keopi has the core of it. Think of it this way - how much do you think the photographers of the photos on /r/gentlemanboners are getting paid for those imgur links? The answer is, of course, a big fat goose egg. Every picture on the internet was taken by someone. When it comes to high quality photos, odds are that the person who took that photo makes a living at it (or uses it as supplementary income). If you're reposting that picture without permission, you are - under the law - using their intellectual property without permission, which is illegal in most western societies. This is one of the reasons that digital content is so undervalued in comparison to physical content - It's so easily replicable at an identical quality that it makes it almost valueless. And of course, we can't rely on people to not replicate, because people want pretty stuff, but don't want to play for it. We're like the people of Mozart's Vienna - "Generous with their praise, but not with their wallets"
Thanks for elaborating on that. I never thought of it this way, I must admit. It's so easy and simple to share digital stuff! I imagine this is among the main reasons people do so quite as eagerly, Reddit or not Reddit. Which isn't to say that Reddit has it as well as the rest of the 'Net: no, it's much worse on Reddit. What I don't think, still, is that Reddit despises original content in any way. Sure, sharing what you've found is fun, but there's plenty of OC to go around, as my experience tells me. /r/dota2, for example, has plenty OC on its main page every day, as silly or plain stupid as said content may be.
Hotlinking has been considered rude since forever, mirroring to imgur is, or at least was initially, about being polite and not giving some random site the hug of death when it can easily be avoided. Mozart was talking about patronage, not rent seeking via artificial scarcity. All the overfunded indiegogo/paetron projects say patronage can work again without beating the audience into submission with the law. That said, I would love to see every record executive and movie producer selling pencils on street corners. I have no sympathy for the industries that gave us DRM and the DMCA. May they die, and may they take the advertisers with them.
so far as I can tell, Mozart never said it. I was quoting my music history teacher (who, admittedly, may have been paraphrasing from some of Mozart's private correspondance, or a Mozart scholar). Also, Mozart was unique in that he was one of the first composers to strike out on his own and NOT have a single specific patron. Unlike Haydn or J.C. Bach - both of whom taught him - he was not a servant of a court. He had private patrons, yes, but they're more comparable to Patreon than they are to other actual Patrons of the time. For example, Mozart owned his music - the Esterhazy estate owned (and still does own) Haydn's music. I understand you're talking about broader reach of media companies, but I'm mostly talking about professionals in the industry, not companies. There is no "Big Nature Photography" like there is "Big Record Companies" - Unless you count National Geographic, maybe? Getty Images, I guess, but they're usually more about photos of people. we hotlink here all the time. Granted, we are MUCH smaller than reddit. However, this is not even really the point, the point is that often the people posting won't even cite the artist - they're not even giving due credit.Mozart was talking about patronage, not rent seeking via artificial scarcity.
I have no sympathy for the industries that gave us DRM and the DMCA.
Hotlinking has been considered rude since forever,
Yeah, you caught me, I just assumed you were referring to something Mozart said. But "give Mozart some cash so he can do his thing" is a very different thing than "let Mozart sue anyone who doesn't give him cash before listening to his music into oblivion." The former is great and good; I buy a lot of music because I have the money and want to throw a tip in the jar, and pretending I'm buying a product is the only means available to do it. That latter is not so good; fuck that imaginary Mozart, he's not worth it.