The Mission Report Challenge

You may be looking for Mission Report, a vid by lim created for this challenge.
The Mission Report Challenge was issued at sga_flashfic by Cesperanza on August 21, 2006. 34 fanworks were created before the challenge was closed on September 11,ADMIN livejournal post by cesperanza, 11 September 2006. but in the meantime one of the rules for the challenge had caused a lot of controversy.
The original challenge announcement post, and the posts in response, were written just over two weeks after The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle, and plagiarism, intertextuality, and bricolage were heavy on many fans' minds.
The discussion surrounding this challenge was likely a factor in the controversies a few months later surrounding Coming Home and Take Clothes Off As Directed.
There were 135 comments to the original post before the comments were frozen.
After the mod tweaked the wording and policy regarding permissions, fans were able to weigh in regarding allowing other fans to transform their fanworks. According to the posts at the official sga_flashfic site, there were 115 "opt-ins" and 36 "opt-outs" ADMIN; Opt IN and ADMIN; Opt OUT
==Some Topics Discussed==
* fannish norms and manners
* asking permission before remixing fanfic, writing sequels to fanfic, or otherwise using a fanfic as a springboard to another fanfic
* opt-in and opt-out permissions
* the differences between pro writers and fan writers in regards to gossip, hurt feelings, monetary and other compensation
* egoboo
* remixing
==Related Posts, Meta, and Papers Citing This Challenge==
* Mission Report Clarification (aka "Running Challenges Is Harrrrd") (August 21, 2006)
* The Homophobic Remix Rag (August 22, 2006)
* Remixing the Remix: Fannish Appropriation and the Limits of Unauthorised Use by Kristina Busse, Shannon Farley (2013)
* Asking permission from the pros by liviapenn (August 20, 2006)
* by Carolyn Claire (August 21, 2006)
* by Mary the Fan (August 21, 2006)
* And then I said stuff. by liviapenn (August 23, 2006)
* by Carolyn Claire (August 25, 2006)
* by shusu (August 25, 2007)
==The Challenge==
==Fan Comments and Reactions: At the Original Post==
The very first comment was one that addressed the third option: other fans remixing an existing fanfic with and without permission.
Many other comments followed, including many by fans who simply posted that they opted out.
Some examples:
[rosewildeirish]: 
[chopchica]: 
[mice1900]: 
[i icie]: 
Other excerpts at the original post:
[kyrdwyn]: 
[hth the first]: 
[kyrdwyn]: 
[harriet spy]: 
[rosewildeirish]: 
[harriet spy]: 
[nel ani]: 
[hth the first]: 
[seperis]: 
[hth the first]: 
[callmeri]: 
[seperis]: 
[misspamela]: 
[miera c]: 
[cesperanza]: 
[debc]: 
[kissingchaos9]: 
[phiremanston]: 
monanotlisa: 
[daydreamer, who was the fan who requested the original challenge]: 
[medie]: 
[nytel]: 
==Fan Comments and Reactions: Elsewhere==
The links and summaries below were compiled by metafandom. See Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006: Ownership Issues In Fanfiction. Some of these entries require a fan to be logged in.
alfirin_kirinki: ADMIN: Opt-OUT -- "Having thought about it, I'm opting out on principle. The only people who may use my fics are people I know personally in fandom, and even then only with express permission. On reflection, I'm pretty appalled by all of this.... But [some fans] haven't expressly said 'no' the way Anne Rice did, for example. If they said that, I would stop. I'd be disappointed, but I would respect their wishes - because they put the effort into creating it in the first place. However, we are looking at a fandom where fanfic is all but encouraged by the writers and even the cast (Chris and Michael?) and they appreciate that the fandom created through fanfiction does help to boost and maintain the popularity of the original tv show/book/film/what have you. Particularly in this genre. I made an analogy in my own journal about it being like someone bakes a cake for a party, and someone else takes that cake (if not in whole, then in part) to make a trifle for the same party. Sainsbury's may have sold the flour and eggs and belgian cooking chocolate (and got handsomely paid for it), but they knew people were going to make it into something else. When the person baked their cake, they did not expect someone to take it apart and use it for their own creation (and subsequently receive praise for something they created the basis for). I was ripped off in precisely this way in the HP fandom and the readers practically lynched the person who 'stole' the fic (he gleefully announced on the Y!Group for WtDBI what he was doing). I was deeply, deeply hurt because the person in question actually did it to re-write it so Harry and Draco got together (which at the time was the main tension point in the goddamn story!) suggesting it was my plot which was at fault. And a plot, in some circumstances, it pretty much the only part of the fic we do genuinely create as a writer. With Stackham, it's different for me, because I've really had to build up an entire background and characterisation to be able to write Pieces or any of the others - I have even more possessive pride in my work. That isn't to say I should have more rights to my fic than a McShepper or a Sparky, but that I am more emotionally invested in it than people might necessarily imagine and it would be a really, really big deal for me if someone fucked with it. The specific point that I am appalled by, is that it was ever stated that writers could take others' stories without permission, as if the issue was in some way the mods' to decide. Common courtesy and consideration for the feelings of others - especially when you live in the same fandom neigbourhood - should not be optional. They should be something we all treat as essential. Whether someone thinks a person has a 'right' to be upset by someone taking their work, the simple fact is, they might be - and it is that which should motivate people." ADMIN: Opt-OUT, this author wrote about a very character, and was upset because, among other things, that because so little was known about the character, her fanon had been appropriated by others.see comments regarding the Stackhouse/Markham pairing at for more about fiction creation as a metaphor for baking a cake, see Robin Hobb's Fan Fiction Rant.
ingridmatthews: Fandom: Yu B Sew Dum — "Fanfic authors have always had a special relationship with other fanfic authors in regard to the proprietary rights to their "universes". It's been an unspoken pact for thirty years that you 'ask first' before doing *anything* to another author's work—archive it, post it elsewhere, and yes, write "fanfic" of it."
etben: *rubs pennies together* — "No, I don't think that writers should remix someone's fic without permission, be it specific permission or a blanket 'hey, go ahead and stir it up, y'all!' notice. I also don't think that they would. Maybe I'm wrong - maybe I'm projecting my own paranoia and fear of stepping on fannish toes on to the rest of the world - but I really don't think so. In my experience, at least, fandom is a really nice place, full of people who want to get along, and who take steps to avoid pissing each other off. We seem, by and large, to be pretty good with that whole 'common courtesy' thing."
fairestcat: Über-unpopular Fannish Opinion of the Day — "They require credit, but not permission. But then they've backpedaled and offered a loophole for people to request their fic be held to a different standard then is the declared position of the community. And that's where things get fuzzy, because if you truly believe permission is not required, then why offer authors the option of pre-emptively refusing permission? It gives the impression that they are not 100% behind the stand they've taken, and changes the focus of the debate from whether or not permission is necessary to whether or not permission should be the assumed default."
misspamela: Quick link about the wank — "On one hand, the challenge was poorly worded. (In the sense of being unclear.) I also believe strongly that the polite thing to do is to ask permission before using someone else's work. On the other hand, it's polite to say "excuse me" when you bump into someone, but if someone doesn't, you wouldn't turn around and say, "You didn't say 'excuse me,' asshole!"."
amireal: quick flashfic thoughts — "I fear, heartily fear that someone will spear me with a spork with some re-rendition of my fic. I will feel bad and need cuddles and make someone write me porn. I may cry 'fowl!' in private, but mostly for irrational authorial reasons. I fear someone will show me for the hack that I am and I will curl up into a little ball and never have another inspirational thought again. I fear someone ELSE will overreact and the fun community will get hammered."
cedara: SGA fanfic writers watch out! — "It is bad for fandom if someone who is a moderator of a big community chooses to allow their members to forgo all unwritten rules of behaviour by allowing someone else to use someone a third person's fanfic for anything without asking their permission. If anyone did that with anything I wrote, I will publicly declare them plagiarists. Even if you may not agree, it still is a form of abuse. Fanfiction operates in a gray area, do not ruin this space we have made for ourselves by insulting other fen, neither with words nor with deeds."
wickedwords: A little personal fannish history — "The thing is, arguing in this way with the re-use of fannish stories as primary source, kept life in the fandom. 'Fanon' is an outgrowth of this, and love it or hate it, it is a part of who we are. In The Sentinel, someone wrote the first story where there is a basket for mail and keys by the front door; then another fan appropriated it for their own story, and so on from there. At some level, fandom is a large shared universe, where we pick up ideas and thoughts from each other as well as the episodes we watch, and feed it back into this created vision that we share."
thelastgoodname: On courtesy, community, and creativity — "But this is the regular problem in creative fandom: are we primarily a community, or are we primarily creators? If it's former, then yes, respect matters; respect for the community, the members of the community, and for the community's standards, is possibly the most important thing that matters. But if we're a bunch of people making neat stuff — and we care about good grammar and proper citations and stylistic issues — then you don't need to ask permission (but you should always cite)."
lightgetsin: On courtesy, community, and creativity — "So okay, we’re a community, and we have rules. One of which is that it’s polite to ask. I’m totally fine with that, but I would like to point out that it implies a few interesting things. Like that it is necessary to be polite to community members, but perfectly acceptable to be rude by this definition to non-members – pro authors. We are nice to our friends but rude to strangers, because strangers can sue us if they really want, but we’ve got to live with our friends every day."
dracostella: Why must an author ask for permission? — "If specifically asked, I am certain that most of the creators and writers of SGA would not explicitly give permission to the works are written based on their writing. So, what makes fan fiction different? Is it because there is a good possibility that a writer of fan fiction will actually respond to an inquiry? Is it a matter of accessibility? Accessibility as in that a fan fiction writer will more likely say "yes" or "no", where as someone like J.K. Rowling will simply never respond?"
tacky_tramp: I violated your MOM's copyright last night!!! — "There's one thing I'm not confused at all about, though. If you write copyright-infringing fanfic, you absolutely do not get to bitch about people creating derivative works based on the things you've written. If they plagiarize? Hang 'em out to dry. But if they say, "This fic is a reworking of tacky_tramp's fic titled 'Refusal', which I liked but was inspired to tweak and retell from a different point of view," and if I then unleash my own self-righteous cease-and-desist on them, I am a plain old, garden-variety, no-excuse-sir hypocrite."
seimaisin: fandom community — "In short, why wouldn't you want to ask someone's permission to remix their story? Unless, of course, you planned to do something they wouldn't like, or unless you think they wouldn't give permission? That's really the heart of it, to me."
marythefan: 11 cents on the sga flashfic wankery — "This is not one of those "It doesn't matter because it's all plagiarism" arguments, because it's NOT plagiarism, in either case. It's also not stealing. It's NOT like someone took your cake and made trifle out of it and served it up to everybody as their own. Nobody took your cake. Your cake is still there. No one's done anything to your original story, which people are still free to go read."
carolyn_claire: Hey, here's something new... — "The flashfic challenge idea was simply to re-imagine another writer's story from a different point of view. The issue under discussion there, and here, really, is permission--is it what we do? Is it something that can or should change? Has it already changed? And are we all just a bunch of filthy plagiarists*, anyway?."
cathexys: source texts for derivative works: dichotomy or continuum? — "The underlying philosophical argument, however, that affects both sides of the debate, is whether the process of using tv shows etc as our source for derivative fanworks is comparable to using other fan works."
reginabellatrix: what a way to start the afternoon — "I have to agree with those who said that the challenge's original lack of permission requirements would have set some very bad precedent in fandom for how authors interact with one another. Even if it had been confined to the stories posted in the community, I think it would have been bad precedent, though obviously not as much of an affront to the social norms of fandom."
oceana_: SGA Wank — "What I do care about is courtesy. And since common courtesy is so rare these days, it is my personal opinion that it should have been made mandatory in a flashfic challenge in such a large fandom. Not doing so it just asking for the wank (which could have been the whole point, for all I know)."
meinos: of course one of my fandoms had to go to hell — "Someone, somewhere, actually said something to the effect of, 'anyone who would have the wrong interpretation of a fic is the same kind of person who wouldn't even think to ask for permission to use it.' I mean to say, what?! I thought that one of the big things about fandom was interpreting what we're given in whatever way makes us happy. That's what we do with the canon -- why should the fan works be any different?"
lydiabell: if using other people's stories is immoral, what are we doing here? — "I think there's a lot to be said for not rubbing in someone's face that you've made derivative art from their art in a way that they are uncomfortable with. This is one of the reasons I don't like slash (or, really, fanfic in general) being brought up with actors or writers at cons."
zvi_likes_tv: Permission for responding to fanfic in fanfic form — "My basic feeling on this issue is, 'Things which allow people to write more fic are good, things which prevent people from writing fic are bad. Asking for permission to write fan-fanac potentially stops people from writing it (if the primary fan author doesn't give permission), so asking for permission is bad. None of the arguments as to why it would be good to stop people from writing fic make sense to me.'"
==References==
Category:Remix Challenges
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:Fanfiction Meta
Category:Stargate Meta
Category:2006 Challenges
Category:2006 Events