Blanket Statement
| Synonyms: | fanworks policy, transformative works policy, fic policy, icon policy, concrit policy, archiving policy |
| See also: | fanac, fanworks, concrit, Blanket Permission to Podfic, Blanket Permission to Translate, Podfic Permission |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In some parts of fandom, fans refer to a statement a fan has made about their policies or preferences regarding their own works as a blanket statement. The idea is that this one statement "covers everything" a person might want/need to know (hence blanket), thus sparing the person from having to contact the fan to make an inquiry and the fan from having to field inquiries. It can be difficult for some fans to approach a creator to ask for permission.
Blanket or policy statements about a creator's fanworks are often found in the user profile of their archive page or social media account, at an "about" or FAQ page of their fansite, or in a sticky post at their journal, twitter, etc. Some creators' blanket statements are also linked at the FPS (Fanworks Permission Statements) List.
See Podfic Permission.
Further Transformation
Fanwork creators may ask to have their fanwork credited (or not) as the inspiration for the further transformative work and/or to be informed (or not) about such further transformation.
Some topics regarding permission statements may include (but are not limited to):
The fanwork creator may state whether they give blanket or more restricted or no permission for other fans to further transform their fanworks, for example by:
- podficcing. See also Blanket Permission to Podfic and Podfic Permission
- remixing
- recursive fanfiction
- translating. See also Blanket Permission to Translate
- creating sequels or other works in the same 'verse (see Shared Universe)
- creating fanart for fanfiction, or vice versa
- creating icons or banners based on their fanart
- further modifying icons (a.k.a. using them as a "base")
- creating fanmixes for fanworks
- etc.
See: Help:Fanlore Blanket Fan Art Permissions for many blanket permissions by fan artists and zine publishers.
Archiving and Distribution
The fanwork creator may state whether they give blanket or more restricted or no permission for other fans to archive their fanworks at other sites such as fandom-specific or multifandom archives, and/or to distribute publicly accessible digital copies of those fanworks.
See also Permission to Archive
Credits and Linking Back
The fanwork creator may state whether they give blanket or more restricted or no permission for the use of their fanworks (such as, for example, icons or banner art) at another fan's journal or site, as long as, for example:
- credit is given to the original creator
- and/or the fan using it comments to let the creator know they're using the fanwork
- and/or the fan using it does not hotlink to the creator's hosted copy of the fanwork
- etc.
Warnings, Ratings, and Tags
The fanwork creator may state what type of warnings or types of tags or ratings, if any, they provide for individual fanworks or their overall body of work.
Reviews, Concrit, and Commenting
The fanwork creator may state, for example, that:
- they welcome or conversely do not wish to see any feedback except for positive comments
- they welcome concrit in comments at the fanwork or prefer getting it via private message or email
- they welcome alerts about typos but nothing more
- they are fine with fans reviewing their fanworks at other sites as long as they do (or do not) provide a link to the review for the fanwork creator
- they do or do not allow anonymous comments
- they do or not allow or will delete comments of certain (derogatory) types in fannish spaces (such as journals, communities, or mailing lists) they control
- they like or do not like getting comments on older fanworks rather than newer ones
- they enjoy getting comments but rarely have time to respond to them
- etc.
Disclaimers and Other Header Information
Fanwork creators may also make a blanket statement instead of or in addition to various elements often found in fanwork headers, such as a disclaimer and other items mentioned above.
History of Blanket Statements
See Ethics and Etiquette: A Proposal for the Buying and Selling of Fanzines for an early (1989) discussion and prompt for blanket permission statements.
Example and Background Links (also Related Meta)
- Profiles on the AO3 post by sophinisba, 12 April 2011. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- Should readers get permission to make podfic? post by jesse_the_k on permission prior to podficcing and ideas about remixes, 22 January 2011. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- From Roga post by zvi on questions about editing fic for podficcing purposes, 28 April 2010. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- Poll! by juice817 on whether or not permission should be sought from authors before podficcing and whether one podfic of a story should be enough, etc., 7 February 2010. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- Fan fiction archives and creative commons licenses post by cschick on further transformation and archiving and distribution, 31 March 2010. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- How miffed should I get? How lazy am I? post by Rachael Sabotini on third-party archiving, 25 November 2008. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- file under: too young to know better post by runpunkrun on the topic of tagging old fanworks, 10 January 2010. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- DL;DR or Oh look! I'm writing meta! post by mimi-sardinia on problems with "Don't Like? Don't Read" in absence of warnings, 31 July 2007. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- Thoughts on vidding stuff post by rhoboat on whether and how to offer concrit on vids, 22 January 2010. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- More thoughts on critique post by pir8fancier on personal interest in concrit, 8 April 2008. (Accessed 21 May 2011)
- Be Prepared (To Write a Blanket Permission Statement) (Filk) , a filk set to the tune of "Be Prepared" from the Lion King to encourage making blanket permission statements for Voiceteam 2023
- Fandom Permission Statements Builder, an interactive tool originally by Flamingwell to help build a comprehensive permission statement