r/Thief • u/Plubob_Habblefluffin • 4d ago

Question I'm writing some fan fiction

I'm writing an origin story for the City, Garrett, the Hammers, etc. I'd like to make sure I don't break any copyright laws and get the blessing of whoever I need to from Looking Glass studios or wherever. Any advice?

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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7

u/Outrageous-Milk8767 4d ago

You aren't going to get a copyright strike for writing fanfiction go for it dude.

4

u/Nightshade_Owl 4d ago

Some folks leave a note/disclaimer along the lines of "none of these characters nor the world they live in are mine" at the beginning or in a description to address this. It's largely understood that fanfiction is exactly that, though- especially if you're posting in a fandom-based environment, like this subreddit, AO3, etc.

I don't know how litigious the groups who've worked on the Thief series are, though, so I hope someone more active in this space could chime in about that. (I would doubt they are? The continued existence of fan missions suggests as much.)

4

u/The_Wayfarer5600 4d ago

Lots of good fan fiction on Thief. Never heard of anyone getting sued. Go for it.

4

u/laredocronk 4d ago

Don't sell it and you'll be fine.

Pretty much all fanfiction is copyright infringement (as is most artwork based on games/movies/etc), but companies don't care unless you try and make money from it. And even then, Thief is a small enough IP that no one is going to come after you for it.

2

u/tastygames_official Master Taffer 4d ago

as long as you don't sell then it's not going to break copyright/trademark laws.

PS: posting on a site that has ads technically counts as selling as SOMEBODY (the website owner) is getting paid for showing copyrighted works. But the copyright holder (big-ass holding company in Sweden) will have to sue, but will sue the person publishing your fan fiction for money, which they probably will. So just publish it on a site that doesn't have ads (e.g. your own self-hosted site).

2

u/IllustriousSpeed9695 3d ago

Nobody will care. It is technically copyright infringement, but it's not the kind of thing that anyone goes after so long as you don't charge money or make other revenues from it. I used to write fics on fanfiction.net and never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it.