Email from your random friends

In the cause of expanding fair use, I like to make the argument of necessity.  By necessity, I mean the necessity of content creators to accept reality.

Naturally, content creators tend to feel like reality is what they make of it.  I can sympathize with this, as I sit here creating this content.  I don't do it because I hope it will have no affect on the world whatsoever.  I do definitely hope and intend to have some level of influence on reality, no matter how small.

So that is a thing that a creator can do--choose how they want to influence reality.

Currently, many content creators are focused on keeping people from trading digital versions of their creations on the internet.

My job, as I see it, is to try to lend some perspective.

I think creators are better served to spend their time creating beautiful art or entertaining entertainments, than harassing or trying to guilt and shame internet users.  After all, who are you trying to please?  Do you wish to simultaneously please and shame?  Are you really so special that the realities of the modern world should not have to apply to you?  Is harassment the best use of your limited lifetime in this world?

Necessity can have many meanings.  The thing about necessity is that it can be ignored, for a time.  It can also be unclear.  Sure, you may seem to have the option of trying to keep people's minds from running freely, spreading our culture--which you contribute to--on this wonderful device.  But is it right?  For either of us?

Ultimately, what we do on the internet is no one's business but our own, except in the most extreme of situations.  No one is totally free, nor should they be.  But if I email your song to a friend, not only am I doing you a favor, but it is also none of your business.

And I choose to swap files with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends, that is also none of your concern.  Find a way to work with this new reality and stop working against it, and I predict you will not only survive, but prosper more than ever before.