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Comment by jasinjames | Hacker News Reader

This aligns with what I was taught in my U.S. Intellectual property class a few years ago

It's also the case in Japan.

Japan's very lucrative doujinshi (read: fan novels) and fan art scenes exist purely because most of the creators and publishers turn a blind eye to them (it's free marketing and good will from fans of their works). They only start caring if the fan works are being sold for profit or harming the original IPs.

Comiket exists thanks to everyone knowing and respecting where the invisible lines in the sand are drawn.

That's the opposite: you don't need permission from the author to do anything. Only if you make trouble, the author may slap you.

No, you do need their permissions. It's just most creators and publishers choose to ignore the otherwise flagrant violations of their copyright, because most of the time everyone wins.

They make fanfiction without permission, and it works fine, so they don't need permission.

Not obtaining permission and not needing permission are two very different things.

Permission is absolutely required in Japan, legally speaking. In practice, the requirement for permission is ignored under gentlemen's agreements.

Did you not study Pickett v Prince in your class?

That is what Picket vs Prince says is it not?

http://www.pelosolaw.com/casebriefs/copyright/pickett.html

You are absolutely correct, I mistakenly thought you were responding to a different comment.

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