Calvin and Muad'Dib

[Hammerskjold]

I'm generally speaking about DMCA. Not this one case.

The problem with generalities, especially pairing it with 'mah freedom' then working backwards, and ignoring the actual specific case in question. Is that it misses the point, and can throw out the baby with the bathwater.

DMCA has problems, copyright issue in the digital age still has the problem of balancing creator's rights and protection, vs not stifling experimentation and progress. As well as the speed of which technology is always ahead of legislation.

But speaking as someone who is in the creative industry myself, I will say that it's naive to downright dangerous to treat copyright as a single issue thing, or spinning it as 'freedom of expression!!111'.

It has always been freedom with responsibility with creator's protection juggling act.

TL,DR: Pragmatically speaking, if this wasn't on tumblr, no one would raise an objection. That's not stifling 'mah freedom of expression'. If the person(s) that made the mashup didn't have consent, they are taking a gamble on displaying it publically.

Sounds harsh, but them's reality. And guess what, unfair things sometimes do happen. But an imperfect, copyright balancing act is still better than 'MAH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!' with no responsibility. Wanting absolute freedom without responsibility is wanting to eat ice cream all day, errrday, and not expecting health problems.

Edited addition, hyper blunt edition:

Anyone can cry foul....

This is not, an automagically 100% bad thing all the time. I don't have a team of lawyers to go on seek and C&D missions. I don't even have one lawyer working for me full time.
Consulting with one on a serious matter would be a major expense for me. I have had my work outright stolen, physically. And a few stolen, intellectually.
In case anyone is going to go 'but what is the definitions of stolen...' I'll be blunter. I did not give consent to my work being stolen. One intellectual theft instance
was literally cutting out my sig\ID out of my work, then pasting over the damage with the thief's own signature.


Myself, I am not a big soup company, or even a big company that can laugh off some 'fan-art', and just go 'ohohoho, any publicity is good publicity'.
So excuse my splashing some cold water on this approach that somehow this is all a stifling of 'freedom of expression'. 'Lawl-yers'. Soup company
benefitting from Warhol, therefore everyone is Soup Company.

Here's the real deal. There is a surefire way of not getting C&D letters concerning creative works. Go. Make. Your. Own.

Eg:

-No one owns the elements and principles of visual art. A pad of paper and pencil\ink is cheap.
-No one owns musical notes and chords. Go learn the scales and practice singing in the shower.
-No one owns the alphabet and words. A basic laptop\computer with even built in\freeware word processor is amazingly affordable.
Or, paper and pen, and go learn shorthand. Or pick up a mic and record your audio novel masterpiece.