In a recent blog post, copyright advocate CreativeFuture segmented the denizens of Reddit’s piracy subreddit into four categories:
- Asshats, who revel in piracy as if it were merely mischief instead of causing a great deal of harm.
- Wheedlers, who reek of entitlement as they try to cut a deal.
- Hypocrites, who will pay for content from independent creatives, but not large creative conglomerates.
- (and) Unicorns, who understand – and care – how much creatives are struggling in an age of unaccountable platforms.
CreativeFuture calls them unicorns because they are seen as an endangered species. According to CreativeFuture’s post, one unicorn said “I don’t like to use adblocks on YouTube. I want to watch the ads on the videos of my fav creators so I can contribute to their income, even if its negligible.”
As CreativeFuture says, “Even on the r/Piracy subreddit – which has the pro-torrent subtitle “seed more” – at least one person believes artists deserve pay for their content and the opportunity to earn a livelihood.”
Read the entire article, Saving Unicorns on the Piracy Subreddit
Why it matters
Places like Reddit are worth monitoring for potential infringers who either aren’t sufficiently savvy to realize that they are breaking the law and hurting creatives – or don’t care, and to gain insights on piracy sources and methods as they evolve.
CreativeFuture’s perspectives also matter and also worth monitoring. Membership is encouraged, and free of charge.
