Over the past 15 years, people seem to be conditioned to accepting, freely, that everything is FREE. Big Brother, aka Google, which has made billionaires out of is owners and has laughed off millions of dollars in fines from nations around the world, enforces the notion of FREE.
Google owns Blogspot and YouTube, which are easy to find (even without Googling them) and are loaded with copyrighted material being "shared" for FREE...which the parent company not spanking the brats who even admit "I don't own copyright, I just like this."
Then there's Twitter and Facebook, and the rest of social media. There are plenty of websites that simply re-write the news, call themselves NEWSER or some other catchy name, and act like they aren't really plagiarizing. GOOGLE also gives us access to millions of photos we can search for, download, and use as we please.
I mean, it's one thing to use a photo for PARODY purposes. That's considered "fair use." But when somebody (such a I) makes a parody, and then others use it, with no credit, that's not exactly fair. But ..it happens. I should be flattered somebody grabbed one of my items and posted it. Oh yes, it does my heart good that dozens of people had a laugh. I don't expect money, so why should I expect even a credit, or a crumb of recognition? It's the INTERNET. It's all a big playground for everyone to "share."
No, I did NOT write that HILARIOUS intro to the photo. I let the photo speak for itself. But in this case, the poster may think he's improved on it, and made it a real BOFFO knee-slapper. If anyone asks where he got it, he'll say "Oh, it was on the Net somewhere." He saw it; he took it. That's the Internet.
This is why a lot of people, from Steve Miller to Gene Simmons and on and on, say they aren't creating anything anymore. Why bother if people are going to steal it? When they might only break even? Just to prove they're still around? I knocked off this minor gag because I felt like it, and I didn't mind "donating" a chuckle to the world. I didn't even put a credit on it, which I often do. But seeing it swiped and passed around didn't make me smile with pride. Note to self: always put a credit on it.
I knocked the parody off in a few minutes, inspired by a trending Twitter topic asking for people to goof on a famous rock band. A few years ago, I could've sold that thing to a men's mag for $25 or $50 as part of the "front matter" pages of news and cartoons. Now? Now it's thrown onto the bonfire of the vanities, where we all contribute stuff FREE for the ego of it, or to try and "network" and get people to know who we are.
Only once it's on the Internet, who CARES who created it. Would a credit have done me any good? I've had cases where I've put a credit on a photo, or a Photoshop job, and somebody not only used it, but took pains to Photoshop my name off it, to make it seem like an original. How....nice. I've had people download a celebrity photo I've taken, and start selling copies on eBay. It's entitlement. As in: "You ain't doing it, so why can't I?"
The other day, a blog shut down because the "owner" had gotten too many takedowns. The links (Zippyshare, Mediafire, Mega, whatever) were being removed and this blogger didn't feel like using an off-brand from Russia (like Yandex which is loaded with spyware). So it was a sunset and a grumpy "farewell," with a dig at "greedy" musicians who "ruin the fun" and how awful it is that a blog that wants to "publish nice music for all to enjoy" was getting "hassled."
30 or 40 people left comments ranging from: "Don't go!" and "Don't let the bastards win" to "Start a secret blog and tell us where it is" and "Find out who reports you and we'll make their lives hell!" Not ONE person said, "What? You weren't paying the artists? Your downloading company wasn't paying artists out of a percentage of the banner ads? You just thought you were entitled to copy mp3 files and post them?" Not a one.
Dale Carnegie, in one of his books on making friends, or trying not to worry, or both, related how we must not be upset if we don't get thanks. We aren't appreciated? Why think of all the lepers Jesus cleansed, and how few thanked him. Dale is gone now, but if he was around today, I wonder if he'd have a VeRO (verified rights owner) rep on eBay, or if he'd shrug off the number of bootleggers who are offering illegal downloads of his books. Ebay shrugs and says "we don't know if these are legal or not, we need the author or publisher to tell us."
They aren't going to ask the seller to verify permission. Hell no. "Permission?" That word is not used very much on the Internet. Not as much as "entitlement."
In my capacity as a VeRO rep for a particular TV show, I stopped somebody who was offering DVD-R discs of the entire series. When I stopped the seller, the seller expressed genuine surprise. "Why did you stop my auction?" "Copyright infringement." "But these TV shows were coming into my home free, on the TV. All I did was make copies of them. So they're mine to do with as I please."
So it goes. And usually, nobody says "STOP" or "NO."
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