On the other hand, good fences make good neighbors, and paywalls are a way of drawing healthy boundaries. If I write a book I am not donating that book to the world free of charge to use as they please and train an AI to replace me. I would like to be paid for my work somehow. If I and a team of researchers and engineers and finance folks and HR folks and janitors work together to build a vaccine distribution system, we don’t get that for free.
Paywalls are a useful mechanism for ensuring that people aren’t abusing you and your work.
Problem isn’t paywalls. It’s that how you do things matters. If you hoard all the food and paywall it at high prices so you can buy fancy cars, that’s not ok. If you set aside food for a local community supper so that kids can’t use it for their trebuchet practice, that’s sensible.
If your food, water, healthcare, housing, etc weren’t paywalled, doing what you love wouldn’t need to be commodified*. If people work on life saving vaccines, they shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for things they need. The builder that builds the house of the person developing vaccines shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for the things they need. The person cutting lumber for the builder shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for the things they need.
*the caveat here is that the work either has to be deemed by society to be necessary work or that this is the only work you’re able to do or if “the thing you love” isn’t writing think pieces trying to destroy this system of de-commodification.
On the other hand, good fences make good neighbors, and paywalls are a way of drawing healthy boundaries. If I write a book I am not donating that book to the world free of charge to use as they please and train an AI to replace me. I would like to be paid for my work somehow. If I and a team of researchers and engineers and finance folks and HR folks and janitors work together to build a vaccine distribution system, we don’t get that for free.
Paywalls are a useful mechanism for ensuring that people aren’t abusing you and your work.
Problem isn’t paywalls. It’s that how you do things matters. If you hoard all the food and paywall it at high prices so you can buy fancy cars, that’s not ok. If you set aside food for a local community supper so that kids can’t use it for their trebuchet practice, that’s sensible.
Bourgeois, poor-hating logic
With copyright bs included (extra bourgeois)
If your food, water, healthcare, housing, etc weren’t paywalled, doing what you love wouldn’t need to be commodified*. If people work on life saving vaccines, they shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for things they need. The builder that builds the house of the person developing vaccines shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for the things they need. The person cutting lumber for the builder shouldn’t have to worry about how they will pay for the things they need.
*the caveat here is that the work either has to be deemed by society to be necessary work or that this is the only work you’re able to do or if “the thing you love” isn’t writing think pieces trying to destroy this system of de-commodification.