So. This is insane.

Amazon, already the place just about anybody can "publish" a "book" for "people" to "read," is about to launch a system for legally publishing fan fiction. It's called Kindle Worlds. Amazon is paying the owners of some popular material (Alloy Entertainment, so far, seems to be the only group biting) for the rights to their material, meaning the rights to the characters, settings, stories, and situations. Basically the rights to the entire world of the show. Then you, or your weird cousin who writes creepy slash fiction, or your awesome cousin who writes brilliant fan fiction, can literally get paid to write Gossip Girl stories.

So that's what a "Kindle World" is: the universe in which fan fiction takes place. So far, your options for Worlds are Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars, but more are promised to be on the way. But don't shut down your private website yet, because even though you can get paid, you can't have any fun. Amazon does not allow any of the following:

Pornography: Let's face it, they're probably going to call all slash fiction porn just to be safe.

Offensive Content: This includes "racial slurs, excessively graphic or violent content, or excessive use of foul language." Not a huge problem with the Worlds in play so far, but you can presumably only get away with anything they can get away with on network TV.

Crossover: It looks like even if Amazon offers both Worlds, Stefan and Damon from Vampire Diaries can't show up at Constance Billard High School and fight over who gets to bite Serena van der Woodsen's pretty, pretty neck and ultimately be slain by Penn Badgley. (Sorry if I got some names wrong in there, I can't possibly explain how cursory my glance at these shows' Wikipedia pages was.)

And if you don't write steamy crossover cussfests where every character dies violently, then you're probably writing because you love the material and legitimately want to write new stories in those worlds. And if that's the case, as John Scalzi points out on his blog, Kindle Worlds might not be the right place to go:

...there are a number of things about the deal Amazon/Alloy are offering that raise red flags for me. Number one among these is this bit:

“We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you.”

i.e., that really cool creative idea you put in your story, or that awesome new character you made? If Alloy Entertainment likes it, they can take it and use it for their own purposes without paying you.

Scalzi says over and over that this is a great deal for the rightsholders, a great deal for Amazon, and a terrible deal for the people writing the actual fan fiction. But what kind of deal is it for the fans?

I think nerds everywhere should be concerned, and not just Gossip Girl nerds or Vampire Diaries nerds or Pretty Little Liars nerds (I don't know if there are Pretty Little Liars nerds, actually), but all kinds of nerds: comic book geeks, Trekkers, Star Wars fans, Game of Thrones freaks, anime junkies, and people who run message boards about any topic that anyone has ever enjoyed. These stories are all going to be published legally, with not only the permission but the endorsement of the entities that own the original material.

Now that every possible (nonpornographic, nonviolent) iteration of every conceivable story is 100% possible in any "World" Amazon buys, flame wars will be more unwinnable than ever. Every canon is going to be as convoluted as DC comics' was in 1985, or even worse. I don't think we're ready for Gossip Girl: Crisis on Infinite Earths.