so that it isn’t fan fiction any more.

Is it plagiarism to write fan fiction?

Fan fiction is almost always referencing the source work of their material and thus is less prone to be plagiarizing the original work. Fan fics that copy other works including other fan works or other published works and passing it off as one’s own is also plagiarism.

What is the definition of plagiarism?

Because ethics can depend upon the community, the definition of plagiarism can vary from person to person. Most people can agree that verbatim copying is plagiarism but at universities, there is other examples of plagiarism. The Modern Language Association has adopted this definition:

How do you know if a story is not plagiarized?

If you take the characters of an already existing universe/world/work-of-fiction and put them into a completely new world that you created entirely on your own, where the characters have a different history and different experiences, and you don’t even need to know the source material anymore, you are per definition not plagiarizing.

Is it plagiarism to take aspects of Harry Potter?

As soon as you take more aspects from Harry Potter, though, you run the severe danger of being accused of plagiarism. And rightly so, because let’s face it, unless you have actually never heard of or read Harry Potter, the idea would indeed not have sprung from your own mind.