Dichotomy

by Jon Sullivan - 2021-07-02 - Jonism

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

I've famously always been a champion of public domain over endless copyright extensions. Thus, Disney is evil. I also love comics and the recent resurrection of a united Marvel IP. I'm a hypocrite.

Maybe I'm a hypocrite. I hate Disney for redefining copyright as a perpetual license. For profiting from the public domain, but then sucking it dry before finally killing it. But I also like how the MCU is developing. Bringing the X-Men and FF back together with the rest of the Marvel universe brings me real joy. Dr Doom? Oh yell yes, take my money. So..... Yay Disney? But at the same time they keep bribing an intrinsically spineless Congress to extend copyright indefinitely. So Sherlock Holmes, Cthulhu and Dracula are in the public domain, but nothing under Disney's control, now or in the future, ever will be.

I would argue that both fans and the world in general are better off for all of the new Sherlock Holmes, Cthulhu and Dracula material that has come out after those works entered the public domain. Same for Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, etc (right Disney??). And I think that if Captain America or Luke Skywalker ever entered the public domain we'd see similar creativity and new character explorations. But we won't. Because Disney is evil.

I'm not anti-copyright. I'm very pro-copyright. Just not the greedy version Disney has rammed through Congress. I like the original intent of copyright law - To encourage and monetize creativity. Seems like a very good thing to me. But copyright in 2021 has nothing at all to do with that original intent. Perpetual copyright shuts down such creativity.

So.... Disney is evil. But I love what they do. It's a problem for me. I have a few Captain America t-shirts. So I literally wear my hypocrisy on my chest. (And don't get me started on Team Cap vs Team Tony. Tony Stark isn't Elon Musk, he's the Koch brothers. Of course I'm team Cap.) But it's unavoidable. I'm not giving up my lifetime love of Marvel.

Also, of course I have a hypocritical account for Disney+, because I'm a bad person. I'm loving the new MCU series. Wandavision was brilliant. Loving Loki. No spoilers, but please be Kang, please be Kang, please be Kang.

"The essence of good is a certain kind of reasoned choice; just as the essence of evil is another kind. What about externals, then? They are only the raw material for our reasoned choice, which finds its own good or evil in working with them. How will it find the good? Not by marveling at the material! For if judgments about the material are straight, that makes our choices good, but if those judgments are twisted, our choices turn bad." - Epictetus

Buy prints

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>
Sign-In With Google To Leave a Comment:
<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>
News
Eugene weather
60.75 degrees F, Clouds (broken clouds)
Min: 56.73 ,Max: 62.38 ,Humidity: 57, Wind: 4.29
Eugene, OR - Best Restaurants
Eugene, OR - Things to do
Eugene, OR - Fish reports
Oregon road conditions
Recent Posts
- Jon is not crazy
    The crazy is gone. Now we tidy up after the mess two years of crazy has left behind. Or Not.
- New Jon vs
    I was caught off guard by the folks disappointed that I was moving on from "New Jon" posts.
- Thanksgiving menu plan
    Time passes fast in Oregon. Seems too early to start Thanksgiving planning. It's not.
- Are we there yet?
    Let's back it up a bit. The last couple years have been so odd that it often feels disconnected from reality.
- Jon is a hippie
    After 40 years of rejecting anything hippie, 60s culture, jam band, or related, I find myself getting back on the bus.
- Wake up dead
    My intention was to go to the GBB Fest VII concert with friends. Then reality dissolved, and I soared through strange new dimensions.
- Short takes
    Random thoughts since I'm feeling too lazy to make a long post, but too eager to hear the sound of my own voice.
Food I Cooked
Old School Blogroll
kottke.org
Home of fine hypertext products.
MetaFilter
A community weblog.
A Chicken Is Not Pillage
You forgot his exclamation point! It defines him. He put it there for a reason, to show how in! your! face! he is.
jessamyn.com
abada abada - twenty years of jessamyn
Matt Haughey
A Whole Lotta Nothing
dooce
Heater, Mother Of Lance
Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
Some Bits
Nelson's weblog
Everlasting Blort
proud member of the reality-based community
Whatever
This machine mocks fascists
Scripting News
It's even worse than it appears.
Flutterby
Short attention spans in a world full of flowers
mimi smartypants
Seriously, though: what's with the penguins?
Montreal City Weblog
Stupid Evil Bastard
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Idle Words
brevity is for the weak
Making Light
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.
wilwheaton.net
50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
Justin Hall
Growing & breaking down since 1994
Mike the Mad Biologist
Helping idiots who desperately need my assistance by calling them fucking morons since 2004
jwz
MSSV
AKMA’s Random Thoughts
Ruminations about hermeneutics, theology, theory, politics, ecclesiastical life… and exercise.
things magazine
An occasional weblog about objects, collections and discoveries
Miscellaneous Heathen
Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.
kimberussell.com
where it's always Virgo Season
Cockeyed
Recent Trips
Getting it ready for you.