DISCUSSION: Do you need to ask permission to use major leak fakemons?

[KrspaceT]

I'm curious on this.

Spoiler

With these guys, assuming the bottom pic is in fact fake as it is widely assumed, if I was to come and go 'I'll use these as the starters of my Original Region do I need to ask their creator's permission?

I've always wondered this question, given the odd status of original character (do not steal). I mean you see bad fic characters and ideas like E'Bony Darkness and the Conversion Bureau pop up a lot in scenarios I cannot see the original creators giving permission, yet you don't see good fanfic characters doing the same like Armani Dove.

Thinking about that question is why I made a statement in my own Pokemon fanfic that should the fic be abandoned the original characters are free to use.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

 

[diamondpearl876]

I’d say it’s always best to err on the side of caution and ask the creator. Whether or not it’s a leak or an abandoned story, it can still be considered plagiarism. Someone spent time on those ideas and characters and designs, after all, and even with credit, you never know who’s not okay with you taking their creations. It only has to take a minute at most to send a message asking for permission.

As for using canon characters, there’s been authors and companies that have put a hard ban on fanfiction and have explicitly asked people not to write any. So while we can’t exactly ask Nintendo if we can use their canon characters, they’re very capable of letting us know if fanfic shouldn’t be a thing. Recently they’ve been doing exactly that for fangames and people making use of hacking services.

tl;dr - if you can ask, there’s no reason not to.

 

[Silktree]

I'd give them credit at any rate, and I wouldn't use the platypus outside of Australia. Asking the creators to post the evolutions would be very useful.

As for using canon characters, there’s been authors and companies that have put a hard ban on fanfiction and have explicitly asked people not to write any.

Do you have any examples?

 

[KrspaceT]

I'd give them credit at any rate, and I wouldn't use the platypus outside of Australia. Asking the creators to post the evolutions would be very useful.


Do you have any examples?

Archie's like that.

You could probably juggle a reason to use a Platypus elsewhere. Australia may be isolated now, but there were times it was linked up. Marsupials are in the New World natively for a reason (South America).

 

[diamondpearl876]

@Unown Seer

Sure. Fanfiction.net's guidelines when you go to post a new story ask for you to not post fanfiction of any of the following authors' works:

• Anne Rice
• Archie comics
• Dennis L. McKiernan
• Irene Radford
• J.R. Ward
• Laurell K. Hamilton
• Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb
• P.N. Elrod
• Raymond Feist
• Robin Hobb
• Robin McKinley
• Terry Goodkin

The most notable one here is probably Anne Rice, who apparently has filed lawsuits against people who wrote fanfiction of her works and tried to keep them under the radar but failed. ._. There's also stories of her asking her non-fanfic writing fans to cyberbully her fanfic-writing fans. Basically, it's a hell zone if you dive into that pit.

Yeah, I know not everyone is Anne Rice, but I did have an experience with this when I was, oh, 7-8 years old. That was, like, almost two decades ago now, so I guess I don't mind sharing? I was a young kid making a stupid mistake. I used a prominent Pokemon fanfic's author fakemon without asking them. They found out and posted about it on their website, which had plenty of followers bashing me and calling me a terrible person and whatnot for doing so. And yes, it was blatant plagiarism, so I don't blame them. The whole ordeal scared me away from Pokemon fanfic for several years, and when I came back, that author was still around. Not only did they apologize for thinking they were too harsh to me when I confronted them saying who I was and what I'd done and "hey, I'll be around these parts, if that bothers you let me know," they were one of my very first reviewers for my first chaptered fic, Survival Project.

So, yeah. I had the privilege of a happy ending, but still. Don't be dumb like me, kiddos.

 

[KrspaceT]

So now that they are confirmed fake, let's review.

If you can ask permission to use Fakemons, you do so. If you can't, acknowledge they do not belong to you.