After adding an RSS feed to my blog, I've become quite smitten with RSS. It's allowed me to get to know some of my favorite Mastodonians and Blueskiers better because now their blogs are directly updated in my feed and, as such, have quite enjoyed a lot of interesting and niche articles lately. One thing is certain, however : having images in the reader as well as the actual article makes for a better overall experience. But what images should be used?

It's a bit of an ethical and legal quagmire, honestly. I'll start with the low hanging fruit : AI generated images. Of course, AI generated images created by models trained on copyrighted material are a big non-starter for me. It's obscene that techbros were just like "hey, let's just shit all over legal and moral standards and use a bunch of cool stuff created by other people and not pay for it." The whole "move fast and break stuff" is a cute moniker until it's used to just ignore the law while simultaneously trying to make the creators that were stolen from obsolete. An argument could be made for models trained entirely off of public domain images + images approved by the copyright holders, but people aren't "moving fast and breaking stuff" to do that because, let's be honest, it's not going to be as profitable as legalized theft.

But my issue goes a bit deeper - what about any copyrighted image, period? Regardless of common conception, fair use is far from black and white. Putting the fact aside that this is technically a universally available blog and fair use varies from location to location, I'll focus immediately on the United States. There is a four-factor test that must be passed before fair-use applies and, even if you are 100% confident you are within the boundaries of fair use, it still won't potentially stop a copyright holder from making a claim. And that, in and of itself, is enough to keep me from playing in that sandbox; I've got too little time to dilly-dick around with concerns of that nature (especially for use in this blog which, last I checked, isn't making me any dough). Moreover - I'm not out to use somebody's shit in something if they don't want me to just out of principal... even if they won't ever come after me. So where does that leave me?

At this point I've decided to use public domain only images in my blog. But, instead of becoming a Steamboat Willie, Winnie the Pooh, and Funnyman fan site, I've decided to control my own narative and primarily use my own photos and drawings (as bad as they may be). Oh, and any of those photos or drawings you see? They're my gift to you, open internet. Not that you would ever want to, but feel free to use them in any way, shape, or form possible as long as you aren't doing nazi-adjacent shit with 'em.

Enjoy - if you can!

 

For me, the internet as I had come to accept it broke irreparably in November, 2022. IYKYK. If not, here is a quick, boiled down recap. It's far from a perfect article, but the nuances are exhausting and out of the scope of this post. Interested parties can go pick a lot of scabs on Bluesky and Mastodon for the gory details.