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Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters

2013-01-29 · letter vlog · John · 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, community lore

Replying to Hank's video on the ownership of ideas, John agrees copyright law is broken but says creators need protection; telling how a TFIOS fan poster made across three continents reached DFTBA through a royalty deal, he argues that until the law improves people must be fair to each other and never let copyright make them afraid to create.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Reply to Hank's ownership-of-ideas video: copyright law is crazy but creators need protection (CBS hypothetical); buying a design for a flat $100 is unfair

  • ★★ Replying to Hank's video on the ownership of ideas, John agrees that current copyright law is 'a hot slice of crazy'. — 00:00:00 · Hank Green
  • ★★★ John says people and ideas still need some copyright protection; otherwise a network like CBS could take the Vlogbrothers videos, air them and keep all the money. — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ Using a hypothetical $100 design purchase, John says selling a design outright for a flat fee, however successful the product, has always struck him as unfair: the designer should still kind of own it. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Royalties for Nerdfighter designers (Pizza John); the TFIOS poster found on Tumblr and the hunt for its painter Nika (Philippines) and poster-maker Ashild (Norway)

  • ★★ John says this is why their shop now focuses on royalties for Nerdfighter designers: he splits Pizza John shirt royalties half-and-half with its designer Valerie2776. — 00:00:58 · Pizza John, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Scrolling the TFIOS tag on Tumblr, John found a poster he wanted on his wall, reblogged it and asked the user to do it on DFTBA Records; she had not designed it. — 00:00:58 · Tumblr, The Fault in Our Stars, DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Asked on Tumblr who designed it, a 16-year-old Filipino Nerdfighter, Nika, said she made the painting, but someone else had turned it into the poster. — 00:01:27 · Tumblr
  • ★★ After a couple of weeks of detective work, John and Nika found the poster's maker: another 16-year-old Nerdfighter, living in Norway, named Ashild. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ John sums up: his book written in the US inspired a painting by a reader in the Philippines, which inspired a poster by a reader in Norway, and international copyright law isn't ready for that. — 00:02:18 · The Fault in Our Stars, United States
  • ★★ Neither Nika nor John gave Ashild permission to make the poster, but both love it; the three, on three continents, reached a royalty agreement and paid the font designer. — 00:02:18

00:02:48 — Three-continent royalty agreement and pre-order at DFTBA.com; we need better copyright law, meanwhile be fair, welcome fan works, police ourselves and never let copyright make us afraid to create; sign-off

  • ★★ John announces the poster is available for pre-order at DFTBA.com and says he will sign the first however many are pre-ordered. — 00:02:48 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★★ John says we need better copyright law, but meanwhile must do well by each other and each other's ideas; for him that means welcoming fan fiction, music and art inspired by his books. — 00:02:48
  • ★★★ Agreeing with Hank that money changes things, John would be annoyed if CBS adapted TFIOS without permission but is happy with YouTube scene adaptations even with ads; there is no good way to define the difference. — 00:02:48 · Hank Green, The Fault in Our Stars, YouTube, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John says that until copyright is untangled and the laws improve, we will have to police ourselves, and the internet is actually pretty good at that. — 00:03:17
  • ★★★ John thinks the most important things are that the internet stays vigilant, that people try to be fair to each other, and that copyright law never makes us afraid to create, the opposite of its purpose. (hedged) — 00:03:17

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Ashild · copyright · Nika · Our Little Infinity poster · royalty payment

Also: Projects: DFTBA Records

Works: The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: CBS · Tumblr · Viacom · YouTube

Terms: Pizza John

Concepts: fan fiction · intellectual property

Places: Norway · Philippines · United States

Products: Google Translate

Only in the description or credits: Valerie2776

Also centred on copyright: August 31: Copyright and Airports · Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████ · Old Man Narrates Young Girl · On the Ownership of Ideas · Who Owns a Monkey's Selfie? And a Song About Meningitis! · The Bizarre State of Copyright

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