Zauberin Stardreamer [4" tall] @Zauberin@awoo.space

In destroying content libraries, Warner/HBO is using a publishing trick.

Because of the way intellectual property is valued and taxed across much of the English-speaking world, insufficiently profitable property is more profitable out-of-print than bringing in cash.

I could do this too. Here's a vastly simplified example.

Let's take my Prohibition Orcs. What's the value of PO? Well, there's the film rights, the TV rights, audiobook rights, branded fedoras... This is such an innovative property, for a few grand I can easily hire an outside evaluator to tell me it should be worth, say, fifty million.

I claim PO on my taxes as worth fifty million dollars.

PO fails to live up to that. Nobody even buys the branded liquor rights, even though that's a no-brainer.

So I take the product off the market, and write off a fifty million dollar loss.

"It can't be this blatant," people think. But it can. Every IP-related industry lobbied for these laws. This is part of why tech is so profitable, because surely the new game is worth top dollar.

The catch is, only a certain kind of person can do this and sleep well at night.

The tax system is Dungeons & Dragons, except the dragons wrote the rules.

This, by the way, is why publishers won't bring back so much of the out-of-print blacklist. Internally, they value all those vanished first novels at a bajillion dollars, and resurrecting them would require un-writing-off those losses.

Under current tax code, creators are more valuable dead than alive.

Some publishers/distributors play the game fair, and have deep backlists. But if it's a big conglomerate, like HBO or Randy Penguin? It's sociopathy all the way down. Remember, it's not about making money; it's about the quarterly statement, and massive deductions are a win there.

#DurhamNC
Spotted by our youngest whil's't out on a Pokémon Go walk.
cc: @Harena

RT @web3isgreat@twitter.com

eth dot link service about to go offline because domain owner is in prison

August 25, 2022
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=ethlink-service-about-to-go-offline-because-domain-owner-is-in-prison

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1563220419372453893

If you are a white person and still need help understanding cultural appropriation and racism, you should read this furry themed explanation

Thread by https://twitter.com/Laurenimator12/status/1562585084477452288

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1562585084477452288.html

hello! i need $80 to order groceries, $60 for medical weed, and $35 for my phone bill -- $175 in total

i have to work from home because i have asthma and catching covid is a major health risk for me. a friend has a really good opportunity that i'll be looking into

paypal: https://paypal.me/v33b33

cashapp: https://cash.app/$vantablack420

venmo: https://venmo.com/vantablack420

liberapay: https://liberapay.com/v4nt4bl4ck

thank you 🖤

#MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #TransCrowdFund​

In the wake of the crypto crash it's worth pointing out that crypto is effectively just a telemarketing scam for Discord users.

"Advertisers" (corporate griefers) and scammers have thoroughly ruined phone calls, email, text messages, and web browsing as a whole. Now, in an era where people almost exclusively communicate through third-party apps, crypto represents an "in" that allows fake users, bots, and scammers to infiltrate these "private" communities and advertise at them.

If you have a pet, give them headpats for me!

True self-care is not bath salts and chocolate cake, it’s making the choice to build a life you don’t need to escape from. ~ Brianna Wiest

anyone want a quick furry avatar commission? $30 to help cover my phone bill