(Apologies if this isn’t the right place to post this—happy to remove if needed.)

With the recent DMCA takedowns and copyright claims reportedly hitting the Calvin and Hobbes subreddit on Reddit—mainly from GoComics/Andrews McMeel—I’m wondering how calvinandhobbes@lemmy.world handles these kinds of concerns?

Reddit’s C&H sub had to purge years of shared comic panels and memes due to GoComics enforcing their rights under the DMCA. Given that Lemmy is a federated, open-source alternative with different infrastructure and visibility, I’m curious:

Does this community have a stance or policy on posting actual strips or screenshots of Calvin and Hobbes? Has anyone here run into similar DMCA threats or copyright takedowns?

Would love to hear how the mods or longtime members view this—especially as Lemmy communities grow and draw more attention.

The post I hoped to avoid. The end of C&H Subreddit.

Calvin and Hobbes is temporarily down.

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    18·
    7 months ago

    I run the posting bot.

    GoComics gave me a hard time for a bit with constant breaking changes every few days. But it’s been stable for a while now.

    That said, I want to point out that while posts on the fediverse are decentralized, images are not.

    Instances can re-host post media, but it’s only a temporarily cached thumbnail, or temporary proxied image. Instances do not re-host every piece of media on the fediverse, rather, while the post metadata is duplicated, the media url in the post, even as it federates to other instaces, always points to the original posters home instances image-rs server. Which is where every person opening the post url will load it from.

    A DMCA takedown request would absolutely be enforcable.

  • Taalnazi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    142·
    7 months ago

    I say screw corporations. Precisely that was what Bill Watterson gently protested against.

    So in his spirit, I think we should let them have it on their bum - we do what we want. When a law is unreasonable, it is time to decide for ourselves.

    Let the comics stay here and don’t attract too much attention, but when they try to take it down here too, make a loud, big fat stink about it to sympathetic people (while readying another place).

    It will also make our image stronger, as everyone likes Calvin and Hobbes, and getting those taken down by that guy will result in him getting a big side eye.

    • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      16·
      7 months ago

      Bill Watterson has clearly expressed dislike for corporations and profit seeking, but there’s also no question that he’s in favor of very strong copyright protection. It’s how he enforced his vision of preventing unauthorized use of the Calvin and Hobbes characters.

    • Teknevra@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      10·
      7 months ago

      I totally agree with you, although I personally would consider potentially looking into various avenues, and try to potentially ready myself beforehand, so that I’m not scrambling / caught off-guard when they inevitably do come.

      • Taalnazi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        Difference is that one is to piss people off and another is just sharing the original comics.

          • m_f@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            4·
            7 months ago

            Your comment would be better without the “Think about it like a grown up for a moment” bit, which comes across as insulting. I got a report about the comment, but think it’s better to explain what’s wrong than to just remove it.

          • Taalnazi@lemmy.worldEnglish
            41·
            7 months ago

            It does, actually. Your “think like a grown-up” when I’ve not said anything immature, doesn’t seem to be in good faith, I’m afraid.

    • Teknevra@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      We could.

      Or at least contact the sub’s mods to let them know that this community exists.

      I also saw some sub users mention potentially creating a Discord.