Is writing a guidebook to a work of fiction a copyright violation?
<p>Is it a copyright violation to write a guidebook to a work of fiction? For example, there are guidebooks to Tolkien's Middle Earth and to Star Wars, etc.</p>

<p>I would have thought that it is fair use because a guidebook is "commentary". Is that right?</p>

<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Fair use</a> is decided on a case by case basis and involves a multi-factor test.  Just because there is commentary does not necessarily mean the courts will find that it is fair use.  See, for example, <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/summaries/ty-publ&#39;ns-ndiii2004.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ty, Inc. v. Publ'ns Int'l, Ltd.</a>, where fair use was not found in a collector's guide to Beanie Babies that contained photographs of them.  </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The court then rejected defendant’s argument that the photographs were necessary to create a competitive collector’s guide because, even if defendant had a right to produce such a guide, it still copied more of plaintiff’s work than was necessary.</p>
</blockquote>

intellectual-property