Regardless of whether you agree with fanfiction or not, i think we can all agree that it is only borderline legal.
Personally i see no problem with it. If people ever write fanfiction about my characters, to me it will mean they have taken them into their hearts and minds. I take that as a compliment (not that there is any Past Due fanfic yet. To the best of my knowledge anyway).
Some people are encouraging fanfiction these days, they see it as a form of promotion. Few people are actively against it, though some authors do not allow any fanfiction and will issue a cease and desist notice. Most simply tolerate it knowing that the internet is too large to police properly and it's something that will probably never be eradicated.
But it is technically illegal. Fanfiction writers are using other peoples creations and usually only get away with it because they aren't making a profit.
Last year there was a huge internet saga about someone called Lady Sybilia who tried to publish her sequel to the Twilight books. Fandom pretty quickly slapped her down and let her know the situation. She protested for a while but it seemed she eventually got the message and decided to release the novel for free online.
Until now. Instead of learning her lesson she has kept her head below the parapet for a year and now released the former 'tribute sequel' as a parody, because parodies are exempt from copyright laws.
I really cant go into detail on the whole saga from a year ago because there's just too much crap to recap but here are some links where you can see for yourselves the true level of her delusion.
Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven. (links go to Fandon Wank, a snark community)
Or you can read Lee Goldberg's posts which are much shorter but still informative. Post one, post two, post three, post four.
