my moral standing is lying down

How a well known, respected author can deride what's essentially a long-standing literary tradition among respected artists (has Gabaldon never heard of pastiche? IT'S LEGITIMATE) is beyond me. I realize that the majority of fanfiction doesn't really count as pastiche in a traditional sense, but I think there's a pretty clear line between fanfiction as we know it and plagiarism, which is a real concern. I hate hearing stories like what happened with Kaavya Viswanathan or Helene Hegemann. If this is the attitude we're fostering, that you can take other people's work and pass it off as your own or profit from it, then yes, that needs to be addressed. I don't see fanfiction as being so serious as the people speaking out against it make it out to be, though.