All of this highlights the growing recognition that, unlike 10 or 15 years ago, content creation is now work, says Kate Miltner, a lecturer in data, AI, and society at the University of Sheffield’s School of Information. “Content creation is time-consuming and often poorly paid work,” but many more people are making careers as content creators than 10 years ago, Miltner adds, and “the ethics of plagiarism are starting to come into play, in addition to trademarks and copyrights.”
Simply put, we all understand this now. A decade after “On Freak,” creators have gotten much smarter about ownership of their work. “Since Peaches Monroe, there’s been a whole series of conversations and debates about cultural appropriation and where a lot of the modern (online) language comes from (the black community, the queer community),” Miltner says. LeBron may have felt like she’d failed because of a lack of resources, but what she did have were other creators who knew how to call out what was happening. And companies like Netflix, perhaps anticipating backlash for jumping on a viral trend, asked LeBron to curate a list that was “very unobtrusive, very thoughtful.”
Will that happen every time? No. Memes made in everyday language are always hard to trademark. Miltner cites Fox Media’s failed attempt to trademark “OK Boomer” as an example. But now that even Hawk-to-a-Girl is selling merch, the possibility of getting credit and cash for your meme doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it once was. Could your meme be captured and reinterpreted by an artificial intelligence bot? Yes. Could that bot make T-shirts? Yes, that could happen. Creators, especially minority creators, always have to fight to keep control of their work once it’s unleashed on the world. But now they have a few allies.
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Loose thread
Leave the chapel on Lorne. After speaking out about fans being “weird” on Drew Affalo’s podcast Comments section In June, pop star Chapel Lorne posted two videos to TikTok in which she thoughtfully asked her followers to stop being uncool. “I don’t care that abuse, harassment, stalking, etc. is commonplace towards celebrities and semi-celebrities,” Lorne said. The two videos have now been viewed a combined 27 million times, and Lorne has been praised as the rare celebrity who knows how to draw boundaries with her fans.
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