The Hacker Quarterly
NOW ON STANDS!
Current issue: AUTUMN 2024
NOW ON STANDS!
We were hoping for more. But on Monday afternoon, we received an email from lcs@lcs.global, which read as follows:
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Subject: Case #373018082 , Ref #4440-1159-6664
Hello, I just wanted to take a moment to inform you that after further review this matter has been closed.
Regards,
Madison Streete
License Compliance Services
P. 1.855.387.8725
605 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 400
Seattle, WA 98104
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Apart from the cool email address, there is little here to impress. The letter ends with a graphic of their slogan: "Creations Are Valuable." Oddly, there is no mention at all of Trunk Archive, the organization that LCS was acting on behalf of.
This impersonal resolution shouldn't really be a surprise. From the beginning, these people have acted with all of the human touch of a perl script. If there are any humans involved at all, they know how to stay well hidden. And by having so many possible entities involved (Trunk Archive, Picscout, Getty Images, LCS) who all use the exact same address, it becomes difficult to even know where specifically to direct one's ire. And that makes it particularly hard to fight back.
Our case was absurd and everyone knew it. Trunk Archive et al matched an image on one of our covers with one of their images and concluded that we were using their material. In actuality, they were the ones using the material of an artist in Finland and claiming it as their own. So we can all see why it would be very much in the interests of Trunk Archive to just pretend this whole incident never happened. But it did. And equally absurd and more harmful cases are launched by them every day. People without resources are coerced into paying them and the entire culture of art and creativity suffers.
This is not about blatant copyright infringement, which most can agree causes problems and should be dealt with. We're talking about the attempts to license everything under the sun, using high technology to match the tiniest of images, and crushing the very concept of fair use. Art has always been derivative and transformative - our cover at the center of all this is a great example of such a work (just not with any of Trunk Archive's material). But by making people look over their shoulders whenever they try to create something unique using elements of existing works, a chilling effect is created that will result in less works being created. This is also bad for the original artist, who is robbed of the opportunity to see how their creation can be adapted and transformed into something completely different. But in the end, we are all hurt by this kind of thing. Creations such as remixes of music, mashups, new arrangements and interpretations, parody, patchworks of images, logos and pictures captured on film, snippets of code - they can all be identified and monetized. That neat little app on your phone that can identify music? Imagine that going out and automatically charging a fee for anyone who has captured a bit of that music on something they created. Every corporate logo you capture in a picture would also have to be paid for. Imagine where this technology can take us in the next few years if this unbridled greed isn't reigned in.
This has nothing to do with art as most any artist will tell you. It's about control and intimidation, using the prospect of payoffs to lure in unsuspecting contributors. With that in mind, the LCS/Trunk Archive slogan of "Creations Are Valuable" makes sense in a much more opportunistic light. That's why we need to make sure this derivation of art never catches on. Our case may be over, but this is a fight that is only just beginning.
