Hotlinking has been considered rude since forever, mirroring to imgur is, or at least was initially, about being polite and not giving some random site the hug of death when it can easily be avoided. Mozart was talking about patronage, not rent seeking via artificial scarcity. All the overfunded indiegogo/paetron projects say patronage can work again without beating the audience into submission with the law. That said, I would love to see every record executive and movie producer selling pencils on street corners. I have no sympathy for the industries that gave us DRM and the DMCA. May they die, and may they take the advertisers with them.
so far as I can tell, Mozart never said it. I was quoting my music history teacher (who, admittedly, may have been paraphrasing from some of Mozart's private correspondance, or a Mozart scholar). Also, Mozart was unique in that he was one of the first composers to strike out on his own and NOT have a single specific patron. Unlike Haydn or J.C. Bach - both of whom taught him - he was not a servant of a court. He had private patrons, yes, but they're more comparable to Patreon than they are to other actual Patrons of the time. For example, Mozart owned his music - the Esterhazy estate owned (and still does own) Haydn's music. I understand you're talking about broader reach of media companies, but I'm mostly talking about professionals in the industry, not companies. There is no "Big Nature Photography" like there is "Big Record Companies" - Unless you count National Geographic, maybe? Getty Images, I guess, but they're usually more about photos of people. we hotlink here all the time. Granted, we are MUCH smaller than reddit. However, this is not even really the point, the point is that often the people posting won't even cite the artist - they're not even giving due credit.Mozart was talking about patronage, not rent seeking via artificial scarcity.
I have no sympathy for the industries that gave us DRM and the DMCA.
Hotlinking has been considered rude since forever,
Yeah, you caught me, I just assumed you were referring to something Mozart said. But "give Mozart some cash so he can do his thing" is a very different thing than "let Mozart sue anyone who doesn't give him cash before listening to his music into oblivion." The former is great and good; I buy a lot of music because I have the money and want to throw a tip in the jar, and pretending I'm buying a product is the only means available to do it. That latter is not so good; fuck that imaginary Mozart, he's not worth it.