The problem with this bill is that it's not written well, not that we should be able to disregard copyright and upload/watch whatever we want on YouTube or wherever. The whole point of copyright (or the equivalent law in other countries) is being able to control how the material under copyright is replicated and distributed. The owners are under absolutely no obligation to let anyone watch their show on YouTube for free. A sense of entitlement that makes us think we shouldn't have to pay for stuff is a bad thing.

~Neshomeh

Don't get me wrong. This is an overly broad piece of legislation that would likely result in a fair amount of draconian abuse. However, the PPC and the OFUs would not be affected by this bill. It's questionable whether it would even threaten fanfiction as a whole.

I refer you to the Copyright Act of 1976, which sets out the four defining aspects of 'fair use:'

"In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2.the nature of the copyrighted work;

3.the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4.the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

The PPC and OFUs - and, to a lesser extent, many pieces of fanfiction - are transformative works. We parody (that is, we use a work in order to mock the work itself.) We criticize. We create our own stories and our own characters that interact with these preexisting worlds. There is enough original transformative work within the PPC and the OFUs to make the case that we would be able to stand on our own.

As I said before, SOPA is not a good bill. However, there is no sense in leveling accusations against it that are just not true. I'm not an expert on law, but from the research I've done there does not seem to be much evidence that SOPA will harm the PPC. Its aim is to target people who stream movies and music, not fanfic authors.

Sorry if this seems ranty or disjointed. I just want to see the facts come out right.