Book reviews, art, gaming, Objectivism and thoughts on other topics as they occur.

May 25, 2020

The 25% Rule

So, this is just thinking out loud, but maybe it has some potential.  There's a problem with platforms like YouTube with big content owners spamming small creators with takedown orders for trivial reasons and the small creators simply don't have any ready means of resisting this abuse.  They don't have the resources to fight back effectively.

So, what if platforms like that instituted what I call "the 25% rule", meaning that to issue a claim against someone, their channel has to be AT LEAST 25% as big as yours.  (In terms of subscribers or followers or whatever metric for "bigness" the platform uses.)  Because, seriously, that guy with 200 subscribers is no conceivable threat to Sony or Nintendo and a frivolous claim may create a serious injury to the little guy.  But, if someone really is stealing a threatening amount of your content and making bank from it, they've GOT to be AT LEAST 25% as big as you are.

This would secure nobodies from harassment while still giving content creators of any size the freedom to protect themselves from actually damaging theft.

Now, why do this at all?  Because big content producers harassing small fry is actually a BIG PROBLEM.  And it's endemic, too. Something like 80% of new patent claims filed are filed by companies that *don't actually make any products*.  Their entire business model is just to acquire patents and make claims.  This is looting of the productive and creative by the nonproductive and noncreative.  Platforms need to stop enabling this crap.

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