I said it at the end of that post, but I was not clear at the top.

This offer also extends to all #gamedevs, toymakers and and any other kind of independent media producers.

I'm looking for a 30 - 90 second video spot about what you do that we can upload (like what we've done so far for Joker Joker TV and Working Class Music) and, if you're interested, a longer interview about your creative process in the style of What's Stopping You: https://vod.newellijay.tv/w/pgudbseVPhheAjpbC8fDYb )

This all ties back in to the thing I was talking about with @MannycartoonStudio this past weekend (see: https://retro.social/@ajroach42/116236626685474151 )

We want to live in a world where independent creative people can make their own things and be successful, without having to borrow mindshare from Disney or the (fascist monsters in the) Ellison family.

And that means that we have to showcase independent creators at every turn, and highlight and celebrate and *pay for* their works.

There's another aspect to that idea, though.

The fan art/fan fiction/mash-up/bootleg phenomenon happens partly because that's how people process the world.

Pop Culture is Folklore. Star Trek fan films are Dante's Inferno.

But a fascist sympathizer owns star trek now, and when we tell Star Trek stories we're allowing a little more of our collective folklore and collective culture, our mindshare, to go to a thing owned by fascists.

(and, certainly, vice versa. Every queer star trek story is an act of defiance, but it's an act of defiance that still requires being versed in a media property owned by shitbags.)

This is not to say "don't make fan fiction", and I fear that's how it reads.

I love fanfiction. I think it's wonderful. I like to see more of it.

I do a lot of what is essentially fan fiction!

But I work with characters from the public domain. Stuff that no one owns, or I guess that everyone owns.

I'm not against the idea of remixing. I love a remix.

I'm against the fact that most modern remixes accidentally serve to keep things owned by Disney and David Ellison in people's brains.

When two independent toy makers make their own versions of Dracula or Frankenstein, or repaint one another's toys in their toy's color scheme, I get hype. No one owns those things they're creating but them, and no one benefits from it but them, and that's sick.

When independent toymakers make another skeletor variation, I also get hype, but I also get a little sad because Universal could step in at any moment and say "I don't like this, you can't do it" and they would have very little recourse.

Fuck a corporate copyright, remix whatever you want, don't feel bad about it, figure out how to make your bread.

That's why, when I make something (like a Sky Pirate dime novel series, or a Space Exploration/Away Mission video game (and podcast series) or a show about hunting bigfoot) I use a cc-by-sa license.

I want people to remix. I want them to do it without fear or real constraint (beyond simply telling the world that it came from something I produced and making it a little easier for folks to find my thing.)

Actively and desperately, I want to see more independent artists and creators embrace more things that don't enrich a distant (often fascist) billionaire, and if they can shine a little more light on one another in the process, all the better.

I wrote a lot about this idea.

I wrote a "manifesto" about it.

https://ajroach42.com/the-small-things-manifesto/

The core idea is that we have to stop giving power to major corporations.

Stop asking for permission, certainly, but also stop working in ways that allow them to gatekeep us, or encourage us to be silent, or push us to the margins.

And, whenever possible, work together by default.

I advocate for using a cc-by-sa license whenever possible, because it gives explicit permission for other people to adapt, remix, re-share, and re-use your work, while maintaining your clear ownership of that work, and actively requiring remixes, re-shares, and other adaptations to link back to your original.

I use a cc-by-sa license for all my blog posts, most of my video work, and nearly everything I write.

It's the default license for #JupitersGhost and #ExpeditionSasquatch and #TheMysteriousAirPirates (and the rest of our #SkyPirates work)

It's the default license for our original toys.

What I am, though is very much in the "rising tides raise all ships" camp of creativity.

If someone remixes something I've created and they do really well with it, that's great. Legally, it'll have a very clear statement that it includes part of X created by Me and linking to the place where I publish X.

That just serves to further highlight my creative work.

And the more substantially their work is based on my work, the more likely it becomes that my work will be seen.

You can see this in action with the new Antimemetics short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v8AsTHfAG0

It's based on a serial published on the SCP wiki ( https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub ) which the author later adapted as an SCP novel https://dn710000.ca.archive.org/0/items/there-is-no-antimemetics-division/There-Is-No-Antimemetics-Division.pdf

and then, ultimately, as an original novel with references to the SCP project removed: https://dn710000.ca.archive.org/0/items/there-is-no-antimemetics-division/There-Is-No-Antimemetics-Division.pdf

There is at least one other series of short films that I'm aware of (which we've redistributed on NETV: https://vod.newellijay.tv/w/p/2z7ZxKWko9MgdeyuaVcehf )

So a group of authors got together and inspired another author to produce a serial that got adapted into a novel that got adapted into multiple short films, all CC-BY-SA.

The author of the serial/novel ultimately also got published by a mainstream publisher, and in doing so removed all references to the CC-BY-SA work that originally inspired him.

This is fine, good even. It happens in the fan-fiction world all the time in ways that are much more legally dubious.

And the original Antimemetics material as part of SCP is still available for anyone to remix and adapt however they see fit.

I know some folks have issue with the idea that the antimemetics book got published with the SCP serial numbers filed off, but that's how this works. It's how it has always worked. If you want to work with a major corporation, they need things to be neat and tidy. They need the serial numbers removed.

I don't mind it, because I like it when authors get paid, and the book is very good, and if I want to make my own antimemetics division works, I am absolutely legally protected in doing so, so long as I credit SCP or qntm, and allow my work to be remixed.

qntm doesn't have to abide by those rules as long as qntm isn't referencing scp, because qntm created the antimemetics division.

By the same token, I could release an episode of Expedition Sasquatch that is all rights reserved, or an ES novel that is all rights reserved without violating the license on the CC-BY-SA episodes, because I am the original author.

But I probably won't, because that's not my goal.

My goal is to provide a platform upon which other creatives can produce new material without enriching a distant billionaire.

I would love for someone to make a lot of money on the back of one of my creative projects, even if I personally don't.

Because, if someone else makes money from something I couldn't, while actively allowing full remixing and free re-distribution of their creative work *and* linking back to the thing I produced that they remixed, that means they've brought something to the table that I couldn't bring, and they've earned that money.

That's great. The fact that I got to play a role in that is great. And the fact that, so long as they continue to be successful, more people will continue to find the thing I produced that inspired them, is great.

So yeah!

Community Media Spotlight.

We're making noise about independent artists and video producers and game makers and writers and toy makers and whoever else catches my attention.

If you want to be included, reach out and I'll get you in touch with the crew who is uploading the videos.