https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40692432
> And if the answer is "scale", that gets uncomfortably close to saying that it's okay for the rich but not for the plebs.
This is the correct framing of the issues at hand.
In my view, the issue is one of class as viewed through the lens of effort vs reward. Upper middle class AI developers vs middle class content creators. Now that lower class content creators can compete with middle and upper class content creators, monocles are dropping and pearls are clutched.
I honestly think that anyone who is able to make any money at all from producing content or cultural artifacts should count themselves lucky, and not take such payments for granted, nor consider them inherently deserved or obligatory. On an average individual basis, those incomes are likely peaking and only going down outside of the top end market outliers.
Capitalism is the crisis. Copyright is a stalking horse for capital and is equally deserving of scrutiny, scorn, and disruption.
AI agents are democratizing access to information across the world just like search engines and libraries do.
Those protesting AI acting on behalf of users seems entitled to me, like suing someone for singing Happy Birthday. Copyright was a mistake. If you don’t want others to use what you made anyway they want, don’t sell it on the open market. If you don’t want other to sing the song you wrote, why did you give it away for a song?
Recently YouTube started to embed ads in the content stream itself. Others in the comments have mentioned Cloudflare and other methods of blocking. These methods work for megacorps who already benefit from the new and coming AI status quo, but they likely will do little to nothing to stem the tide for individuals. It’s just cutting your nose off to spite your face.
If you have any kind of audience now or hope to attract one in the future, demonstrate value, build engagement, and grow community, paid or otherwise. A healthy and happy community has value not just to the creator, but also to the consumer audience. A good community is non-rivalrous; a great community is anti-rivalrous.