sometimes I talk about disliking copyright/IP on here, and I always try to stress that the reason these conversations matter is because copyright law is used in real life to hurt real people. I want to highlight a current example of this happening which I haven't seen talked about on my dash yet.

Solar Being is a small business run by two natural hair sculpting artists. their art has gone viral online a few times, and one of their most recognizable creations are their shaped hair puffs:

ALT

ALT

recently, their business has been under attack by frivolous DMCA & copyright infringement complaints by a competing company. Solar Being has had to close pre-orders for their hair extensions and redirect the funding they raised through a kickstarter campaign into now building a legal defense fund, at the expense of their allocated labor and production budget. in the meantime, they can't even post uncensored photos of their star puffs to social media without facing copyright claims. this issue goes beyond just promotional materials and is also affecting any posts where they (or their customers!) have their hair puffs visible.

on Solar Being's legal defense page they say they "believe [geometric hairstyle] designs should remain free for others to use, reinterpret, and express through their creative and commercial endeavors". and if these copyright infringement complaints are held up, it will likely affect the rights of other natural hair sculpting artists to create designs like this.

if you'd like to support Solar Being's legal fund they're accepting donations now, and I'd recommend supporting them through social media as well. I'm not personally associated with Solar Being and am just repeating what they've already said through their website and social media.

lots of people around copyright/IP discussions like to talk about supporting artists, and if you want direct that supportive energy somewhere productive I feel this situation is one that deserves your attention.

I really wish people would understand that there is a vast gulf of cultural difference between “nomadic ethnic groups” and “ethnic groups which are not and have never been nomadic, but which were repeatedly violently expelled”

The Saami people are nomadic. The Buryats are nomadic. Uyghurs are not. Jews are not. Many Native American groups, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek are not. This distinction may seem small and academic but it is absolutely vital to understanding modern day conflicts involving these groups.

Some cultures are itinerant, with physical movement from place to place as an inherent part of their identity. Some cultures were violently displaced, with a cultural identity that carries the scars of being forced to relocate, against their will. It is victim blaming of the highest order to treat the second type as though it is the first.

ICE fucking abandoned the scene in a Minneapolis neighborhood and left their battle plans and designs on the city, fake license plates, and challenge tokens which they reward themselves for arrests. Looney Tunes shit.

ctrl+f is one of the greatest things to happen to academia and indeed this world

i would love to go to bed when i plan to, but unfortunately the person in charge of me is me and that bitch LOVES screentime and poor decisions

EDIT: On the advice of my legal department, I would like to formally apologize to the elderly woman I called a "beta". I was not aware that she was the goddess Athena in disguise.

Okay don't laugh.

Im something called a stink turkey okay

changing your gender to win an argument is always morally correct because if their argument is defeated simply by saying it to a genderfluid person it was a shit argument to begin with

one time I was playing a party card game with some people, and one player used a card on someone that could only target female players, so the targeted player (who is genderfluid and was identifying as a woman at that moment) changed gender at instant speed to make the card fizzle and it sparked an argument that lasted over an hour

there is no moral to this story i think its just crazy that happened

the moral is that shit's funny

gender is a performance and im getting heckled by those old gay muppets

Courtesy of r/CuratedTumblr

gender is a performance and im getting heckled by those old gay muppets

Courtesy of r/CuratedTumblr

“What if we had matching variant covers where we look super good together as a couple?”

— Spideytorch probably

(Im going to photoshop them together because I miss them. Please marvel let them interact and be on comic covers together again🙏🙏)

humans will see a swamp and build a city on it and then spend the next 2,000+ years struggling to keep it from turning back into a swamp

everybody saying a different city is cracking me up