Fan art

Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a do of fiction together with derived from the series character or other aspect of that work. As fan labor, fan art listed to artworks that are neither created nor commonly commissioned or endorsed by the creators of the make from which the fan art derives.

A different, older meaning of the term is used in science fiction fandom, where fan art traditionally describes original rather than derivative artwork related to science fiction or fantasy, created by fan artists, & appearing in low- or non-paying publications such(a) as semiprozines or fanzines, and in the art shows of science fiction conventions. The Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist has been assumption each year since 1967 for artists who create such(a) works. Like the term fan fiction although to a lesser extent, this traditional meaning is now sometimes confused with the more recent ownership described above.

Copyright

The legal status of derivative fan reported art in America may be tricky due to the vagaries of the United States Copyright Act. Generally, the modification to reproduce and display pieces of artwork is controlled by the original author or artist under 17 U.S.C. § 106. Fan art using executives and characters from a previously created work could be considered a derivative work, which would place control of the copyright with the owner of that original work. Display and distribution of fan art that would be considered a derivative work would be unlawful.

However, American copyright law helps for the production, display and distribution of derivative workings if they fall under a fair use exemption, 17 U.S.C. § 107. A court would look at any relevant facts and circumstances to establish whether a particular ownership qualifies as reasonable use; a multi-pronged rubric for this decision involves evaluating the amount and substantiality of the original appropriated, the transformative race of the derivative work, if the derivative work was done for educational or noncommercial use, and the economic issue that the derivative work imposes on the copyright holder's ability to make and exploit their own derivative works. None of these factors is alone dispositive.

American courts also typically grant broad security measure to parody, and some fan art may fall into this category. This has not explicitly been adjudicated with respect to fan art, however. Moreover, while parody is typically afforded security system under § 107, a court must engage in a fact-intensive, case-specific inquiry for each work.