Fantasy evolved out of folk tales in the public domain. It was owned by nobody, and everyone could add to the story. It’d be accepted if people thought the story was good enough. Later, new stories were under copyright, but their heritage was clearly public.
SF grew up when a strong copyright regime was already in place. It was owned by either a single person or a corporation, and only they had the legal right to declare what was canon or not.
Fantasy evolved out of folk tales in the public domain. It was owned by nobody, and everyone could add to the story. It’d be accepted if people thought the story was good enough. Later, new stories were under copyright, but their heritage was clearly public.
SF grew up when a strong copyright regime was already in place. It was owned by either a single person or a corporation, and only they had the legal right to declare what was canon or not.