Hey does this mean we can go back to hating copyright though, i liked when we all agreed copyright was a bad system instead of one we need to expand
I feel like we’ve just been through a bizarre period of copyright becoming inexplicably popular amongst creative leftist types online because of AI stuff and while I’m sympathetic to that I think copyright is, on balance, much worse
"Artists should have control over how their work is used, as a matter of basic respect!"
Yeah!!
"Therefore we should strengthen the laws that major corporations have exploited for decades to gain a stranglehold on creative industries and keep certain artists on a leash."
Wait, no, hold on-
I feel like a lot of people don't want to admit that the motive that drives indie creators to seek copyright is the same motive that drives corporations to seek copyright.
wanting to be paid for your work is not the same as wanting to maintain a pointless stranglehold on an idea for no reason but to prevent others from using it in order to squeeze as many coins out of it as possible
Copyright is not just the bad parts that get used by Disney and Nintendo to strangle other companies and to silence individuals. Copyright is also what prevents the predatory content mill publishers from just stealing indie author books wholesale, reprinting them, and outspending us in advertising money so our versions get lost.
And before you say “there’s no way that would happen” This already does happen. The difference is right now copyright protects the author who had their story ripped off the internet and posted to Amazon. We at least have recourse. I have actually had to fight against these kind of people before for books I published or help friends with. This is a real harm that would be made a 1000 times worse without copyright protections.
Copyright needs to be overhauled so it protects creators from corporations and from predatory practices like content mill productions or rights grabs hidden in TOS’s while no longer allowing companies to sit on the rights to media properties they’re never going to use just so they can prevent anyone else from doing them. We need a healthy and robust public domain that doesn’t wait a whole century for new content to be added while also allowing the original creators to enjoy their stories being theirs for long enough for any reasonable person.
And yes, it would be better to just dismantle capitalism so this isn’t an issue, but as long as our system is capitalistic don’t judge indie creators for clinging on to the few protections we have.
