Blog / 2015 / A Letter to Copyright Warriors
March 26, 2015
In the last week or so, my Redbubble journal has been plagued by a couple of copyright advocates, one of whom is being especially condescending in his comments. It’s annoying, to be sure, but it did inspire me to write this letter, so I suppose it’s okay in the end.
To anyone who passionately defends copyright and adamantly believes that it is good for artists, this is what I have to say:
You are not the intended audience for the articles and videos I make about free culture. With that in mind, if you choose to comment on them anyway, please be respectful. I’m not aiming to aggravate you with my opinion because I’m not aiming to engage with you at all.
Also, please know that I haven’t placed my art in the public domain on a whim. I’ve arrived at my position after years of study and careful reflection, which, I hope, is how everyone forms their opinions about copyright. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s something we can agree on: most creatives could be thinking harder about copyright, and we’re both inviting them to do so in our own way!
Still, were we to have a conversation about copyright, it would almost certainly be both painful and fruitless. I regularly check in with what copyright advocates are saying because I care about your arguments, but I refuse to discuss it directly with you anymore because the potential for vitriol is too draining.
All of which is to say: let’s talk about something else instead! I’m certain that we have plenty of other things in common.
I have some guilt about this letter. I don’t like to cut off conversation, but, in my experience, the majority of copyright warriors are not able to talk in a productive manner on this topic. I used to try to engage with them, but mostly they are just so angry with anyone who disagrees with them that snide remarks and personal attacks feature heavily in their discourse. No one needs to be talked to like that so I choose to head it off.
(To the minority among the copyright advocates who can discuss things amicably, I am sorry to draw this line, but there it is.)
All that said, I’m also proud of this letter. It shows that I know precisely who my audience is for my free culture stuff: I’m writing and making videos for all the creatives who mostly ignore copyright because it seems too boring, unnecessarily complicated, or completely irrelevant. I want to inspire them to dig into it more and figure out what they really believe.
I’m fairly certain that my success as a free culture advocate stems from recognizing who I am making my content for. Understanding who is on the other end of the articles and videos helps me to make them better.
And that’s a good lesson for me where the rest of my art is concerned, because, in a more general sense, I’m fuzzier on who my audience is. Hopefully, though, I won’t be for long. This letter to copyright warriors is making me want to write similar letters to other groups who are not part of my audience so that I can better understand who is.
Maybe this post made you think of something you want to share with me? Or perhaps you have a question about my art? I’d love to hear from you!
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