Where's the fair use? · 5:09am Feb 18th, 2016
This is not a new issue, and I'm probably the last person to really talk about this, but as a lot of people know as of late, the fair use act that was originally made to give the people on youtube freedom to create and entertain, whether as a hobby or as a way of living, has been working against them. Channels have been given strikes, frozen people's way of income, and being a threat to their very profession, all while giving them next to no power to fight back.
Even to those who don't depend on youtube, such as myself, should be afraid of this sort of thing. The problem with the system being used is that people who, should have complete freedom satirize, review, or even educate with, copyrighted material completely legally, don't actually have that freedom on websites on youtube, but because of the flawed, auto-mated system that youtube uses, it won't discriminate on who it strikes and who it bans, even if the channel did nothing wrong in the first place.
Now here's why I bring a video-making problem up on a fanfiction website. The Fair Use Act is what gives us our freedom to write fanfiction, including our beloved pony stories. We all, for the most part, follow the rules in Fair Use when it comes to writing our stories, including certain laws and conditions you may not even know about. Certain authors and creators even put in the effort to make it so we can't write fanfics regarding their work. For the most part, that's actually fine since it's their creation, but because every other franchise don't fight it, with some like J.K Rowling supporting it. Orson Scott Card (famous for Ender's Game) has even helped in fanfiction contests after previously being against fanfiction.
Just like the people of youtube, we all want to have the power to freely create, whether with our own imagination, or the inspiration from other sources. With the Fair Use bull pie going on with youtube, acts like SOPA that are still trying to hinder our freedom, and people trying to oppose us in general from having our freedom. Whether your a youtuber who makes an income off of it, or a just an aspiring writer, we need to support each other we never have to lose this freedom again.
For a more detailed understanding on what's going on, here's a recent Nostalgia Critic video that helped me understand the exact issue. If you've been even the slightest bit interested by this blog, I insist that you click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I'm Animegx43, who is no one but an aspiring writer. Where's the fair use?