Her readers have created a new Twilight world on the web, which has served as an alternative marketing tool for her books. Sales of other books such as Freakonomics and The Last Lecture have benefitted the same way.

Unlike the billionaire fiction writer J.K. Rowling, who sued a young French writer of a Harry Potter Lexicon for copyright "infringement," Stephanie Meyer has basked in the glow of the Twilight Lexicon, created by her fan Lori Joffs. Ms. Meyer's main problem now is that she's too busy to keep up with all the Twilight-related stuff, and too busy (and grateful) to sue anyone.

Fan fiction continues to spawn new genres. So it's not surprising that the copyright lawyer Rebecca Tushnet wants to bring it out of the shadows and make it part of "fair use." Ms. Tushnet, although I'm sure you're well intentioned, please don't do it. If you want to do something useful, join the abolitionists and argue against copyright.

And note that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry ignored fan fiction, and the Star Trek fan base (and his income) grew by leaps and bounds.