Just the other day, someone asked me what I do for a living. I usually respond with “Writer”. It’s accurate, but kind of vague at the same time. Technically, I’m a novelist, but it just sounds so damn weird to use that word. You’d think after seven years, I’d be used to the title. But it’s a little like introducing my wife as “My Wife”. It just doesn’t sound right. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Eventually.
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Copywrong
It’s time to admit that the concept of copyright has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
In theory, copyright is there to protect artists and creators, to allow them to make money off their work, and to encourage creativity. In practice, it just leads to stagnation and to corporations profiting off of characters they simply are fortunate enough to own.
As usual, I’ll go to a comic book example. DC owns the characters of Batman and Superman. Nobody working at DC created these characters. They are simply inherited property, held by a giant corporate machine. DC profits because decades ago, an employee created some cool characters and then DC claimed those characters as its own. End of story.