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Copyright Made People Do Useless Work

February 24, 2023

Oh the copyright! The system that many believe is there to "protect" artists from exploitation. But the system that is quite clearly one big exploitation in and of it self. I hope that my readers here have a job. Since I want to draw a very interesting parallel. Would you work if there was no contract? Would you do anything if the person that supposed pay you, would not pay you if he didn't want to? Or you would first sign a contract and then do the job? In the world of copyright, there is no contract to sign. There is no boss that will pay you. You have to risk everything to do something that might or might not interest other people in the first place. And no copyright will save you if you did something so utterly uninteresting that nobody will even pay you for it. Let's explore this!

Chloe was imagining a movie herself too. After Sheiny released Sinking In The Fire Chloe thought that it was not fair that she didn't direct a movie herself. And she spoke about it to Sheiny in the presence of Mr. Humbert ( for he was a producer of the previous film ).

Chloe: I have this idea. Imagine a valentine that gives you superpowers. Like ah... Imagine a car driving on the side of the building breaking all physics. You know... To get away from police or something... The main character could use it in a multitude of different interesting ways. And each time it will be a cool action scene.

Sheiny: What are you talking about?

Chloe: I want to make a movie!

Mr. Humbert: That's sounds interesting.

Chloe: So it's about this heart thing. Maybe it's alien. I don't know. So this thing gives people superpowers when they wear it. But it's broken. And just so happens that two lovers find each other. And both have the other half of the alien artifact.

Sheiny: That is a little bit too sentimental.

Mr. Humbert: Quite frankly, if it's done properly it could work. Sentimental movies are quite popular with teens. But the problem is, so make it profitable we have to make it more kosher. We can't start the film with a little girl masturbating. It will ruin out rating immediately.

Chloe: Quite frankly I wanted to go to the other direction. I thought of this slow-mo effect where a guy crushes another guy with a car. And you see the body slowly breaks and blood splashes and things like that. Sinking In The Fire was a hit precisely because it was gruesome.

Mr. Humbert: But then how is it, in the same time, sentimental?

Chloe: The scene with the Sinking and with the Fire?

Sheiny: Oh... Shit!

Mr. Humbert: Well... I guess you have to write the script first. But please, Chloe, don't be Sheiny. Don't put a garbage license on the film. We want to take advantage of the copyright.

Sheiny: And how much exactly there would be advantage in that?

Mr. Humbert: Sinking In The Fire would have made lot more money if it wasn't on creative commons.

Sheiny: It made quite enough.

Mr. Humbert: But look at that.

Mr. Humbert went to his computer and typed in the search-bar of his browser the name "Sinking In The Fire". Then he clicked on some website that allowed to watch the entire movie for free.

Mr. Humbert: Look, they even put ads all around the player. And it's perfectly legal for them to do so.

Sheiny: Yes.

Mr. Humbert: It's doesn't sadden you that we could be the ones getting all this ad revenue?

Sheiny: Do you want me to setup a website where we could get an ad revenue?

Mr. Humbert: What? No... You are not understanding. They are stealing our revenue.

Sheiny: That's not our website.

Mr. Humbert: That's our movie.

Sheiny: No it's not.

Mr. Humbert: What? Sheiny! You made this film.

Sheiny: I know. I made a film called Sinking In The Fire. With your help. Thank you. But what you are showing me here is not my film. It's their film. Yes, it shows exactly the same images and sounds exactly the same. And you can recognize all of us in it. But it's not my film. Since this copy does not belong to me.

Mr. Humbert: So then you worked hard only to waste it!

Sheiny: We are not making money?

Mr. Humbert: We do. It's just, they do it too.

Sheiny: And what's wrong with that?

Mr. Humbert was put into a deep thought. He had to come up with a good enough argument, because he realized that only arguments made of hardened steel could go through Sheiny. There was a significant pause until he answered.

Mr. Humbert: Sheiny, perhaps we make a movie that Chloe proposes and it's minor failure. Therefor we would make, say, only the tickets of the opening day and nobody else would ever come. Now, say, you have put the same Creative Commons license on this movie as well as on the other. And that website takes the movie and puts it on their website. We have nothing to gain from it. And they gain money from our work. Isn't that not fair? Shouldn't there be at least some system of compensation for hard work?

Chloe was listening intensely, because she started to get confused herself about the whole license business.

Sheiny: If money was the reason to make a movie I would not start doing it until I would be paid. But I had something to say. And the fact that people can copy it helps my message spread.

Mr. Humbert: But say I do something for money. And then try to sell it...

Sheiny: Then you are stupid!

Mr. Humbert: Why?

Sheiny: Well... Either you are stupid or you are gambling. You see... If you do something nobody asked for and then try to sell it to people, there is a great chance that people will not want it. And it doesn't matter if there is copyright or there is not. It's better to get paid or at least get an insurance of payment before you do something.

Mr. Humbert: Explain.

Sheiny: We could setup a website for the fans of Sinking In The Fire where they could pay for Chloe's film. But not after it's released. Now! Before we even started doing anything at all on the film. And using that money we could make the film.

Mr. Humbert: It's crowdfunding.

Sheiny: Yes. It's crowdfunding.

Mr. Humbert: That's a perfectly good way of getting the budget. But how about profit from the movie.

Sheiny: And how much you want to make? Double the budget?

Mr. Humbert: Perhaps...

Sheiny: So calculate your budget. Then double it, to include the profit. Then ask for the whole sum with crowdfunding. If you do that, you have your profit before making a movie to begin with.

Mr. Humbert: But then I don't need to do the movie. I can just run away with the money.

Sheiny: Well... First of all, you can get a security from the buyers. Instead of the money. A security that nullifies the profits if you fail to give the movie. But I see. It's a bureaucratic nightmare. Think about this in a more broad, psycho-social way. If you fail to deliver the movie. You will not be able to succeed next time to crowdfund anything.

Mr. Humbert: Perhaps we can make this. Perhaps there are enough fans of Sinking In The Fire to pay us for both production and then profit of Chloe's movie.

Chloe: Half Heart.

Mr. Humbert: What?

Chloe: The movie is called "Half Heart".

Mr. Humbert: Half Heart? Okay! Perhaps we can pull this off as you say, Sheiny, entirely with crowdfunding. What about smaller projects? What about first time directors? What about people without a single thing on their names to prove their worth?

Sheiny: I was one of those, wasn't I?

Mr. Humbert: Yes you were...

Sheiny: And I did it regardless.

Mr. Humbert: Yes, but it was some kind of a miracle.

Sheiny: Yes.

Mr. Humbert: But when people put money or work into something, they expect this something to be profitable.

Sheiny: Well, first of all, not everybody wants everything to be profitable. This would be a fallacy to think so. But let's say everybody wants everything they do to succeed in some way. Perhaps if not monetarily, in some other way. No matter how much you want it. It's not under your control to force its success. It is entirely on the receivers. You always have a chance to fail, no matter how hard you work. And you always can win, no matter how little you do. It's foolish to expect success to reflect effort. Success is and always was a gamble.

Mr. Humbert: But what if you had a chart of what people want to see? And you make a movie based on the chart?

Sheiny: Well then it's an educated guess. Still not a precise science. It's like gambling when you know the odds of every choice you do. Some people might call it cheating. But there is no law against using statistics in business, as far as I know.

Mr. Humbert: So then crowdfunding is a gamble too?

Sheiny: Yes it is. But what you loose if far less severe. On one hand you can make a movie and then gamble on its release. On the other hand you can gamble before making a movie. In which case, if you loose, you just don't do nothing. But if you made the movie first, it could be that you have just wasted your time and money on production.

Mr. Humbert: I see, so crowdfunding reduces the trouble for losers. But then, why the hell didn't you do that with Sinking In The Fire?

Sheiny: Well, first of all I didn't have the idea back then. Secondly... My idea wasn't profit. My idea was a spread of the things that I wanted to say. The things that the alien is telling to our girl in the film. This was important for me to get across. And I had the money to produce such a movie. So I did. Now I gamble on how many people will receive the message. Which seems like I'm winning the gamble.

Chloe: So what should we do?

Sheiny: Write a treatment. A pitch, so to speak. We will have to make a good presentation for it. And create a page for crowdfunding. I think though, that we ought to write the script first and calculate our budget. So we would know what to ask. Should we release the script? I don't know. Perhaps it's best to release it with the movie. Let the people theorize about the plot. The presentation should be intriguing. It should ask a question, to which you will present an answer in the movie itself. I know that we can use some crowdfunding websites. But maybe it's best to do it on our own. Should we introduce a timer feature? Like if there is not enough funds in time, we are closing the project? It's harder to code! I don't know. From one end it helps with making the whole thing more urgent. On the other hand it is harder to code. Shit! Chloe... Coding! I'll have to code everything myself. You are and ass! Okay... We are doing it! But Chloe. Please! Be cool. Write a good movie. I dare you!

Happy Hacking!!!

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