Not a copyright lawyer, but from my understanding, fan arts would actually be more in line with intellectual property protection then copyright.
If you were to make a new game with Mario and Luigi, then you could be found in violation of Nintendo's Intellectual property of the Mario brothers. If you share a rom of Super Mario Odyssey, then you would then be found in violation of Nintendo's copyright of the specific game.
Though, oddly enough it seems that in practice "Intellectual Property" is more of a subset of "Copyright" rather then being exclusive. Which just seems odd to me, but that's law for you.
For example, the things that Growlithe notes that some original IPs were derived from what was at first fanfiction. It is important to realize that it's not too tricky to change things so that you take a piece inspired by fan work and make it into an original IP, which works out better for the artist in the long run.
There are certain companies that will be more vicious with IP protection than others. Nintendo and Mario versus Sega and Sonic being examples of heavy contrast. Sonic fans have whole forums that they discuss making of fan games of all kinds. Mario, Pokémon, or Metroid fans don't, because drawing attention to the IP violations usually leads to cease and desists rather swiftly.
Not a copyright lawyer, but from my understanding, fan arts would actually be more in line with intellectual property protection then copyright.
If you were to make a new game with Mario and Luigi, then you could be found in violation of Nintendo's Intellectual property of the Mario brothers. If you share a rom of Super Mario Odyssey, then you would then be found in violation of Nintendo's copyright of the specific game.
Though, oddly enough it seems that in practice "Intellectual Property" is more of a subset of "Copyright" rather then being exclusive. Which just seems odd to me, but that's law for you.
For example, the things that Growlithe notes that some original IPs were derived from what was at first fanfiction. It is important to realize that it's not too tricky to change things so that you take a piece inspired by fan work and make it into an original IP, which works out better for the artist in the long run.
There are certain companies that will be more vicious with IP protection than others. Nintendo and Mario versus Sega and Sonic being examples of heavy contrast. Sonic fans have whole forums that they discuss making of fan games of all kinds. Mario, Pokémon, or Metroid fans don't, because drawing attention to the IP violations usually leads to cease and desists rather swiftly.