pervy snape-fancier

discussion on fanfic and copyright

This doesn't sound right to me. Despite the OP's having "talked to a copyright lawyer" and "looked it up" (re: US copyright law) I think there may be some misunderstanding and also some mixing up of copyright and trademark. My understanding is that when I write a story featuring Harry Potter at Hogwarts or anything else recognizable from the series, yes, I am making use of someone else's intellectual property without permission, i.e., I am infringing on JKR's rights (setting aside for the moment arguments that fanfiction should be considered either 1. parody or 2. transformative enough to be protected also, edit: "use of property w/o permission" =/= "infringement" under all circumstances, obviously, and I didn't mean to imply such; I was referring to this specific kind of use, and whether it is "transformative" or merely "derivative" and therefore typically requiring of authorization remains undecided). But the specific sequence of words I choose to set down my plots and descriptions, isn't that copyright mine as soon as I manifest it, like any other work? For example:

"I was just curious," she continued in the same low voice, and let one corner of her mouth quirk in what she hoped was a cutely mysterious fashion. (She was only eighteen, after all, and just starting to learn the fine art of seducing eighteen-year-old boys, something which was probably easier than she suspected at the time.) "I wanted to... I wanted to see you."

That's an excerpt from one of my Lily/Severus fics. Is this passage magically the property of JKR because I happened to use characters recognizable as her creation? (notice that they are not named here, although they are elsewhere) She (or her agent) can tell me to cease & desist and/or claim damages, but that doesn't transfer the production/distribution rights to her, does it? It just means that her right to dictate how her intellectual property is used trumps my right to produce/distribute my own (infringing) work?

edit: Long story short, I'm correct that those rights don't somehow lie with the creator of the original work, and the OP has since corrected herself (nothing to do with me, I didn't comment there). Those interested in this topic may like to read elf's comments on the subject on my DreamWidth post, since she's someone I consider very knowledgeable about this sort of thing (dare I say, immersed in it).