djonn | (Reply)

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That's an interesting question. On one hand, it's the sort of thing you'd ordinarily expect big media to do -- but I actually very much doubt that Amazon will try.

The thing is, they can't actually shut down a site like Fanfiction.Net or AO3 in a case like this, because too much of the content on those sites falls outside direct competition. FF.Net might blink and drop the licensed fandoms, but the last thing Amazon needs in this situation is to rouse the wrath of the Organization for Transformative Works (the group behind the AO3), because the OTW is liable to actually fight back.

That would be dangerous on multiple levels. It would cost Amazon anything it might have built up in the way of fannish goodwill for Kindle Worlds, which could sharply reduce the inflow of content. It would begin costing them significant money for litigation, which would affect the profitability of Kindle Worlds (which is only a moneymaker if it actually has contributors and customers). Moreover -- and this is the big one -- it's an axiom in legal circles that you only want to litigate issues where you know how the case will go down. And thanks to the OTW and the long-standing benign corporate neglect that has allowed noncommercial fanfiction to thrive on the 'Net, there is no real guarantee that a lawsuit on the specific facts would be resolved in Amazon's favor.

For all that much of the pro writing community regards fanfic as "illegal", there's very little settled law that squarely addresses the non-commercial distribution of fanfic -- both fanfic creators and big media have been content for a long time to avoid confronting the issues in open court. One of the reasons for this is almost certainly that it isn't certain how the courts would rule...and it would be disastrous for big media if they decided that noncommercial fanfic was actually permissible under fair use.

Essentially, it's a lose-lose for Amazon to litigate. If they lose, they lose for all of big media...and even if they win, the cost in legal fees and Kindle Worlds customers is likely to kill the project.