podfic, permissions, and false analogies

Inevitably, given the recent controversies, I have been thinking about the issue of podfic and permissions. (For the record, before I go any further, I would like to note that I have given blanket-ish permission for people to podfic my stories.) In particular, I'm thinking about the analogy sometimes made between podfic of a fanfic and fanfic of a professionally-made source text. "You didn't ask permission to write that fanfic," the argument runs, "so you have no right to say that people should ask permission to podfic it, or to impose conditions on how it can be podficced."

It's a false analogy for a couple of reasons. ( Click here to read more )