I personally am not the biggest fan of fan fiction, as some of you might know. But rest assured that the Scanners "Head Asplode" pic I've used to lead off this article doesn't come from a place of distaste as much as pure shock at Amazon's insane, bold, and genuinely brilliant plan to sell legal fan fiction.

Recently, two seemingly contradictory pieces of copyright law have popped up in the news. One is the case of Jonathan Coulton, whose arrangement of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" was lifted by the producers of Glee. Another is the recent case of a car customizer who was barred from making Batmobiles by a District Court…

These days, it's pretty much accepted that fanfiction writers can become "real" authors. Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fanfic and is the year's biggest publishing sensation. Former fanfic writer Cassandra Clare is about to have a huge motion picture of her Mortal Engines series. And tons of major authors,…

Greetings! Welcome to the first installment of Fan Fiction Friday on io9. For those of you who don't know, I've devoted the last several years of my life to mocking the worst erotic fan fiction the Internet has to offer, for two reasons: 1) for all the glories of this nerd age, we need to remember that there's a…

Fan fiction and fan art are both enormous components of our popular culture, a way we retell our favorite stories just as humans have always retold myths and legends. But sometimes creators, publishers, and studios claim that works of fan art and fan fiction violate their copyright. So is that Supernatural fanfic…

Redditor Lycerius has been playing the same saved game of Civilization II for ten years, resulting in an awesomely dystopic swampy nuclear-irradiated wasteland in which war has raged relentlessly for a staggering 1,700 years. And now, inspired by this bizarre simulated world, a number of other Redditors have taken it…

Over the past several days, a certain Star Trek: The Next Generation prose piece has ensnared the popular imagination the world over. It's a story that's been recycled since time immemorial, due to its sheer cross-cultural thematic resonance.

You've seen Voldemort do it, now it's Harry's turn. After coaxing Ralph Fiennes to read some particularly titillating Harry/Voldemort slashfic, Bravo's Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen manages to convince Daniel Radcliffe to read a bit of steamy Ron/Harry fan fiction.

Batman tends to rely on Alfred for patch-ups, but what if Bruce Wayne actually took the time to visit a real doctor? How on Earth would he explain away his dozens of daily injuries?

Many creators are skittish, if not downright hostile, when it comes to fans creating derivative works. But some other creators and producers actually embrace fans' creativity — and Angry Robot Books is taking that tendency to the next level.