Copyright: Anne McCaffrey and Fan Works

I note with approval that Anne McCaffrey has finally relaxed her draconian restrictions on fan art and fan fiction. I'm not a huge participant in the fan fiction scene, but I do occassionally stop by Elfwood, and it always disturbed me that they had to have a special section in their rules just to deal with Anne's lawyers.

In general, I feel that fan fiction ought to be protected by fair use, but I don't think most legal authorities consider it to be. (I don't know to what extent this has been legally tested). Because of this, it's always fallen to content owners to be nice to their fans in this regard, and it always seemed to me a shame that an author whose work I admired kept cropping up as one of the bad guys.

Older Paperback Cover

Anne McCaffrey, in fact, has written my two favorite books in the whole wide world, Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, collectively the story of a young female musician in a world where the musical profession has historically been reserved for men. If I ever want to guarantee that I will feel better after reading a book than I feel before I started it, this is the book I pick up. If you haven't had the pleasure, seek them out. (I really prefer the original Bantam paperback cover illustrations by Elizabeth Malczynski to the ones currently available, however. I'd say try to find used copies with the old cover art.)