Tale of Two Markets

Ever heard of fan fiction or fan fic? Wikipedia defines it as:
 “a broadly-defined fan labor term for stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator. Works of fan fiction are rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's owner, creator, or publisher; also, they are almost never professionally published.”
So why do they do it? Lev Grossman in TIME magazine:
“Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.”

Amazon recently changed fan fiction a bit through their “Kindle Worlds” program. They licensed some of the popular TV serials like Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars. Fan ficcers can then write their own story involving those characters, and sell it via Amazon’s Kindle Worlds store. When the e-book is purchased, the money is split between the license owner, the fan ficcer and Amazon.

Now here’s the fine print: if the licensor likes an idea/new character in such an e-book, they can use it “without further compensation” to the fan ficcer. Amazon itself will get all rights to the e-book, including copyright and translation rights. That’s the first kind of market: totally commercial, bordering on exploitative.

My wife found this group called Second to None on Facebook through which people buy and sell used stuff, from baby chairs to cutlery to sleeping bags to phones. All forms of delivery (via courier, buyer collects it, seller brings it)) and payment (cash, bank transfer) are allowed. And here’s the best part: there’s no broker’s fee! Why? Because the site's purpose is to encourage you to:
“Reuse. Recycle. Don't discard. Resell. Don't waste. Share.”
Let’s call that the second type of market: it is about things like recycling, no brokerage fees, peer to peer.

It’s easy to see why we have these two totally different kinds of markets: in the first one, the licensor, well , has the license and the broker (Amazon) negotiated the deal; so they take their pound of flesh cut. In the second one, the broker isn’t adding any value or doing anything to enable the transaction (except for making it easy to find people; but that could be done through so many other forums).

I guess it takes all kinds of markets to make the Internet!

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