JC's Stance on Fan Content Productions

JC defines fan content as anything someone wants to make that is directly based upon, loosely based upon, inspired by, or exists in a franchise environment, even fan content that has an original story. Crossovers are also fan works.

A franchise:

Anything that is owned by someone else. EX: Megaman, Disney, Super Mario, Pokemon, etc.

Fan works based upon:

A production directly based upon a franchise, featuring characters, lore, worlds, etc from that franchise. EX: Dubbing Sonic IDW comics or dubbing over an existing cartoon or movie. Featuring OCs (original characters) in fan content does not make the content original. It just means an OC has been placed into the fan work.

Fan works loosely based upon:

A production that may have mostly or all OCs and an original story, but is based completely or partially on a franchise and is placed completely or partially in a franchise environment. EX: All OCs in the Sonicverse without official Sonic characters.

Inspired by:

A production that says, "inspired by FRANCHISE NAME here." Or even, "this story started as a fan story for FRANCHISE, but I've changed it so it's all original, all my original characters and original world." However, the characters, world, lore, etc is thinly veiled to have been taken from a franchise. This type of content is touch-and-go, but often too similar to the franchise it was originally based upon, that it's easy to tell.

Fan works with original stories:

A production is still a fan work even if the story itself is all-original. An original story does not qualify a fan work as an original work.

Crossovers:

A production that takes characters from one franchise and "crosses them over" with characters from another franchise. EX: Super Mario characters ending up in the Sonic world, going on an adventure with Sonic characters (even if the Sonic characters are all OCs).