RE: @Deep Dive Devin

Excellent points. I would like to respond to some of them.

Firstly, I'd like to make clear I have indeed no intention to make this a gossip corner. I shall not be writing forum essays about every skeet (I learned it!) Gio makes. I reserve myself the right to respond to big developments and bring up discussions of his behavior I think need to be addressed, but if I were to simply list all the things I dislike about Giovan, this thread would be way too long.

Secondly. Let's talk about the copyright issue.

By positioning myself in the, let's say, "pro-HICU" side of things, I feel some (not you specifically, tbc) have internalized two grand misconceptions about me: that I think Hussie hasn't done anything wrong ever and that I love copyright. I wanna focus on the latter right now.

Let's make one thing clear: copyright law is for the benefit of corporations first, artists are an afterthought. When a video gets copyright-strike'd on YouTube for playing a song, for instance, nine outta ten times that is done in the name of the rights’ holder, usually the label or the parent company of such, not the musicians who actually created the art. When an author writes a book, its publisher has the rights of distribution, which often includes things like merchandising and rights to adaptation. In the business of comic books, we have especially egregious examples of writers losing control over their characters -- the case of Alan Moore and Watchmen comes to mind.

And this is all shit. And it is especially shit once we get to the issue of transformative work. Sampling in music, photo collages, parodies, or even just playing a clip of something to talk about it in a video. All of these, tho protected under the vague concept of "fair use", are constantly under attack, used by vindictive corporations and sometimes creators. It goes without saying that things like fanfiction and game mods are on another level of scrutiny entirely, currently in this position where they are allowed to exist, but never profit from it. And even then, it's not uncommon to hear horror stories about those being taken down, especially fanfiction (something something Anne Rice).

As a response to that, many artists have taken upon themselves to release their art thru means that allow transformative work to flourish freely. That usually does take the shape of the Creative Commons License, but also things like public acknowledgement/support of work that builds upon their own. Which is very cool and I always love to see it and it is far from a perfect solution.

The first problem with doing such a thing has less to do with the thing itself, and more with capitalism at large. Once again, the actual corporations who usually hold the art's copyright are obviously not keen on doing Creative Commons, so the artists that are able to have either been handed incredible deals that are not the norm whatsoever, or are working independently -- which, to be clear, being indie does not mean not being corporative.

As a rule, independent artist make less money. That is not to say we don't have many stories of indie success, and conversely, a lot (more) tales of artists that were screwed over by corporations and went broke. I point this out simply to say that going independent is mostly a matter of ideals rather than a business decision (mostly, again, there are exceptions). And while the willingness to face more hardship in order to stay true to yourself is an admirable trait, ideology and convictions do not pay the bills. To live off of your art is a privilege, and one that feels so bitter that it barely feels like one.

Now, I'm under no impression that Hussie will go broke if they put Homestuck under Creative Commons. They are, as it seems, pretty wealthy. I'd even go ahead and say Homestuck being under Creative Commons would be a smart move. That does mean giving away certain control over the distribution rights they have only recently gotten back from VIZ, so I also see why there would be some hesitancy there, but ultimately, I agree.

However. I would like to point out that, even before HICU or FRAF were a thing, people were already profiting from their Homestuck fanworks without great issue. Let us remember that Vast Error has had a Patreon for years, and SAHCon has been able to operate without much trouble before they were officially HICU. Granted, the organizers of the latter have rightfully brought up the general lack of clarity of what they were and weren't allowed to do, so please do not take this as me saying it was perfect, or better, or virtually the same.

But again I point out. Gio's fork of the UHC is still up. As is his Patreon and Kofi. For all his talk about being silenced, about Hussie wanting to control his work, the UHC is still available. Now, could Hussie, potentially, take it down tomorrow if they wanted? Yeah. Is that a valid reason for anxiety? Sure.

The idea that a Creative Commons license would prevent that is erroneous tho. While you cannot revoke CC, you can file your work under a new license if you wish to. This does offer protections to fanworks and alternative distributions made during the work's time under CC, but not afterwards. And additionally, not prior to the filling of a work under CC either -- that is to say, were Homestuck to become Creative Commons today, that still wouldn't make the UHC's existence bullet-proof. Additionally, I'd like to point out that CC does not mean you cannot take legal action towards those you deem back actors using your work. A CC license isn't "copyright anarchy", it is just better copyright, one that I'm still in favor of, but that does not resolve the problems brought up.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the good will of an author towards its fandom. And I’m not saying so becuz I think that’s a good thing, but becuz, again, despite the outcry, you can profit from Homestuck fanworks. Yes, even if you’re not HICU. There is good will, even to those who we could argue don’t deserve it.

If you want more protections than that, what you want is the death of capitalism. Which I want too! Right now!! Violently!!! Read Marx!!!!1

But that is much bigger than Fandom v. Author.

In short. Hussie created Homestuck and owns the rights to it. A creator owning their creation is a good thing, and what they decide to do with that ownership is up to them. What Hussie has decided to do is not only allow unprecedented freedom to its fandom, but in addition, a special kind of semi-official support to it.

I cannot pretend this is a bad thing.