The problem is that what was originally meant to protect the monetary earnings of an author has now become an issue of whether or not something is "theirs". Fun stuff. In a different context, I'd say that copyright has turned from something protecting the rights of the creator to something mostly about enabling companies to milk a property for money as long as possible. I mean, "death of the creator plus 70 years" is a ridiculously long time before something enters the public domain, and has nothing to do with the original creator's interest anymore.
I don't really agree with conflating inspiration with fanfiction, because it's a far more removed relation with the original material. Closest would in my opinion be fanfiction using the original characters (because some authors are rather attached to them). Fanfiction using all-original characters, but set in a world someone else made up is somewhat more removed. (Personally, I'm not comfortable wirting someone else's characters, but I was for a while involved in OC RPGs set in the universe of Elfquest.)
Then there's things you might call hommage or ripoff, depending if you like it or not, like The Phoenix Guards is based on The Three Musketeers, or West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet - they use the same plot, but different settings, and even if the characters' personalities may map very closely to the originals, they are not supposed to be the same people.
Then there's inspiration. Eiichiro Oda said one of his inspirations for One Piece was Vicky the Viking, but about all they have in common is that the main characters are pirates. Lumping fanfiction and inspiration like this into the same category seems odd to me.
I really like categorising things, I think.
Fun stuff. In a different context, I'd say that copyright has turned from something protecting the rights of the creator to something mostly about enabling companies to milk a property for money as long as possible. I mean, "death of the creator plus 70 years" is a ridiculously long time before something enters the public domain, and has nothing to do with the original creator's interest anymore.
I don't really agree with conflating inspiration with fanfiction, because it's a far more removed relation with the original material.
Closest would in my opinion be fanfiction using the original characters (because some authors are rather attached to them).
Fanfiction using all-original characters, but set in a world someone else made up is somewhat more removed. (Personally, I'm not comfortable wirting someone else's characters, but I was for a while involved in OC RPGs set in the universe of Elfquest.)
Then there's things you might call hommage or ripoff, depending if you like it or not, like The Phoenix Guards is based on The Three Musketeers, or West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet - they use the same plot, but different settings, and even if the characters' personalities may map very closely to the originals, they are not supposed to be the same people.
Then there's inspiration. Eiichiro Oda said one of his inspirations for One Piece was Vicky the Viking, but about all they have in common is that the main characters are pirates. Lumping fanfiction and inspiration like this into the same category seems odd to me.