{"id":421,"date":"2014-06-01T19:06:46","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T02:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentblogs.viu.ca\/stephanieboychuk\/?p=421"},"modified":"2014-06-01T19:06:46","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T02:06:46","slug":"fans-free-materials-copyright-and-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/2014\/06\/01\/fans-free-materials-copyright-and-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans, Free Materials, Copyright and Profit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something very interesting (and relevant to OLTD 505) happened a few hours ago on Twitter that hit very close to my heart.<\/p>\n

Some of you may be familiar with the stellar podcast Welcome to Nightvale (WTNV) (http:\/\/commonplacebooks.com\/<\/a>) created and co-written by Joseph Fink (@PlanetofFinks<\/a> on Twitter). If you aren\u2019t familiar, I won\u2019t go into details, but the podcast is (in my opinion) and exceptionally well written and well produced story in a style reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft. The podcast is free to download, with no commercials except for plugs for their donation page, plugs for their guest musicians, and plugs for their merchandise at the beginning and sometimes end of the show. I\u2019ve been a big fan for well over a year.<\/p>\n

A few hours ago, Joseph Fink posted this on Twitter (edited for language):\"Joseph_Fink_01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, the initial reactions of fans:<\/p>\n

\"Joseph_Fink_01a\"<\/a>(especially that last one).<\/p>\n

Secondly, the conversations the fans of the podcast had after the initial reaction phase was over. I\u2019ve selected a snipet below (orange boxes on the comments I found most engaging):\"Joseph_Fink_02\"<\/a>I really, really like the comment by\u00a0@alecballin<\/a> above. I think that this encapsulates my ideas about remixing and read-write culture pretty well. I also really like\u00a0@PlanetofFinks<\/a> response \u2013 he agrees. This is a case of someone creating something and being perfectly happy for fans to engage with it through art and remixes. He just doesn\u2019t want other people to \u201ccash in\u201d or sell things based on his creation. Which makes the following comment all the more aggravating:\"Joseph_Fink_02a\"@PlanetofFinks<\/a> is not \u201cacting like a movie studio\u201d. I\u2019m not sure if the above fan had read the rest of the conversation, so I\u2019ll resist the urge to make a comment on his reply to the thread. Instead, I wanted to comment on the spirit of his post \u2013 content creators engaging with the craft community. WTNV features a grassroots level musician EVERY episode in a special segment called \u201cThe Weather\u201d. They have also have guest voices and guest writers (some of which, to my understanding, were fan scripts). I\u2019m not sure who designs their merchandise, but I would be surprised if none of it was designed by their fans. WTNV, and other fan supported podcasts (\u201cWe\u2019re Alive\u201d [http:\/\/www.zombiepodcast.com\/<\/a>] is another remarkable example) generally take special care to engage with their fans and fan products, or they wouldn\u2019t get the support they do. That doesn\u2019t mean that fans should be allowed to create something and then sell it for profit at conventions or over the internet however. Unless of course \u2026\"Joseph_Fink_03\"<\/a>\u2026 they have permission and kick some of the profit back to the creator.<\/p>\n

This is where my feelings toward remixing and fan creations get complicated. Do I believe that fans of a free service, who are inspired and create something new, should profit off of it? No \u2026 and yes. When I contrast the above example to that of Girl Talk (http:\/\/illegal-art.net\/girltalk\/<\/a>) from RIP: A Remix Manifesto (http:\/\/vimeo.com\/8040182<\/a>), I get myself into murky waters. Girl Talk remixes songs, without clearing copyright. Is that really all that different to fans profiting from their art or other products based on WTNV? In my heart, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

My difference of opinion comes from a feeling more of what is reasonable, versus what is necessarily \u201cright\u201d. If Girl Talk were to pay to clear copyright on his album, he is looking at a bill of about $4.2 billion according to RIP. Is that reasonable? I don\u2019t think so. If the rights holders (and in this specific example, record labels) dropped the cost of sampling, I would be much less divided on Girl Talk. If it was economically reasonable to sample, I would want those samples to be cleared before I considered calling myself a fan (which I am).<\/p>\n

On the other hand, companies who create apps or fans who create products based on WTNV and profit from them don\u2019t have to pay ridiculous copyright fees. There are no fees associated with accessing WTNV (unlike music), and some people are taking that to mean it is open to use for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n

This brings to mind the conversations we have had on \u201cfree\u201d versus \u201copen\u201d material. I am fully aware what I\u2019m talking about in the case of WTNV is \u201cfree\u201d and NOT \u201copen\u201d content, but it is interesting to note how blurred those lines can be in the minds of media consumers today. I believe that blurring is due, in large part, to people beginning to dismiss the unreasonable barriers to the use of media, and applying those attitudes to all media \u2013 not just commercial media.<\/p>\n

It must very be difficult to be a creator of new media today. Clearly, I have mixed feelings about all of this, and much like the registrar of copyrights said in RIP “it depends on whose it is an how upset they are”. In the case of the fans of WTNV, the fact that content is free gives those of us who are fans (and those of us who donate to the show) a small sense of ownership as well – and we will support the creators as much as possible. Much like @NilliliMamboNo5<\/a> said above “I think the most us fans can do is ask people to stop.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something very interesting (and relevant to OLTD 505) happened a few hours ago on Twitter that hit very close to my heart. Some of you may be familiar with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30,42,43,49,55,57,63,72,74,77,83],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-copyright","tag-free","tag-girl","tag-manifesto","tag-nightvale","tag-open","tag-remix","tag-talk","tag-to","tag-twitter","tag-welcome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/stephanieboychukeportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}