Author Permission Question

[paraka]

So I'm contemplating a podficing project of reading a bunch of drabbles from a kink meme. However, due to the nature of kink memes all of the fics are posted anonymously.

What are people's opinions on getting author permission, if the fic is posted anonymously?

Not only will I not know if whomever answers my request for permission is the real author, some authors might not be tracking comments to the ficlets so they may never see it. My impulse is to just go ahead without author's permission but, well, it's such a touchy subject.

Comments

[dodificus]

My feelings about permission have undergone a shift lately and I'm coming down on the side of the reader now. If there's no way you can get permission, *especially* when it's anon, then I say go for it.

I guess the part that I *am* questioning is do we (as readers) need to acknowledge that lack of permission in the podfic post? I think I'm going to have a similar non permission issue soon and I'm of two minds about whether I should explicitly mention it or not.

[paraka]

If there's no way you can get permission, *especially* when it's anon, then I say go for it.
I know that permission is definitely the thing to do if you can get permission. But I hate it as an unbreakable rule.

One of my room mates has this one fic she would really like to podfic where she knows for a fact that the author is dead but she's still hesitant because she can't get permission. And even my situation with this kink meme, I think it's kind of silly to insist on permission with small anonymous ficlets, I still feel kind of uneasy about it.

I guess the part that I *am* questioning is do we (as readers) need to acknowledge that lack of permission in the podfic post?
My natural instinct would be to post a disclaimer admitting the lack of permission and leaving it open to being taken down if the author does come back from whatever and object. However, the archive won't host it the podfic if they know that the author hasn't given permission (if I under stand general_jinjur's comment here correctly). That makes me not want to mention it (since so many people just look at the archive to find podfics) since if you don't admit the lack of permission the archive will go ahead and archive. Which is maybe a little dishonest of me towards the archive but there you go (and it still leaves the archive with plausible deniability).

[dodificus]

Which is maybe a little dishonest of me towards the archive but there you go (and it still leaves the archive with plausible deniability).

Your plan, I likes it.

[cybel]

As a geriatric fan myself, I think it would be a tragedy to lose potential podfics of works by fans who have died and therefore can no longer give permission. If it were you, wouldn't you want your work to live on, to get a new lease on life, as it were?