Those are actually completely fair game! To use Homestuck as an example, if you have made a fan kid or fan troll, or invented your own Land of ___ and ___, or composed a piece of music that was inspired by the comic, but doesn’t actually use anything Andrew or his creative staff has made, guess what? Not protected! That’s because styles and concepts can’t be automatically copyrighted, and many cases, can’t be copyrighted at all.
However, if you draw your (or someone else’s) fan character in the same picture as an existing character, you no longer have the right to distribute it because it contains protected content.
Can’t I hide behind the “fair use” clause?
Since revising the rules on MSPAF and posting my initial tumblr entry about Andrew’s announcement, I’ve seen a few comments here and on other sites, such as 4chan, stating that you can just call a piece of fan work a parody or satire and magically be absolved from legal persecution.
WRONG.
Parody and satire are only protected by fair use if the nature of the derivative work meets certain standards with regards to criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, as well as criteria based on the character of the derivative work, the purpose (commercial or nonprofit), and its effect on the potential market or value of the original, copyrighted work.
