So you know what? If OpenAI or Anthropic destroys the copyright system, either through an adverse court ruling or getting the laws changed? I won't fucking shed a God damn fucking tear. I will be grumpy because of who did it. I will not object to the result.

That Onion article comes to mind: "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point"

"But we can reform it!"

That's like saying we can reform oppression.

"We can change it so small content creators can oppress the masses and create petty fiefdoms, yet stop the abuses of the oppressive system by big content"

No thanks; it still needs surveillance to work, and I have seen too many small-time content creators use copyright as a big stick to stop things like modding, trying to use copyright to make closed species, etc.

(And yes, fuck closed species, it's arrogant bullshit, now you know my stance on that)

Also if you don't know:

What's a closed species?

Some furries got their head up their ass and think that they invented a species therefore they can control it and monopolise the art around it, including selling "exclusive" fursonas. The theory is they created it so no one else can draw it or have a character based on it.

(Rich furries will pay a fortune and a half for these fursonas and the exclusive "rights" to a closed species, even though the rights are pretty much meaningless; enough assholes in the community will harass you for using a closed species, that's the enforcement mechanism)

Yes. That's really what it is. It really is THAT fucking stupid.

Big AI companies will be dead in like a year or two.

Big content? That will continue to be around. They aren't going anywhere.

Companies abusing copyright to destroy retrogaming? Not going anywhere.

Shitty people abusing copyright to suppress genuine creative expression? They're definitely not going anywhere.

Copyright perpetuating surveillance? Also an evil we must put a stop to.

So you can tell me "AI companies are more harmful" but in terms of the long-term harm to society I would say the entire intellectual property industry has collectively done more harm and will continue to do more harm unless we take their right to oppress the masses away.

@Elizafox Hear, hear!

@Elizafox time to double down and insist that copyright be abolished for _everyone_, and not just for Anthropic

@nobody Exactly. It must be permanently abolished as an institution.

The patent system as well.

@Elizafox oh gawd yeah I once had the misfortune to tangle with a commercially-minded furry of this sort, someone who was briefly attracted to our dear Mono the Unicorn I confess. Etheras Fox, he called himself, and he had designs on marketing his Etheras fursona as a personal brand. Yeeeah he was not a good sort.

@Elizafox The concept of copyright is, first and foremost, a commercial practice of capitalism.

The emergence of a new group that generates massive cash flow by distorting the existing copyright system is the catalyst for copyright to undergo a legal transformation.

I am in a position where I do not condemn the EFF.

@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems

Genuine question: Should artists have any rights to decide what it done with their art?

I feel iffy about the idea of a big corporation taking something I made and using it for profit without my permission and being legally allowed to do so…

I'd be afraid that big corporations would attempt to "fix" a hole left by copyright being gone by increasing technical copy protection methods and shifting to providing intellectual property as a service rather than giving you access to a copy, so copying becomes very hard/impossible (technically, not legally)…