it's easier to ask forgiveness than... no actually fuck forgiveness too
A few weeks ago, I asked Twitter, "Podficcers: I know this has been discussed to death--someone give me the rundown of why y'all ask permission to create transformative works?" The general consensus seemed to be: because everyone does it, it's expected, and people would get mad otherwise. And these are valid reasons. It makes sense to avoid pissing people off, especially when fandom has such a penchant for drama and there are so many people out there dissing podfic. Given that the culture of permission already exists, it's perfectly sensible and self-preserving for podficcers to go along with it. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to get yelled at.
But I'm cool with getting yelled at for this if need be, because I actually think it's pretty important for podficcers to not have to ask permission to create transformative works. I think not asking permission is a crucial defining characteristic of fandom. When we create fanworks based on canon, one of the things we're saying by doing that is this is ours too. And that's an immense compliment to the canon! When people love something enough to take it separately from its original creators' intentions and plans and build on it in its own right, that says something about the canon. And when we take a different attitude toward fanworks, that says something about our perception of the legitimacy of those fanworks as creative works in themselves.
Some people have said podficcers should ask permission because podfic is an archive of the fic and removes the author's freedom to take it down. Well... yes, it does. So does Pinboard's archival account feature. So does every time anyone saves a fic to their hard drive and distributes it after it's pulled from the web. There are risks inherent in putting things on the internet, and one of them is not being able to hit the undo button. Given how easy it is to obtain pretty much any pulled fic by a decent author in a decently-sized fandom these days, I'm gonna say podfic should not be the primary concern of people who want to remove access to their work.
(If you think podfic is just an archive of the fic, and doesn't transform it at all, go listen to this and tell me with a straight face that the podficcer did nothing to interpret the original work.)
I've been hearing a lot of people say that permission isn't required, but it's courteous to ask. The problem with that is that asking inherently implies that the writer has a choice to say no. There's no way for asking permission to be just a courtesy unless it's assumed that the writer will agree. One response to my survey (which is still open, and you should fill it out) did say the writer has a similar obligation under courtesy to say yes, but I don't think it's widely accepted enough to have any power.
I do think that permission should be asked for flocked works, and if a fic is locked to AO3 users, the podfic should have a similar lock. And of course fic authors should be credited. But if a work is public, I don't think there's any reason to ask before transforming it, and there is ample reason not to.
This entry was originally posted at http://jedusaur.dreamwidth.org/88110.html.
But I'm cool with getting yelled at for this if need be, because I actually think it's pretty important for podficcers to not have to ask permission to create transformative works. I think not asking permission is a crucial defining characteristic of fandom. When we create fanworks based on canon, one of the things we're saying by doing that is this is ours too. And that's an immense compliment to the canon! When people love something enough to take it separately from its original creators' intentions and plans and build on it in its own right, that says something about the canon. And when we take a different attitude toward fanworks, that says something about our perception of the legitimacy of those fanworks as creative works in themselves.
Some people have said podficcers should ask permission because podfic is an archive of the fic and removes the author's freedom to take it down. Well... yes, it does. So does Pinboard's archival account feature. So does every time anyone saves a fic to their hard drive and distributes it after it's pulled from the web. There are risks inherent in putting things on the internet, and one of them is not being able to hit the undo button. Given how easy it is to obtain pretty much any pulled fic by a decent author in a decently-sized fandom these days, I'm gonna say podfic should not be the primary concern of people who want to remove access to their work.
(If you think podfic is just an archive of the fic, and doesn't transform it at all, go listen to this and tell me with a straight face that the podficcer did nothing to interpret the original work.)
I've been hearing a lot of people say that permission isn't required, but it's courteous to ask. The problem with that is that asking inherently implies that the writer has a choice to say no. There's no way for asking permission to be just a courtesy unless it's assumed that the writer will agree. One response to my survey (which is still open, and you should fill it out) did say the writer has a similar obligation under courtesy to say yes, but I don't think it's widely accepted enough to have any power.
I do think that permission should be asked for flocked works, and if a fic is locked to AO3 users, the podfic should have a similar lock. And of course fic authors should be credited. But if a work is public, I don't think there's any reason to ask before transforming it, and there is ample reason not to.
This entry was originally posted at http://jedusaur.dreamwidth.org/88110.html.