Untouchable but real

Photo by Sue Winston on Unsplash

When I sit here and type these words, I’m creating something that is, ultimately, intangible, but no less real.

This isn’t a radical concept. We call this intellectual property, and we work to preserve it because people deserve to be rewarded for their work, should anyone be willing to offer that reward.

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My paid subscribers here, and my bosses at Bearing Arms or Townhall, have all opted to offer me that reward for the fruits of my mind. Other examples are books by your favorite author, music from your favorite artists, to say nothing of movies or even the design of a new device that offers up the chance at changing the world.

Because of my role as a creator of intellectual property, I’m very sensitive to the theft of it.

In the past, I’ve had people who would post my entire work, with a link at the bottom, and pretend they’re helping me, that they’re supporting me. Some of them even meant it. However, the fact that traffic helps me financially at some of the places I’ve worked means that it wasn’t the help intended.

And I’ve had people steal my work outright.

The reason I’m talking about it today is that one of my favorite internet cartoonists, Art by Karla, is kind of the victim of exactly that.

The individual who took Karla’s work and fed it into AI, made it into an antisemitic attack on the war in Iran is named Jason Bassler.

Bassler is the head of something called the Free Thought Project, which is a little ironic since he can’t seem to think for himself.

I might have made that point when trying to get his attention.

It went…well…

In fairness, it might have been my spelling mistake/autocorrupt in the post, but I doubt it.

Now, understand that this didn’t come out of the void. I was a day late to this fiasco, and I learned that Karla had tried reaching out privately to address this, then asked a friend who was a mutual to do the same.

Karla told me that Jason left her on read, then responded with this to the mutual when asked about it.

See, the problem here is that Karla makes money via her art. When someone takes it, feeds it into AI — which is ironic because he’s down on data centers, which are where AI systems are housed — and then turns it into antisemitic slop, it has a negative impact.

See, Jason here is a kind of “libertarian” who doesn’t believe in IP. He thinks it’s totally cool to copy someone’s homework, pass it off as their own, and no one should complain about it. They should be flattered because Jason’s idea is “important,” you see, and Jason is not alone.

There are a lot of people who don’t seem to understand why IP exists in the first place.

I’m a creator of intellectual property, but if I can’t make a living from it, I’ll stop writing and get a “real” job. My ideas might come out in the odd discussion with friends, but why would I put forth all of the time and effort to put them to paper if someone else can just take them, share them freely, and not pay me a cent?

Why would anyone spend years of effort and untold amounts of money developing something new if they couldn’t at least protect their investment for a certain period of time?

Once the patents wear out, all bets are off, but that’s different from what people like Jason seem to advocate for.

Look, there’s something cool about people choosing to give their work away for free. Lost Art Press is my favorite woodworking publishing company, and Christopher Schwarz literally posts PDFs of his work for free download, and the physical copies still sell because they’re well made and a lot of us prefer hard copy anyway.

But it’s his choice to do so.

Bessler, however, has decided that Karla’s choice is irrelevant.

Karla told me that she understands people will repost her stuff. She may not necessarily like it, but she understood that when she posts it in public. That’s completely fair.

But at least her name remains on her work. She’s getting credit, and so again, her choice.

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Taking her work, throwing it through AI, and then thinking she should be flattered is beyond pathetic.

Yes, I’m pissed about this, because I like Karla’s work. I’m a fan, and she’s a smart woman, a fellow veteran (Coast Guard, in her case, though I won’t hold that against her), and someone who has their head screwed on straight about a lot of things.

But I’m also pissed by these dipsticks who think the work of my mind isn’t worth anything simply because they can copy it without physically stealing it from me. It’s one thing when a friend reposts something I wrote because he’s trying to boost the signal. It’s another when some dude Karla had never heard of steals her stuff, turns it into crap — literally crap, for the record — and then has the nerve to demand she “alter her attitude” and be thankful.

How many others should have been thankful, but aren’t?

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