Piracy, paywalls, and public access
Hello, everyone. I hope all those reading are having a calm day. I just wanted to ellaborate where I stand in many of my public views.
I know there are many topics that go discussed, some favored, some loathed, so I thought it would be helpful if I did some clarification on some of these as some can seem confusing when it comes to financial support.
PAID topics
-------
(basic ideas of spending)
So obviously I do not lean into extreme views such as Anarchy in doing away with money since work and living are the essentials of what we do as a species.
We need to eat bread, so we work to make it. If no one makes the bread, no one gets to eat.
Money is the factor of not why the bread is valuable but why the labor is worth rewarding.
Money is the compensation for the labor.
In an ideal fantasy, we would all live in a world where 8 hours of labor will be traded off with a random consumer item like 070 buckets of milk, or 125 gallons of gasoline.
That is the utopia for many green party hippies. But alas, milk and gallons are never the value of labor despite being items we use money to purchase. They are just things we buy, not things we trade off for a living wage.
-------
Therefore, that was a long way of saying. Money good, so no money, very bad! bad! sad time.
PIRACY
Thus, when it comes to Piracy, a popular topic today, I can safely assure that I currently stand AGAINST the practice in most cases.
1
In cases where people are only offered a digital good, and even then it is given with a limitation and fakery of ownership, then Piracy is a morally justified response.
If someone was sold 45$ for an item, only to find out that it's not really theirs, and that item can be taken back without notice, or even blocked without login, then not actually being the owner of a digital product is enough to warrant Piracy of ownership justified, so long as the consumer has purchased the item once.
It is NOT okay to Pirate something you don't even own. That's simply taking for free while not sacrificing the compensation (the labor, aka the money) in return!
The case above is currently the most ethical view in piracy.
2
The second case would be with false ownership. As in, instead of being allowed to purchase a digital product for 45$ total, a customer would be asked instead to continue paying 45$ indefinitely so that they would ALWAYS have a monthly bill and not a final estimate; now some companies attempt to bypass this final total by charging per yearly--and yet, how does ANYBODY own their product if by the end of the year they must re-purchase to continue another 12 month billing cycle.
This is where the total estimate is placed in a legal loop where an unfortunate customer is forced to be in a NEVER ENDING payment plan for the sake of withholding their (false)ownership.
This is a second case where PIRACY actually is an ethical solution vs the legal entrapment designed by greedy corporations and their inhumane lobbyists.
Any other circumstance other than false ownership of a product, or a subscription temp ownership has yet to be examined. As of now, these two forms are completely and humanely justified.
In the first case, a popular example would be with Steam games. And on the second case, would be any subscription plan like Adobe's Premier Pro or Microsoft's Word program.
In any other case, then Piracy is clearly wrong if you take something you have not paid for (excluding of course items that are no longer on the market or have been long archived such as in the case with older videogames and products that are long dead from circulation and IP ownership, i.e. Timesplitters1-Future Perfect, or simply in the Public Domain).
PAY WALLS
The second topic often addressed in many social media post concerns paywalls.
While I have no problem with people selling their own material or services behind payment requirements, I do have a problem when someone clearly abuses this practice by sneaking underlining restrictions or attempting to sell something that is already free or owned by someone else(with a clear exception to FAN ART. I BELIEVE IF YOU MADE IT, EVEN IF ITS NOT YOUR IP, YOU'RE ALLOWED TO SELL THE WORK YOU MADE!!!).
So, some of the paywalls that really grind my gears is not even a paywall topic.
It's when people mix 2 different products together in a very sneaky manner such as
-uploading custom fonts to a free-to-download website, and then in the READ ME file, revealing the GOTCHA " IF YOU USE THIS FONT, YOU WILL BE SUED ON YOUR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS."
Those are the scummy, "download for free, but you can't really use this because its NOT YOURS TO ACTUALLY USE."
Those are like the reverse, some kind of invisible paywall of some type.
The second lesser paywalls I do not support are posting half your products. As in, buy this vehicle 3d model, but if you want the paint and the interior then buy my paywall package.
---
BAD PAYWALLS DON'T MEAN WE CAN'T HAVE
ACCEPTABLE PAYWALLS
Don't treat people like your freedom slaves!....I have NO PROBLEM paying for something I want. Before, I use to have a spoiled attitude about wanting EVERYTHING for free. These days, I've matured to realize that no one is a slave to my entitled tantrums because people DO deserve to be compensated for their work.
This means, in lame terms, we CAN live in a world with both free mods AND paid mods.
Free opportunities, and Paid opportunities.
That is because, like in the beginning of this blog, we live in a financial world. We need money to function as a society. Everyone always wants FREE stuff, but no one wants to work to make it!
That's why I believe in having both FREE, charitable opportunities for half of the world that is not currently living in the financial realm, and PAID opportunities for the other half that have jobs and money and live in the spending world.
That is how I view the reality we live in.
When you have money you get to live in all the things you can buy with it. When you don't have money, you are always on the otherside living by what you CAN do without the access of money.
That is why I say, if you don't have money to buy that shiny new Videogame. Tough luck! You have to make peace by living at your means! Don't envy the millionare with a shiny new 2024 car! Live by your means and drive your 1992 Toyota Camry. LOL.
Don't say, "Awe! They have the new 2024 car, so I deserve it to! I'll even steal for it!" No, live by your means because no you are NOT entitled by something just because you don't have the money.
You don't get to lift your nihilistic, anarchism pitch forks and say "burn all social ideas of money" because you don't have a job and you're coveting the rich person's lifestyle.
That's why, if I am broke, I would stay browsing the free sections.
If I have money, then I will go browsing the paid sections.
It's really not that dramatic. We live in a world where we'll always hop between both sides of the financial fence. Our ups and downs.
That's why I don't mind providing some things for free. I am more than happy making free content as much as I am happy making paid content. I know and lived in both struggles.
PUBLIC ACCESS
OPEN SOURCE VS CORPORATIONS
This finally leads me the last point I wanted to make. Where do I currently stand? Why is it some days I am rooting for freedom and otherdays I am rooting for paid stuff?
Well, when it comes to freedom, I am ALWAYS going to be supporting Open Source, we the people, the freedom of the press, and the idea of Public Domains. Since, let's be honest, everything we do as a Human ALWAYS ends up in the hands of the world sooner or later. As an artist, we're the first to make peace with this thought: that once created and shared, we give up our Art to the eyes and ears of the World.
--
That is the basic play when it comes to freedom of the press and free speech. If a stranger learns our name, we HAVE NO POWER in how they use our name outside of what is legal.
A stranger can swear our name, can make our name into a pop song, can even write our name in a book. The point is, no one can control what the World does because NO one can control free will.
Our modern laws are only here to safeguard us, sometimes for what they were meant for, sometimes just to hurt us. But the justified laws are always in place to safely protect us.
--
ANYWAYS, that is another long way of saying that I believe in what the Public does and I have no control over what others decide to do (so long as we're talking about sensibility and law and order).
If the public wants to use my books as building material, then by all means, plaster my books into your drywalls.
If the public wants to talk about me in their podcasts, then by all means. Who am I to censor you?
But if the public wants to get personal, harass me, slander me, make false accusations, steal my stuff, then that's completely different to the ideas of why we have civil freedoms.
Thus in short, because I believe in the Public, am willing to always donate or provide free content for all to enjoy when I am able to, and support those that don't have a PENNY to their name! I will ALWAYS be supportive of OPEN SOURCE options.
I have ALL the time in the world to buy many things and experience different paid services by companies and their products,
but I will forever remain unwavering to the support of Open Source resources because I want to save some of my support, not to companies or a person, but towards everyone for free.
If a company offered a fancy television for x amount of money,
I want people to have the Open Source option to have their own Open Source tv.
If a company was offering a computer with built-in AI that also pours you coffee,
I want the World to also have a free computer that makes it's own tea.
If a company was offering to sell you a dvd movie with an expiration date of use,
I want the World to be able to buy a physical disc that needs no LOGIN, or anyone's business in where, when, and how often you watch it, BECAUSE IT WILL BE YOURS.
That is the Open Source I value. The ability to provide people with the option to use and own for FREE.
Companies and I can sell many products, but Open Source is the standalone charity zone we must respect.
