I get royalties for some of the stuff I create, admittedly extremely little given poetry isn’t famous for wealth creation, and I’m not a famous poet*.
Yet the same isn’t true for other things I create, particularly information. So many organisations online use my information for their gain without paying me royalties, even though I’m the one who created it. I am given no choice in the matter. They grab personal details, what I like, what I’m interested in, and all kinds of other data, and they sell it to those who want to con me. They profit, I suffer.
They argue I get benefit in using their services, but, mysteriously, no tech bro offers similar services with payment of royalties, and, mysteriously, these tech bros have become the richest people in the world. Clearly they make a damned fortune, and clearly they do so without paying their dues to the people whose information they use to create that fortune. I don’t like that.
To me, they’re thieves. I really don’t like that.
There’s sod all I can do about it, though. I buy baked beans, tech bros buy the US President. I can’t fight that level of corruption. All I can do is boycott them, as much as possible.
This is one reason why I find community run projects interesting. One such project is YaCy, a community made and run search engine. I’ve decided to try it out.
That’s why there’s now an experimental search link here on arts & ego.
* Think in terms of a pint.