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Description
Imagine a world where fanart, fanfiction, and the like are highly regulated.

Composing and publicly sharing a fanwork requires express permission from the owner of the original work, regardless of who it benefits, and violating this requirement can result in a costly lawsuit. Permission can be granted in the form of licenses, but these can be expensive.

Due to these restrictions, publicly published fanworks are fairly uncommon, as not every creator considers a fanwork license to be a wise use of their money. Crossover works are even rarer, because they require multiple licenses.

Artists and authors work to get around this. Some independent copyright holders combat the practice by giving away fanwork licenses for free, but end up financially outclassed as a result. There are black markets of sorts on lesser-known corners of the Internet, where people create and share without the copyright holders knowing. Fanfiction is thinly disguised as original fiction, the characters being shallow parodies of the copyrighted characters they represent.

Overall, the practice of licensing fanworks effectively cripples the relevant creative communities.

...

That's all probably a pretty depressing image, so now I want you to imagine a purple-and-white polka-dotted dragon who tells jokes.

Description
Imagine a world where fanart, fanfiction, and the like are highly regulated.

Composing and publicly sharing a fanwork requires express permission from the owner of the original work, regardless of who it benefits, and violating this requirement can result in a costly lawsuit. Permission can be granted in the form of licenses, but these can be expensive.

Due to these restrictions, publicly published fanworks are fairly uncommon, as not every creator considers a fanwork license to be a wise use of their money. Crossover works are even rarer, because they require multiple licenses.

Artists and authors work to get around this. Some independent copyright holders combat the practice by giving away fanwork licenses for free, but end up financially outclassed as a result. There are black markets of sorts on lesser-known corners of the Internet, where people create and share without the copyright holders knowing. Fanfiction is thinly disguised as original fiction, the characters being shallow parodies of the copyrighted characters they represent.

Overall, the practice of licensing fanworks effectively cripples the relevant creative communities.

...

That's all probably a pretty depressing image, so now I want you to imagine a purple-and-white polka-dotted dragon who tells jokes.