Should Jay have the right to claim the derived image isn’t fair use and ask for a cease and desist? Yes. He’s not, as many are saying, a dick for his opinion. Should Andy have the ability to defend his stance that it is fair use. Of course. Should it take the kind of money that only either corporations or the very rich can easily afford to spend in order to get a judge’s ruling and find out? Definitely not. That’s the real problem here.

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James Duncan Davidson nails it on why the Kind of Bloop fight is such a mess – I really wish I’d written that, it so perfectly encapsulates the problem. As someone who values both creative work and people’s ability to profit from doing creative work, I find this whole thing so maddening and the brokenness of our legal framework infuriating.

At the end of the day, the current copyright system puts more power in the hands of the already powerful, essentially corporations and rich people. It’s a travesty that they get to decide how the rest of us get to be creative.