I read this post on A Writer's Life with disbelief. Huh...??
A writer's name is his/ her brand, so Ms Jareo needs a name change to recover from this mess. I know fanfic is popular online, but it only stays alive because it stays under the radar. Mess with the rights of a major corporation, and you'll get battered. And rightfully so, IMHO.
Apparently Ms Jareo is a tech writer and editor, so she doesn't even have the excuse of youthful naivete. I tried accessing the sites mentioned in Lee Goldberg's post, but both came up with errors; either the servers are down or the sites have been taken offline.
If you're serious about writing, don't go the fanfic route. If you must, wait until the work in question is out of copyright, like Geradline Brooks' March, the story of the father in Little Women. (I haven't read March, I don't like derivative work, but that's just me; Brooks is an excellent writer and I'm sure she did a masterful job.)
UPDATE
Re March, apparently Little Women etc are still in copyright, and Brooks got permission from the rights' holders.
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