Spec Writer Massacre

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The Spec Writer Massacre (also "SpecWriter Massacre," also "Day of the Lawyers") occurred in 2000 when Anne Rice banned the writing of fanfic based on her books.

See more at Rice's Attitudes Regarding Fans and Fanfiction Based on Her Work: Official Policies.

Timeline of Events

On April 7th 2000, Anne Rice, posted the following message on her website:

I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.

By April 9th, there was already a discussion of Anne's statement taking place on alt.books.anne-rice. There was discussion around existing copyright laws and whether fanfic was legal. One contributor expected that fan sites would likely be asked to close as a result of this statement, while another suggested that spec writers may be forced to go underground. While some were skeptical that Anne would get lawyers involved, one contributor was already aware of someone who had received a call from Anne's lawyers.

It has been reported that four authors on alt.books.anne-rice received Cease & Desist letters in 2000, among them The Brat Queen. The group’s moderators responded by burying their archive beneath another webpage. This is evidenced by changes made to the main page of the well-known VC Spec Archive:

[This] page is no longer in the public forum. Note. There's nothing here. No specs, no stories, no nothing. Now maybe, hypothetically, if you had the password and the handshake you could get into the private forum where private citizens could still share private words with each other without being told by authors with too much money to waste that their first amendment is being taken away and freedom of speech no longer exists. But that's just hypothetical.

Nice to know certain authors in Louisiana think so highly of their fans that they reward them by taking the money (provided by the book and merchandise purchases of said fans) and hire lawyers to harass those fans. Makes nice logical sense, ne?

On May 18 2001, Anne Rice's lawyers sent a letter to fanfiction.net, demanding all works based on Rices' properties be removed from the site. On May 20, 2021, fanfiction.net announced that the Anne Rice: Vampire Chronicles category "has been removed at Anne Rice's request".

Fan Comments

A definition of Specs at Urban Dictionary, which references in the impact of the SpecWriter Massacre:

Spec (short for speculation in the sense of 'what if?' not that of specification) was the term most often used for a piece of fan fiction by the highly organised fanfic section of Anne Rice fandom. This community once loomed as large on the Internet as Goth, with its webpages, mailing lists, awards and hierarchically organised sects (such as the Coven of the Articulate) devoted to various characters in the Ricean oevre (especially the Vampire Chronicles). It was centered on the busy Usenet group alt.books.anne-rice (or ABAR).

The authors of these fanfictions would speculate on various aspects of their favourite Vampire Chronicles or Mayfair Witches characters; on their likely - or merely preferred - actions, motivations, pairings.

Their specs were increasingly gathered together in well kept spec archives all over the Net in those days. The Great SpecWriter Massacre of 2000 by Ms Rice's lawyers effectively put an end to this online fanfiction community.

Further Reading/Meta

• THE BATTLE OF FANFICTIONS BEGINS, a discussion of the Anne's statement, at alt.books.anne-rice, April 9 2002.
• Believe it or not! The choice is yours! at Immortals of the Insurrection - Louis - Fan Fiction: The Fan Fiction Controversy, ^{Archived version} April 2000.
• Anne Rice Fanfiction a discussion of the ban, featuring early use of the term Spec Writer Massacre, at alt.books.anne-rice, February 2002.