tie me up, tie me down
Lee Goldberg doesn't like fanfic. A few observations: (1) Lee's entitled to dislike fanfic (just as I am entitled to like it); (2) he is getting a lot of attention not so much for professing his dislike, but for arguing that fanfic is wrong:
I would never write a book using someone else's characters unless I was hired to do so. It would never even occur to me because the characters aren't mine.
(3) Lee himself writes novelizations or tie-ins, where a television show is turned into a novel after the fact. He summarizes his position on the difference between fanfic and tie-ins here.
Then there's Naomi Novik (who has a forthcoming historical novel, the first in a series called Temeraire). Naomi likes fanfic (thanks to Rydra Wong for the link), and she has made a point that for me, summarizes it all:
I for one would be thrilled to know that people loved my characters and my world enough to want to come on in and play, not to mention that I would be wildly grateful for the free publicity. I would love for people to put up posters and make costumes and invent their own stories and fantasize about my characters. If they did, that would mean I was doing something fundamentally right -- that I was creating characters that people wanted to make part of the shared culture by which we communicate with one another. And if enough people feel that way about my characters, I am going to get to keep doing this work that I love.
I would add to Naomi's point the following: if you are a good storyteller, and you create a world with real characters in it, those characters can't stay within your control. It's just not possible. You can try to legislate their whereabouts, but Romeo won't be tied down, nor will Elizabeth Bennett or Seven of Nine or John Crichton. Once a good character has been set free in the minds and imaginations of your readers, that's it.
Can you stop somebody writing a novel about a character you've created and making money off of it? I could, if the occasion arose, but I doubt it will. Because this isn't about money. It's about the story. So I'm with Naomi. If readers want to play with the characters I put out in the world, I am gratified to have done my work so well.