Owns the copyright to the IP? I stumbled across this on amazon's website and was more than a little shocked that this story is set in Skyrim and is actually fan fiction for profit. I did not think that was legel, but I would love to be enlightened if this is actually a thing now and okay with the IP owners. It certainly seems wrong to me.

It won't let me post a link, so remove spaces I guess...

amazon. com /The-Dragonborn-Comes-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00CBJAUE4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374871615&sr=1-1&keywords=the+dragonborn+comes

Not sure, some companies do thing differently. Some do not give a [censored] if you make a fanfiction and sell it for profit and others will have a hissy fit over it.

That's what I thought. Did this person receive permission from Bethesda to do this? Seems like most sane companies would cry havoc if a fan did that.

That depends on the company, some don't give a [censored] as I said and would still be sane but others would have a hissy fit about it.

There is no mention of such on the product page, so I don't know. I just genuinely would like to be informed if selling stories based on their IP is okay with Bethesda or not. I know some people on deviantart make plushies of different fandoms and sell them, so I really wondered what is allowed and what isn't.

I've written fanfic some years ago on fan sites purely for entertainment purposes in a couple of different fandoms, and it just seemed understood amongst all those writers that I interacted with that it was a giant no-no to profit from an IP that is not your own original creation. Have things changed so much in the past couple of years, I wonder.

I know there are also different rules for those IPs that are in the public domain (like Jane Austen novels, for instance), but that certainly wouldn't apply in this case.

The quickest way to find out is to PM GStaff and ask him.

Message sent. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

I believe you have to contact ZeniMax for permission. There was a book written a few years back based on Oblivion or at least it took place in the Imperial City.

Considering the Publisher of the this topic's story is called Rip Off Press, I am guessing they did not get permission.

I was taught that profiting off of fanfictions was a no-no, but apparently some companies are okay with it?

I guess someone will have to be contacted.

The Rip Off Press definitely stood out to me too.

It's probably not ok.

As copywright law has been explained to me, you have to actively defend your copywright or you lose it altogether.

This is why the people who made the LoTR movie went after that quant little pub in Great Britain that had been LoTR themed for decades. They had to.

There have been http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Books:The_Infernal_City http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Books:Lord_of_Souls written that tell a story taking place in the time between Oblivion and Skyrim, but those were commissioned by Bethesda and the author had access to in-house lore.

This is stupid as they'll likely get sued for much more then they've made from selling this crap. I wonder if it's a member who took peoples RP stories and worked it into this book

I'm not about to buy it to find out, but judging by the description, cover art, title, and it being under the Erotica genra, I have I feeling Bethesda would be less than please to find out their trademarks are being used in smutty material.

I hadn't noticed that Erotica part but that's friggin hilarious. Out of curiosity about the content I skimmed the section that they allow us to read and sure enough there was some six a few paragraphs in under chapter 2 which made me lol...this is clearly written by a younger/young minded individual

The description definitely sounds like erotica, or some bizarre wish fulfillment fantasy with a female dragonborn and her two guys. *rolls eyes* The covers look like modded screenshots, and rather remind me very much of science fiction/fantasy book covers from the 1980's with the female protagonist mostly naked with strategic belts for armor.

This reminds me of a similar attempt to sell a thinly disguised Dragon Age fanfiction story.

Then again, there's Twilight... It's no wonder that unscrupulous people don't mind profiting from other's IP, if they can get away with it.

Who knows, might be actually a better story writing than Skyrim's LOL.

Bwahaha, I just had to read it too after seeing your post. Out of all the female characters I've rolled (i.e. all but one), none have had such an encounter. Maybe they're all a bit too stab- or smash-happy, I dunno.

I'm 99% sure that'll get pulled shortly.

Nah, at least when we're all actually playing Skyrim, it's our own Mary Sue. Reading about someone else's, not so entertaining (or at least, in the same way).

Ichk! So did I.

Morbid curiosity got the better of me, but one look at the cover art was enough to know what would go on in there.

"Well, it'll be taken down soon so I might as well check it out."

*sees the cover close up*

"NOPE"

OMG, The writing is awful! I would be embarassed to put something like that up for sale. Not to mention the smutty material.. The writer should be ashamed.

Apparently if Twilight could be published, despite it's crap writing, then anything's possible.

Still, I would not write a fan-fiction and try to publish it. It's fine and cool to write fantasy, but make your own fantasy universe, don't steal someone else's.

EDIT: Just read the excerpt. Wow. This makes Twilight's writing good, and that's saying something.

ohh my god.. its in the Erotica section and it has THAT title...?
thats the kind of title they would have given a low budget pormo in the late 70s/early 80s....

whoever "wrote" that deserves to be castrated......

If I could have one wish, it would be for a world without smut...

Yuck.

Give me smut before castration. And I'm not even a man...

I need to back out of this forum, quickly. It's getting very creepy in here.

Ying and Yang. Clean and Smut. Dark and Light. Life is duality intermingling into one another. The inner primal. The outer calm.

I don't mind fan fiction as long as they have the permission to do so. It might be a fans novel one day that creates the next Elder Scrolls chapter for all we know.

Under current US copyright law, all fan fiction is illegal, profit or not.

While I don't see Bethesda breaking out the lawyers to sue the person, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they ask the sale be removed from the site.

Copyright is a touchy subject, so I'll end on that note.