6 ms·

Consider Negotiating with Infringers

71 points by chmaynard 2y ago

shiroiushi 2y ago
Someone should forward this article to the C-suite at Nintendo.
- philipwhiuk 2y ago
  Except that Nintendo is huge. Nintendo doesn't need an influence with 300 followers. This works, sort of kind of, for mid-level creatives who aren't struggling to make rent (and thus need the money) and aren't huge (so don't need the exposure).
Terr_ 2y ago
I'm not saying this is the same thing the author is proposing, but... I'm reminded of a quote from one of my favorite book-series: > One of the Patrician’s greatest contributions to the reliable operation of Ankh-Morpork had been, very early in his administration, the legalizing of the ancient Guild of Thieves. Crime was always with us, he reasoned, and therefore, if you were going to have crime, at least it should be organized crime. > And so the Guild had been encouraged to come out of the shadows and build a big Guildhouse, take their place at civic banquets, and set up their training college with day-release courses and City and Guilds certificates and everything. In exchange for the winding down of the Watch, they agreed, while trying to keep their faces straight, to keep crime levels to a level to be determined annually. That way, everyone could plan ahead, said Lord Vetinari, and part of the uncertainty had been removed from the chaos that is life. > And then, a little while later, the Patrician summoned the leading thieves again and said, oh, by the way, there was something else. What was it, now? Oh, yes... I know who you are, he said. I know where you live. I know what kind of horse you ride. I know where your wife has her hair done. I know where your lovely children, how old are they now, my, doesn’t time fly, I know where they play. So you won’t forget about what we agreed, will you? -- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
- pavlov 2y ago
  This is also the story of cryptocurrencies. From Silk Road to ETF-wrapped investment products where no actual crypto ever moves when you trade it. For 99.9% of crypto investors, the Patrician knows exactly what kind of horse they ride. Soon the deal will be complete. Starting next year there will be an acceptable level of securities fraud and pump-and-dumps in the US, with the SEC looking the other way while crypto banksters and their political allies con the public.
  - k__ 2y ago
    I started in crypto just three years ago, and while it's a bit more alternative, overall it's just business. Sure, I get paid in all kinds of tokens, and it's nice to see some coins rise after I get paid, which makes freelancer work feel a tiiiiiny bit more like being and employee with stock. But it's just a job like any other. I write articles, I write code, I talk with clients, investors, users... And at the end of the day I get paid.
    - staunton 2y ago
      There's ransomware hackers in some countries who also write reports while getting health insurance and paid parental leave...
      - k__ 2y ago
        Fair.
      - b112 2y ago
        You could say the same about anything, let's pick cars. "There are people driving cars to commit crimes, like bank robbery!" Oh no! Now all cars and their drivers are criminals, I suppose? Grandma driving to the grocery store surely is up to no good? I think the claim being attempted is that crypto is mostly used for crime. Yet is that true? How many transactions happened yesterday? And how many were nefarious?
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
The insanity of "destroy free work" as proof of concept to keep what you got. IP as a moat vs IP as a eco-system mycelium constantly producing new growth is pretty psychotic as concept from a growth perspective.
fardo 2y ago
One of the best sonic games ever made, sonic mania, wasn’t made in-house by sonic team, but a handful of fans making fanwork. Sega’s choice to treat their fanwork seriously and make them second-party developers rather than shutting them down was not only an immeasurably good thing for both the project and its fans, but a measurably, handsomely profitable move for Sega.
- bombcar 2y ago
  I've just finished reading the Doom Black Book - https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/ https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/ The number of ports of Doom that were made by fans and only licensed after the work was done so it could be sold is surprisingly high. Randy Linden on the SNES is an interesting story (and the very chip he used was also a similar story at its inception).
tempfile 2y ago
As an atomised creative professional, copyright is not designed to help you. So it is not surprising that the "expected" mechanism for exercising your rights is not the most successful one.
philipwhiuk 2y ago
> It’s almost always the case that infringement happens negligently (that is, because of the vagaries of the internet, the infringer doesn’t always realize they’re infringing someone else’s work). I disagree with this. Everyone knows they didn't make it - they know it belongs to someone. They just don't want to give anyone else anything for using it, so they hope either it happens to have been released to public use or the creator can't be bothered to chase it up.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
xyzzy4747 2y ago
Most infringement is probably caused by sites that scrape content and automatically repost it for SEO optimization. Cron jobs are the ultimate infringers.

71 points by chmaynard 2y ago

shiroiushi 2y ago

Someone should forward this article to the C-suite at Nintendo.

philipwhiuk 2y ago
Except that Nintendo is huge. Nintendo doesn't need an influence with 300 followers. This works, sort of kind of, for mid-level creatives who aren't struggling to make rent (and thus need the money) and aren't huge (so don't need the exposure).

Terr_ 2y ago

I'm not saying this is the same thing the author is proposing, but... I'm reminded of a quote from one of my favorite book-series: > One of the Patrician’s greatest contributions to the reliable operation of Ankh-Morpork had been, very early in his administration, the legalizing of the ancient Guild of Thieves. Crime was always with us, he reasoned, and therefore, if you were going to have crime, at least it should be organized crime. > And so the Guild had been encouraged to come out of the shadows and build a big Guildhouse, take their place at civic banquets, and set up their training college with day-release courses and City and Guilds certificates and everything. In exchange for the winding down of the Watch, they agreed, while trying to keep their faces straight, to keep crime levels to a level to be determined annually. That way, everyone could plan ahead, said Lord Vetinari, and part of the uncertainty had been removed from the chaos that is life. > And then, a little while later, the Patrician summoned the leading thieves again and said, oh, by the way, there was something else. What was it, now? Oh, yes... I know who you are, he said. I know where you live. I know what kind of horse you ride. I know where your wife has her hair done. I know where your lovely children, how old are they now, my, doesn’t time fly, I know where they play. So you won’t forget about what we agreed, will you? -- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

pavlov 2y ago
This is also the story of cryptocurrencies. From Silk Road to ETF-wrapped investment products where no actual crypto ever moves when you trade it. For 99.9% of crypto investors, the Patrician knows exactly what kind of horse they ride. Soon the deal will be complete. Starting next year there will be an acceptable level of securities fraud and pump-and-dumps in the US, with the SEC looking the other way while crypto banksters and their political allies con the public.
- k__ 2y ago
  I started in crypto just three years ago, and while it's a bit more alternative, overall it's just business. Sure, I get paid in all kinds of tokens, and it's nice to see some coins rise after I get paid, which makes freelancer work feel a tiiiiiny bit more like being and employee with stock. But it's just a job like any other. I write articles, I write code, I talk with clients, investors, users... And at the end of the day I get paid.
  - staunton 2y ago
    There's ransomware hackers in some countries who also write reports while getting health insurance and paid parental leave...
    - k__ 2y ago
      Fair.
    - b112 2y ago
      You could say the same about anything, let's pick cars. "There are people driving cars to commit crimes, like bank robbery!" Oh no! Now all cars and their drivers are criminals, I suppose? Grandma driving to the grocery store surely is up to no good? I think the claim being attempted is that crypto is mostly used for crime. Yet is that true? How many transactions happened yesterday? And how many were nefarious?

InDubioProRubio 2y ago

The insanity of "destroy free work" as proof of concept to keep what you got. IP as a moat vs IP as a eco-system mycelium constantly producing new growth is pretty psychotic as concept from a growth perspective.

fardo 2y ago

One of the best sonic games ever made, sonic mania, wasn’t made in-house by sonic team, but a handful of fans making fanwork. Sega’s choice to treat their fanwork seriously and make them second-party developers rather than shutting them down was not only an immeasurably good thing for both the project and its fans, but a measurably, handsomely profitable move for Sega.

bombcar 2y ago
I've just finished reading the Doom Black Book - https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/ https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/ The number of ports of Doom that were made by fans and only licensed after the work was done so it could be sold is surprisingly high. Randy Linden on the SNES is an interesting story (and the very chip he used was also a similar story at its inception).

tempfile 2y ago

As an atomised creative professional, copyright is not designed to help you. So it is not surprising that the "expected" mechanism for exercising your rights is not the most successful one.

philipwhiuk 2y ago

> It’s almost always the case that infringement happens negligently (that is, because of the vagaries of the internet, the infringer doesn’t always realize they’re infringing someone else’s work). I disagree with this. Everyone knows they didn't make it - they know it belongs to someone. They just don't want to give anyone else anything for using it, so they hope either it happens to have been released to public use or the creator can't be bothered to chase it up.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

xyzzy4747 2y ago

Most infringement is probably caused by sites that scrape content and automatically repost it for SEO optimization. Cron jobs are the ultimate infringers.