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The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#21

Post by archgrove »

burntsushi wrote: post #13
digitalengineer wrote: post #4

This: "The audiences that Di Petta and Cameron have built are created with the work of photographers who they don't pay or even credit . They don't provide sources for the photographs or the captions that accompany them. Sometimes they get stuff wrong and/or post copyrighted photographs. " Combined with this: "I'm sure the majority of photographers would be glad to have their work seen by the massives." Nothing 'new…

> Theft plain and simple. Well, no, not plain and simple. At the worst, it's copyright infringement. You may think this is a pedantic correction, and from your point of view, maybe it is. But it isn't for people who see intellectual property as unjust.

This trope is getting exceedingly tired, on par with the "taxation is theft", "atheism is a religion" and "Linux should be called GNU/Linux" brigades that often crop up in the appropriate discussions. Theft and "steal" have long been used outside of the OED definitions; I can be a "thief of time", "steal an idea", "steal a base" and so forth. "Theft" and "steal" are appropriate words for the behaviour of people who have decided, in defiance of the laws and remunerative structures society has constructed, that they're entitled to the work of people without giving anything back (apart from some advice like "I'm giving you free advertising", "find a new business model" or "this will actually help you in the long run"). Society has created intellectual property, in the same way it created physical property, and if you can steal the later, you can surely steal the former.

One other angle on this, for the "steal absolutely must deprive someone of something" view, well - something is actually lost, that cannot be replaced. The right of the IP creator to be repaid by the person who grabbed it. Many people say "Well, I'd never have bought it anyway". Whilst true for now, would it still be true in 1 year? 5? 10? Would you have bought it for your kids, or because a sequel came out that you do want to buy? By taking it, you rob the person of the ability to sell it to you in the future.

I think it's incumbent upon anyone who thinks "intellectual property is unjust" and who acts on this belief by just denying its existence, to propose and get support for a viable alternative for supporting the millions of people who depend on it for their livelihood. Otherwise, you're just an anarchist, burning the system down and denying any contribution to the people who have committed to a certain lifestyle on the guarantees currently provided by society.

Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#24

Post by pieterhg »

jere wrote: post #16
mr_luc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary! You need to post links to these articles. I want to read all of those articles. I absolutely love the history leading up to and around the first world war, I've read a good portion of the issues of Punch from those years. But a headline is only enough to arouse my appetite without bedding her back down.

Well, you can find the articles by googling the headlines. These are all from the New York Times and you should find the first result is a link to a pdf article there.

That's not how Twitter works

Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#25

Post by jere »

pieterhg wrote: post #24
jere wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can find the articles by googling the headlines. These are all from the New York Times and you should find the first result is a link to a pdf article there.

That's not how Twitter works

Yea, how Twitter works is it eats up 24 characters on a URL. No thanks. I figured the headlines were interesting enough on their own 99% of the time.

Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#26

Post by burntsushi »

archgrove wrote: post #21
burntsushi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Theft plain and simple. Well, no, not plain and simple. At the worst, it's copyright infringement. You may think this is a pedantic correction, and from your point of view, maybe it is. But it isn't for people who see intellectual property as unjust.

This trope is getting exceedingly tired, on par with the "taxation is theft", "atheism is a religion" and "Linux should be called GNU/Linux" brigades that often crop up in the appropriate discussions. Theft and "steal" have long been used outside of the OED definitions; I can be a "thief of time", "steal an idea", "steal a base" and so forth. "Theft" and "steal" are appropriate words for the behaviour of people who h…

It's not just my distinction; it's a distinction made in courts too. The law is quite clear. Copyright infringement is not theft.

> And, from my perspective, something is actually lost, that cannot be replaced. The right of the IP creator to be repaid by the person who grabbed it.

Well, yes... Supposing that IP rights should exist!

Instead of getting dragged into a big long debate, I'll just give you two sources. The first, "Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?" by Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite chronicles the harm brought by IP with real world examples. The second, "Against Intellectual Property" by Stephan Kinsella is a philosophical/libertarian argument.

(The authors of Information Feudalism don't think IP should be abolished, so you may find it more credible.)

Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#29

Post by smackfu »

truxs wrote: post #27

So basically to start a successful account all you need to do is find a popular subreddit and upload most upvoted post on Twitter

Not just that, the key is to already have followers on a separate account, and then you can cross post them to build up the new one.

Re: The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics

#30

Post by smackfu »

evan_ wrote: post #23

Start re-posting their tweets on a halfway-popular account and see how quickly they learn about copyright.

But all they care about is the follower count. Once it hits a million, they can sell off this account to someone who wants to monetize it.

I mean, they have no real attraction to "History in Pics" as a constant, or to any particular post. They just care about it as something that people seem to like to follow. If someone else rips off their content, I doubt that would have any impact at all.

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