I'm curious...

[ash48]

Something that has been on my mind for a while (hee...for a good reason I have to add) is how do fans generally feel about their work being used in other fans work?

If, for example, someone made a video showcasing fan art, fics and vids how would you feel if your work appeared it in? Or if your story was podficced? Or if your art was posted to a story? Do you think you should have been asked permission for it to be used or do you think that because you have released to the public domain it's available for anyone to use in a their own work? (I'm not talking about taking it and claiming it as their own - that's definitely a huge no).

As fans we take inspiration from products that are copyrighted (TV show, films, music etc) and we often use them in our own work - usually transforming them into something else to share with fellow fans. We don't seek permission from the source - once they are available to the public we jump all over them. How does that change for our own work - be it art, fic, vids, podfics? I know we don't get paid and nor do we make money from our work, so is that the sole reason why getting permission to use other people's fan work is so important? Is it just courtesy? Is it an unwritten etiquette amongst fans? Does it depend on the transformative work it appears in? Would it matter if the work was controversial or making a statement you didn't support?

Or am I missing a another explanation for why permission has to be sort and granted whenever we use other's fanworks? (I'm simply curious. I have no agenda here other than making sure I'm not missing some ethical morality (or law!!) when it comes to using fan works). And I'm not talking about taking other people's work and claiming it as your own. Or producing something that the viewer would assume is yours even if you can't give precise credit (I know that's murky, but there are times when it's obvious that the work doesn't belong to the creator - like a screen cap of a website for example).

For me I think the courtesy is nice, but I figure once my work is out there it's up for grabs. I'm usually honored when I see my work used in someone else's - or it's an inspiration for something else. Credit is nice, but not essential. I think part of the fan community is about sharing - but maybe I'm be naive on this front.

Comments

[ash48.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand why people get sooo personally affronted at it and I must get together a gang of people and make sure the video is removed from youtube,

I've only seen this happen when some body has taken the whole vid, uploaded to their channel and claimed it as their own. That is extremely annoying and rude. Someone that did that to one of my vids even went so far as to take off the credits. I understanding the idea of sharing - but if they want to share then they could at least give credit. With YT you can favourite a vid and it's becomes part of your channel - I think that's better than re-uploading it.

And yes - fans do band together to protect each other's work. I suppose it's the only way to um, "police" people who want to receive credit for somethings that's not their own work. I can see that sometimes fans can over react, but stealing like that is pretty low.

so who really cares if it doesn't hurt you in anyway?

The problem is that it can hurt the fan who made it. I know in the scheme of things it's small but the fans who put in the work to produce something to share with fellow fans can get quite hurt by someone receiving the kudos for something they've done. I think it just comes down to being fair. The people who take stuff it's like they are cheating so I think there's simply a feeling of not liking cheats.

Hee...and yes. I think that is an unpopular opinion. :) I haven't come across it before, but I like hearing it because it absolutely puzzles me why anyone would take something that is someone else's and post it as their own. I suppose if they think it's no big deal then it really isn't a big deal. For them.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I've only seen this happen when some body has taken the whole vid, uploaded to their channel and claimed it as their own.

Hmm yeah, there's really no good reason I can think of for anyone to re-post the entire video and remove the credits, that pretty much sucks. I was thinking more of the times in communities when someone made an entry getting so upset and encouraging everyone to leave rude comments on a youtube video which used clips that came originally from their own video's. I suppose it is a big deal in a way as I'm certainly not advocating it, it's just not *such* a big deal to me and I wish that people would explain to the person that they's not the way we do things in fandom, instead of immediately going into fandom attack mode :shrugs: Not that I see it so much these days, but back in the days when LJ fandom was more active. All of that is probably on tumblr now instead, along with all the rules about reblogging instead of reposting, which again someone might not realise right away is not the done thing

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Actually I think it IS on Tumblr these days. I haven't seen it but I've heard about it recently. You'll be pounced on (I believe) if you repost.

I was alerted to the fact that someone took some caps from one of my vids and made them into gifs. It was a section that I hadn't actually made (maichan did) and I simply asked if the maker could give credit to maichan as she was the person who credited the sequence she used (there had been a lot of work involved in that sequence). She agreed and it was all amicable. I don't think there's any need to be nasty about this stuff. Most fans like to do the right thing be each other.

Fandom can certainly be a scary force when you're seen to do something wrong. Especially if it's done innocently. There's a lot of unwritten "rules" and it takes a while to navigate through them. I've seen some horrible reactions to fans - sometimes enough to drive them away completely.