Rhett, I envision you reading this as a statement from behind a podium. What if we all made solid articulate speeches, in a standard, 'mainstream' media environment. It should be easy for us to put together a podium and some decent lighting to at least replicate a 'mainstream' standard of broadcast.
A statement like this, Rhett, read in a professional manner, accompanied by a bunch of others, could be a nice personal statement of our capability, our vision and our values. Personal statements are very important. I did a piece last year that made a national impact on the attempted destruction of Social Security. Right after this there was a rush to "put a human face "on Social Security. Check it out: http://www.dailykos.com/story/ 2005/2/21/4231/23967 . The issue was dead in 3 weeks. Personal appeals for fairness from the Person of the Year vs. de- regulation for corporate interests and other for profit legislation. The PR matchup looks good on paper. Of course it could be terribly boring, but we are all right here on the cutting edge of this medium. We know what it's all about. Perhaps this could be our play to be 'experts'. I haven't been that politically active, as I've been trying to start and maintain a business, but I do know that regular old people need to hear from the people on this list. My township council meeting last night glossed right over the 'local control of cable' fiasco that the corporate media are pushing here in Michigan. It was little more than half a sentence from the council member that attended a meeting. This is great stuff, Rhett. I am sure you could deliver it with passion and conviction. We all could. If that were played side by side with the shuck and jive of a media cartel CEO Net Neutrality would be a slam dunk. Maybe my councilman could have googled a video that told a different story about Net Neutrality and the attempted stamping out of an open and free internet by corporate interests I know that I am conflating only semi-related issues, but they have the same core. blah, blah, blah Cheers, Ron Watson http://k9disc.blip.tv http://k9disc.com http://pawsitivevybe.com/vlog http://pawsitivevybe.com On Jan 4, 2007, at 11:00 AM, J. Rhett Aultman wrote: > > When I see a company "stealing" my video, putting their ads on > it, not > > respecting with attribution or linkbacks, I get angry. I don't think > > it's because someone is profiting of my work. It's more like, > they are > > *breaking* this new world we are trying to build. They are going > > against the reason why we are doing all of this, a possibility of a > > future where we do own our media, at least part of it. > > I'm not afraid to admit that I am mad that someone else is earning > revenues from my work. Here's why-- establishing the bare-bones > studio we > now have has cost me very dearly. It's not only cost me money, which I > don't mind parting with. It's cost me serious amounts of time. This is > time I've diverted away from other things in my life, like working > on my > doctoral thesis. I've put all this labor into Freetime because I've > believed in what I was doing and have believed that, in time, Freetime > would begin to move under its own momentum. > > I've never taken a dime of revenue from my work. The most I've ever > taken > in compensation was a couple of free dinners when I spent a month > working > on a music video for a band. I've not tried to put a revenue model > into > Freetime because I haven't come up with a way to do it that didn't > insult > the subscribers or start to make Freetime become about making money. > Freetime has had a financial goal of "at best, break even", which is > something that I figured we might do through revenues that don't come > directly from Freetime. > > So, where I take umbrage is that MyHeavy.com has basically made it > a fait > accompli. They're now out there using my videos to create direct > revenue > through money-making models that I consider insulting to my audience. > Moreover, they don't care. They didn't come to me and ask how I felt > about the use of my content in such a way. I wouldn't have consented, > even if they offered to share the money with me. I don't want my work > being used in that fashion. It's more important that I preserve the > "cultural qualities" of the project over any business model, > because, for > this project, I consider those to be most valuable. > > So, yes, I'm mad that they're making money off of it because they're > basically making money by debasing my content. I'm even more mad that > they're doing it without my consent. I'm even more mad than that > because > they know that they're doing it without my consent and they think > that I > won't notice, care, or stand up for myself. I'm also mad because > they're > also either using their made-up base of videos to fleece investors or > their investors are just as crooked. > > -- > Rhett. > http://www.weatherlight.com/freetime > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
