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unjapanologistThe new issue of Transformative Works and Cultures was published last month and includes a symposium piece by me:
Why we should talk about commodifying fan work
Summary:
Although the idea of commodifying fanworks has been raised every now and then in the last few years, many fans and fan scholars active in the English-language online fan community reject this concept for fear of industry encroachment, litigation, or disruption of the fan community's gift culture. However, the idea that money is simply incompatible with fannish interactions may be not a universally applicable "rule" of fan communities, but only a description of the situation as it is in one particular community at a particular point in history. There are other fan communities that do engage in some form of commodification of their works, and have been doing so succesfully for decades. For instance, many Japanese fans combine a gift culture with a more commercial culture that involves the sale of fanworks, primarily fan comics (dÅjinshi). Large-scale sales of fan comics take place in other Asian countries as well, etc.
It has been suggested that this sort of “hybrid economy” for unauthorized derivative works of all sorts, including fanworks, is likely to emerge elsewhere as well. According to several researchers from various fields, such a hybrid economy would result in social and financial benefits for amateur creators as well as for the media industry. The fan community comprises a very large portion of all creators of unauthorized derivative works to whom this new hybrid economy would apply. However, at the moment, researchers who speak about commodifying fanworks tend to neglect crucial fannish issues, such as the particularities of the communal space in which most fanworks are created and the gendered nature of the relationship between most fan creators and industry professionals. I suggest it is time fans and fan scholars added their voices to this debate, to ensure that fannish concerns are taken into account as new economic models for the commodification of unauthorized derivative works emerge.
(Note: this is a self-authored summary, not an official abstract from the journal.)
One more post about that other open source paper, and then I can finally actually read the rest of the issue.
Why we should talk about commodifying fan work
Summary:
Although the idea of commodifying fanworks has been raised every now and then in the last few years, many fans and fan scholars active in the English-language online fan community reject this concept for fear of industry encroachment, litigation, or disruption of the fan community's gift culture. However, the idea that money is simply incompatible with fannish interactions may be not a universally applicable "rule" of fan communities, but only a description of the situation as it is in one particular community at a particular point in history. There are other fan communities that do engage in some form of commodification of their works, and have been doing so succesfully for decades. For instance, many Japanese fans combine a gift culture with a more commercial culture that involves the sale of fanworks, primarily fan comics (dÅjinshi). Large-scale sales of fan comics take place in other Asian countries as well, etc.
It has been suggested that this sort of “hybrid economy” for unauthorized derivative works of all sorts, including fanworks, is likely to emerge elsewhere as well. According to several researchers from various fields, such a hybrid economy would result in social and financial benefits for amateur creators as well as for the media industry. The fan community comprises a very large portion of all creators of unauthorized derivative works to whom this new hybrid economy would apply. However, at the moment, researchers who speak about commodifying fanworks tend to neglect crucial fannish issues, such as the particularities of the communal space in which most fanworks are created and the gendered nature of the relationship between most fan creators and industry professionals. I suggest it is time fans and fan scholars added their voices to this debate, to ensure that fannish concerns are taken into account as new economic models for the commodification of unauthorized derivative works emerge.
(Note: this is a self-authored summary, not an official abstract from the journal.)
One more post about that other open source paper, and then I can finally actually read the rest of the issue.
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I'm kind of an outsider to fandom as a social space (having done my fan-work from a private or peripheral place), so the norms and assumptions are sometimes uncomfortably visible or mystifying to me, and I do distrust the "money must not enter in ever" kind of mindset. Of course there are risks like co-option, but it would also categorically deny fan-creators a significant form of value and respect (how do you say the pros' stuff is worth money and ours isn't without casting our work as lesser?), as well as the more practical "taking food out of your mouth" aspect.
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There's an interesting article about what kind of compensation fans might deserve for their works, called 'Should fan fiction be free?'. Have you seen this one? It's behind a paywall (curse you, academic publishing model), let me know if you can't access it but would like a copy. If I remember correctly, I never really thought about money and fandom until I wandered into LJ/DW territory and somehow convinced myself that "proper" fandom was gift economy or nothing. But I think I started changing my mind again after reading the abovementioned article.
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And yeah, I can't get to the article but would like to read it if I could.
Non-academically, I remember an essay on LJ a few years ago, How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor by cupidsbow; I might have already had the distrust, but that raised the issue again --- and also introduced me to "How To Suppress Women's Writing" by Joanna Russ, which is another feminist awakening every time I re-read it; it doesn't address fanfiction specifically but gets into the gendered history of women's work, concerns, and preferences being marginalized.
I also recall some stinks about creators coming into conflict with fanfic writers because of incidents where fanfic writers asserted rights (eg, saying they had to drop a story because a fanfic author had written something similar and threatened to sue), and that's part of the distrust of asserting rights now, maybe.
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Sounds like the incident with Marion Zimmer Bradley. From the various accounts I've read (on Fanlore and in a short TWC piece), it was all pretty confusing, and it's not even clear if the fan did threaten to sue. But it seems like whatever happened there keeps on being used as a cautionary tale for published writers (don't read fanfic based on your works!). Maybe for fans, too. I never really heard much about it, but it seems like the fan in the MZB case got a lot of flak from other fans for "ruining" things for everyone. It's not clear to me if she did do something objectionable, but yeah. Maybe the reverberations from that incident have influenced fannish attitudes towards respecting author's rights "properly".
It's not good for writers/the industry if they don't dare let themselves be inspired by fanworks because of legal fears. There's so much more innovation and risk-taking going on in fan communities, and it would be great if that innovation could be leveraged on a broader scale. If fanworks were legal, we could hash this sort of thing out to everyone's benefit. Get some clear rules in place for what an industry person needs to do if they want to legally use an idea from a fanwork, how they should compensate the fan author if compensation is desired, etc. And there will be rainbows and ponies and money for everyone who wants some. *keeps on dreaming*
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After I replied here, I read your footnote about the MZB incident, which was the big one. I also remember hearing that a certain episode of Babylon 5 was delayed because it was too similar to a fanfic (but it was ultimately made)---here's the bit on fanlore about it. Sounds like there wasn't a legal threat that time, but another piece of "creators must not look at fanfiction ever" and "fanfic authors ruin it for everyone if they don't defer to creators."
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"fanfic authors ruin it for everyone if they don't defer to creators."
That's one pretty noxious attitude that I'd like to see gone.
no subject
But now it's considered this huge no-no to charge for fanfic, and honestly I love fandom culture as it is now (certainly I am not saying "oh how I miss the good old days!" because I really, truly do not), but historically speaking it's pretty hypocritical. The gendered nature of fanfic creators hasn't changed; and, honestly, no one is giving James Hance the stink eye, and I have to wonder if the fact that he is a male Star Wars fan that plays in to his success.
The communal space has changed considerably, though, and perhaps that IS the crucial aspect? Thanks for the thinky thoughts!
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Fic and other fanworks can be exchanged completely for free now, since the internet is here. Involving money is no longer necessary for most kinds of fanwork. I suppose it's possible that people felt that they could do away with the "necessary evil" of money with the arrival of the net, but that's probably more revisionist history than anything else. Simple convenience must have played a much larger part in the "collective" non-decision to move nearly everything online than any ethical considerations.
And honestly, making it all free has improved accessibility of fandom for so many people, and fandom has done so many awesome things that would never have been possible if it cost even one single cent to read a fic. Much of this gift culture is very much worth protecting, and I'm rather enamored with the idea of a sort of fic licence that says that however you commodify your fanwork, you also have to keep a free copy available (a la GPL). *mind wanders*
I don't know much about James Hance, but looking at his website, I'd say that the fact that he produces "art" art plays a big part in it. (Am reminded of that weird Salon piece about fanart.) Also, no sexual overtones whatsoever. No non-fan could ever come across that stuff and think it anything but pretty and cute. And yeah, male Star Wars fan.
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I think I'm just struck by the hypocrisy of fans who get so very indignant about the issue, as if this is some sacred, age-old decree about fanfic ("the slash must flow!" lol) rather than a recent (and direct) outcome of fandom moving to the web. It's totally revisionist.
I'm rather enamored with the idea of a sort of fic licence that says that however you commodify your fanwork, you also have to keep a free copy available (a la GPL)
I've had similar thoughts, based on the whole serialization of fanfic that LJ has encouraged. Say, the fic is free in serialized/chaptered versions on LJ/dw, but you can download the whole PDF for $xx. Of course the AO3 has pretty much nulled that idea, since any fic posted there can be downloaded as a single file in several formats. But it was an interesting idea.
You know, honestly, my mother would have probably encouraged my fanfic obsession (so was so openminded) but it was 1983 and while it's trite to say, it really was a different world then. Ha!
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Of course the AO3 has pretty much nulled that idea, since any fic posted there can be downloaded as a single file in several formats. But it was an interesting idea.
I bet we can find a ton of other things to do with fanworks that people may be willing to pay for, even if it's things they could theoretically do themselves with some effort. But we're not legally allowed to try and find crazy new business-y things to do with fanworks, so nobody tries.
it was 1983 and while it's trite to say, it really was a different world then. Ha!
I was born in 1983. *gets off your lawn*
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(Heh... sorry for not adding to the discussion in any meaningful way, but I just had to chime in.)
In all seriousness, I'm finding the idea of commodification a very interesting one--I for one would have said "over my dead body" if I had not read your post on Comiket and the dojinshi-makers' attitude toward it. So now I'm interested. Tentatively. I'm still a "newbie" when it comes to fanfic in general, since my first serious one has only been online for, oh, a year. But I have been involved in fandom RPs and such since I was probably eleven. Yikes.
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To be honest, it feels weird to argue for commodification of fanwork when I can barely imagine myself how it would go -I can take some guesses as to who might like to make some money with their fanstuff and how, but if people get the legal right to do something, they'll just run with it in fifty different directions that we probably can't even imagine right now.
Maybe we should see it as more of a rights issue than a money-making issue. Perhaps only a small minority of fans would ever be interested in trying to earn money with their works, and only a smaller minority of those would actually succeed in turning a profit (most dojinshi creators seem to be in the red, but happily carry on because they love what they do). But even if someone is not at all interested in commodifying fanworks, or even opposed to the whole idea, they might still be interested in staking a claim to their right to commodify their own works. If only to keep others from doing it against their will and outside of their control.
ETA: but I would be totally okay with subsidizing the next chapter of "Three Years at Sea", FYI :D