informed consent, IRBs, and RPF
Damn you and your interestingness, LJ. I was trying to work.

It's suddenly occurred to me that the RPS "debate" is a little like the IRB debate. (Institutional Review Boards -- questions about whether all research of Internet materials is human subjects research; whether human subjects standards for the social "sciences" are really equivalent to those for e.g. medicine, and whether they clash with standards for the humanities).

In each case, there's a debate about whether you need to obtain consent before writing about people (or some text associated somehow with people) in a certain way.

And in some cases - for RPF and for some types of academic research - I'd actively say "no," as in, just the opposite- not only is it not necessary, it should not be done, for the sake of the "subject." It would be an imposition on the "subject," in some cases, to get "permission," just as it's harassment to tell an actor or a singer about RPS (unless they, like, ask.) So, like, if the people you plan to write about have no idea what an IRB could possibly be or any context for understanding what the kind of research you're doing *is*, and they will never be exposed to this research in any way shape or form, it's kind of insulting and rude (in addition to useless) to shove it down their throats in the name of what will be meaningless "consent." Just like it's insulting and rude to shove -- well, not just RPS, any kind of fic -- at actors.

And that's just for cases where you want to be sure to avoid "harm." There are other cases or methodological perspectives in which people simply aren't entitled to a say about whether you critique them in print or otherwise, e.g. art or politics. And this could go for celebrities, too, though it's a stretch to call RPF "critique."

I'm a little read/writ/thunk out at the moment, so I'll just give two refs:

This article that transgeneric hooked me up with, "Representations or People?" and this discussion in fanthropology (linking to my own comments because they directly deal with "the right to not know.")