cap_ironman_fe | Fanwork Permission Statements: Creator Resource

What is a "fanwork permission statement" or a "transformative works statement"?

Do you have boundaries on what other fans can do with your fannish work? Are you happy for people to create fan art of fic inspired by it, podfic it, remix it, translate it?

Putting that stance into writing somewhere public — your AO3, Dreamwidth or Tumblr profile, for example — is your transformative works statement or your fanwork permission statement.

Whether your policy is blanket permission (you are happy for other creators to transform your work in all ways) with or without caveats, that others should always ask first, that you want to be linked to the completed work, or if you’ve chosen to deny permissions of any kind, it’s just as important to clarify your position with an easily accessible statement somewhere that it's likely to be seen.

Why should you have one?

Do you want to support other creators?

Do you want to make it easier for podficcers, fanvidders, remixers, translators, fan artists and fan writers to know what they should do if they're inspired by your work?

Have a fanwork permission statement on your AO3 profile (find and edit yours here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YOUR-USERNAME-HERE/profile)!

By doing this, you are helping to create fannish norms and making it easy for everyone to see what they can and can't do with your fanworks.

If someone comes across your work and is inspired to create something based on it, they might not have the confidence to come into your comments/DM/email and ask (if those contact methods can be found for you). As a result, they might opt to not transform your work. While we are people who regularly dabble in other creators’ canons, fandom tends to have strict unwritten rules about transforming other fans’ works without permission.

It is a lot easier for everyone if you have made your stance clear and created (or closed) that opportunity for other fans with an accessible fanwork permission statement.

Fanwork permission statements and cap_ironman events — how does it work?

Whether you have a fanwork permission statement or not, by signing up to a

cap_ironman event such as the Remix Madness challenge, which by its nature requires the further transformation of your work, then you are explicitly giving your permission to have your work transformed for that event.

For events such as the Holiday Exchange, we ask that participants either have a fanwork permission statement on their AO3 profile or linked as part of their sign up OR that they explicitly state within their sign up whether they do not want their own work to be podficced.

Resources

Here is the fanlore article about blanket permissions.
akamine-chan’s AO3 meta post in favour of everyone having a policy statement on their profile(s), with some examples.
sophinisba’s 2011 post about the usefulness of having an AO3 profile filled out from a podficcer’s perspective.
An example of an AO3 profile with a permission statement
A second example
A third example
cap_ironman has a podfic-friendly writer list specifically for Steve/Tony creators here and also linked on the Dreamwidth and Tumblr sidebars - you can add yourself to that, and browse it for phrasing.
A very long List of Authors Who Give Blanket Permission to Podfic on Fanlore.

We'd also like to point you towards rindle's Fanwork Permission Statements (FPS) List: it's a multi-fandom database of creative people who are happy to inspire creativity in others, and have posted Blanket Permission Statements to say so. BrickGrass has created a beautiful browser extension that highlights AO3 users listed as having blanket permission in rindle's FPS list in green, so that it's easy to find works that you can transform into other media.