Should ideas be ownable, and is copyright law working?

In 2024 he called treating everything on the open web as free for anyone's use a misreading of copyright law. John wants better copyright law that still protects creators, and since 2013 has welcomed fan works.

Axis: strong ownership protects creators ... ideas build on each other; ownership should be limited

Positions by date: 26 records in 25 videos. shift and revise mean the position moved; tension — disagreement with the other speaker.

John

date	how	position	video
2010-06-11	first on record	John: what Viacom did to him and hundreds of others is exactly what it is suing YouTube for purportedly doing to Viacom.	Mmmm....PARTS 00:00:00
2011-11-21	refine	John says copyright works when people negotiate what's fair, but fair use is ill-defined and chilling, current law favours those who can pay, and the bills before Congress would widen that gap. → refers to Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████	Old Man Narrates Young Girl 00:02:42
2012-02-14	restate	John says he is not a fan of illegal disruptions of content delivery: stealing is old and nothing revolutionary or cool.	Things I Can Do 00:02:26
2013-01-29	tension	John agrees with Hank's video that current copyright law is crazy but insists people and ideas need some copyright protection, as against a CBS taking their videos. → refers to On the Ownership of Ideas	Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters 00:00:00
2013-01-29	refine	John: we need better copyright law; meanwhile be fair to each other, welcome fan works, accept that money changes things, police ourselves, and never let copyright make us afraid to create.	Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters 00:02:48
2013-12-03	refine	John: the brothers won't trademark 'Don't Forget to Be Awesome', because trademarks can't be enforced selectively and owning it would claim something that belongs to Nerdfighteria.	Who Owns DFTBA? An Introduction to Trademarks 00:02:11
2015-02-17	restate	John says his failure to notice the misattribution shows how screwed up credit, sourcing and copyright are on the internet.	Places I've Never Been 00:02:55
2021-08-17	restate	John thinks current laws are a wholly insufficient guide to who owns such community creations.	Who Owns Nerdfighteria? 00:01:27
2023-07-11	restate	John credits J&J's researchers for bedaquiline's good, but says the time has come for the publicly funded drug to be returned to the public as a public good.	Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson 00:05:50
2024-08-27	restate	As a third way forward, John says governments could regulate terms of service so Reddit can't sell users' intellectual property without permission and Google can't use every hosted video for billion-dollar products.	How The Internet Is Rigged 00:06:19
2026-02-13	restate	John says access to bedaquiline took Phumeza Tisile and her friend Nandita suing the Indian government, which ruled Johnson & Johnson's attempt to extend its patent was not meaningful innovation.	Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! 01:40:08
2026-06-16	restate	John has never understood authors opposed to fan art or fan fiction: nothing is cooler than someone caring enough about your characters to bring them to new life.	My First Novel in Nine Years Has a Cover 00:02:55

Hank

date	how	position	video
2007-02-22	first on record	Hank doesn't feel bad downloading books whose authors, like Dumas, aren't trying to make a living, and asks what buyers of a book pay for.	Brotherhood 2.0: February 22nd: Where Do Books Go? 00:02:56
2007-08-13	restate	Hank says comedy should be free: a possible borrowing of his jokes is an ego boost, not a wrong.	August 13: The Fair!!!! 00:02:57
2010-06-04	refine	Hank: YouTube should pay Viacom some reparations for views of Viacom-owned content, but Viacom's suit is hypocritical and really about resisting change.	YouTube vs. Viacom The Battle Explained video description
2010-06-09	restate	Hank: Viacom's monetizing of videos it doesn't own on Spike.com is illegal and should stop for all copyrighted videos there.	Should We Sue Viacom? 00:01:56
2011-11-18	refine	Hank says he loves and needs copyright law but it needs to be better: fair use is fuzzy, and Congress should not regulate the internet through anti-piracy bills.	Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████ 00:00:53
2012-01-20	refine	Hank argues SOPA protects corporations and old media business models rather than people or creators, and that an infinite internet can't be regulated like a normal street.	Thoughts on SOPA From New Orleans 00:01:07
2013-01-11	refine	Hank separates a sense of ownership (DFTBA) from owning, criticises Disney's push to extend copyright, welcomes the internet making copyright enforcement obsolete though corporations deciding is worrisome, and says free ideas are better for society.	On the Ownership of Ideas 00:01:36
2014-08-08	restate	Hank says the Wikimedia Foundation's argument makes sense: a monkey took the photo and macaques can't own stuff, so it's everybody's photo.	Who Owns a Monkey's Selfie? And a Song About Meningitis! 00:01:32
2014-08-15	restate	Hank judges that YouTube's technological copyright policing is not the fairest or most legal solution but the only possible one, and kind of cool for creators, YouTube and rights holders.	The Bizarre State of Copyright 00:03:30
2018-01-12	restate	Hank finds this beautiful and loves seeing a little into the process of human creation, as long as everybody is getting credit.	5 Songs You've Never Heard That You've Heard 1000 Times 00:03:35
2019-02-01	refine	Hank argues copyright as written is fundamentally broken: everyone constantly breaks the law and no one cares.	We Have Destroyed Copyright Law 00:11:12
2019-09-20	restate	Hank says creativity is shared: everyone builds on what others did before, and without copying other people's work he could not even say words.	Why Does Australia... (this video is bad, I'm sorry) 00:00:37
2022-12-09	restate	Hank lists open questions: can you sue an AI for this, is training on copyrighted works without consent okay, should artists opt out, is it illegal or a call for new law, who will it help or hurt; he doesn't know.	Things are Changing Very Fast 00:01:27
2024-08-23	restate	Hank calls this legally and ethically wrong: a deep, almost willful misunderstanding of copyright law that publishing on the open web makes something free for anyone's use.	Is Google Training AI on YouTube Videos? 00:14:23

Background

date	how	position	video
2007-08-31	background	Hank finds it very sad that choreographed dances are copyrighted, and puts the brothers' happy dances under a Creative Commons license. (playful)	August 31: Copyright and Airports 00:01:43
2008-02-21	background	John jokes that Mickey Mouse is single-handedly responsible for the death of reasonable American copyright law. (playful)	People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes 00:01:24
2010-06-07	background	John: YouTube should pay Viacom the real ad value of its content, and Viacom should pay Coulton by the same standard unless piracy means stealing from someone with a lawyer. (playful)	Viacom PWNED on Piracy 00:02:56