Alternate Crosstime Organizations

TGLS · 10-29-2023, 06:57 PM

The Pirate-Archivists (OK, this isn't really an organization)

You'd think an infinity of worlds would mean an infinity of culture...

It's easy enough to steal culture that dates before 1920, or from a wildly off parallel, though those have marketability problems. With copyright belonging to Homeline duplicates of the author, things can get complicated. Some media, like books and music, have few authors who are clearly defined. But movies and video games, with large numbers of creatives and corporate authors who may or may not exist. With all these tricky problems, a lot of lawyers are kept well paid sorting through these problems. So everything's fine, Homeliners get a plethora of media to devour and everyone gets their slice, right?

Well, the answer is "not quite". While an infinity of worlds means an infinite supply of culture, it does not mean an infinite number of interdimensional copyright lawyers. So people who import media need to account for the high price of resolving copyright issues. So if the price of sorting out the rights is too high, no release on Homeline. Sometimes the Homeline's version of the author doesn't want the media released. For example, Homeline's George RR Martin doesn't want alternate Winds of Winters and Dreams of Springs published before he finishes his. Many video games are made by corporations that never existed on Homeline, which requires individually negotiating with employees, too much investigative work. Some content can't even be released for profit!

So if you want to watch Sam Taylor-Johnson's version of Fifty Shades Darker, or play the Legend of Zelda: Tower of the Triforce (a rom-hack of Ocarina of Dreams for the Nintendo Playstation), what are you to do? There's the obvious answer; steal it. Unlike anything that gets a commercial release on Homeline, this is easier said than done. This is where pirate-archivists come in. They secure trips to parallel worlds, copy media that doesn't exist to homeline readable format, deal with emulators or secure specifications for hardware, and bring it back to Homeline.

This is not just a difficult to enforce problem that Customs and Inspection has to deal with. Corporate spies use piracy to cover for why their they have secret USB sticks. More dangerous criminals use it to cover for why they don't want to deal with I-Cops. Hostile actors use off-world media to try and smuggle viruses onto Homeline. All this is made more difficult as many view the practice as a victimless crime.

10-29-2023, 06:57 PM	#11
TGLS Join Date: Jan 2014	Re: Alternate Crosstime Organizations The Pirate-Archivists (OK, this isn't really an organization) You'd think an infinity of worlds would mean an infinity of culture... It's easy enough to steal culture that dates before 1920, or from a wildly off parallel, though those have marketability problems. With copyright belonging to Homeline duplicates of the author, things can get complicated. Some media, like books and music, have few authors who are clearly defined. But movies and video games, with large numbers of creatives and corporate authors who may or may not exist. With all these tricky problems, a lot of lawyers are kept well paid sorting through these problems. So everything's fine, Homeliners get a plethora of media to devour and everyone gets their slice, right? Well, the answer is "not quite". While an infinity of worlds means an infinite supply of culture, it does not mean an infinite number of interdimensional copyright lawyers. So people who import media need to account for the high price of resolving copyright issues. So if the price of sorting out the rights is too high, no release on Homeline. Sometimes the Homeline's version of the author doesn't want the media released. For example, Homeline's George RR Martin doesn't want alternate Winds of Winters and Dreams of Springs published before he finishes his. Many video games are made by corporations that never existed on Homeline, which requires individually negotiating with employees, too much investigative work. Some content can't even be released for profit! So if you want to watch Sam Taylor-Johnson's version of Fifty Shades Darker, or play the Legend of Zelda: Tower of the Triforce (a rom-hack of Ocarina of Dreams for the Nintendo Playstation), what are you to do? There's the obvious answer; steal it. Unlike anything that gets a commercial release on Homeline, this is easier said than done. This is where pirate-archivists come in. They secure trips to parallel worlds, copy media that doesn't exist to homeline readable format, deal with emulators or secure specifications for hardware, and bring it back to Homeline. This is not just a difficult to enforce problem that Customs and Inspection has to deal with. Corporate spies use piracy to cover for why their they have secret USB sticks. More dangerous criminals use it to cover for why they don't want to deal with I-Cops. Hostile actors use off-world media to try and smuggle viruses onto Homeline. All this is made more difficult as many view the practice as a victimless crime.