Ello's World

For the full breakdown of what’s been going on since November, read here.

January 20, 2023

It’s been over FIFTY days. The strike is still ongoing. Harper has yet to even speak to the union.

Union members are still scraping on their second and third hustles (which most entry-level publishing people have) and donations to the strike fund. The union has set up a hardship fund (here’s the post about it on their official Instagram, for verification) so no more fiddling with checks or Venmo.

If you can donate, please do.

The strikers are asking for three main things - better pay, a bigger commitment to diversity, and more security for the union. That they’ve been striking for this long and can’t even get that shows widespread problems in the traditional publishing industry.

Those messenger screen names that haven’t logged on in ages, some before detailed profiles were a thing on those services.

Those emails that are long since abandoned, some with domains that no longer exist.

Those online friends you knew years ago and who then helped shaped you in some way, who you just can’t FIND anymore.

Those people who once were, and hopefully still exist IRL, that seem to have no known internet life anymore.

And those who have actually passed on, and their online lives are now a memorial to them.

There’s a protest going on against AI art over on artstation, so I feel like now is the time for me to make a statement on this issue! 

I wholeheartedly support the ongoing protest against AI art. Why? Because my artwork is included in the datasets used to train these image generators without my consent. I get zero compensation for the use of my art, even though these image generators cost money to use, and are a commercial product. 

Musicians are not being treated the same way. Stability has a music generator that only uses royalty free music in their dataset. Their words: “Because diffusion models are prone to memorization and overfitting, releasing a model trained on copyrighted data could potentially result in legal issues.” Why is the work of visual artists being treated differently?

Many have compared image generators to human artists seeking out inspiration. Those two are not the same. My art is literally being fed into these generators through the datasets, and spat back out of a program that has no inherent sense of what is respectful to artists. As long as my art is literally integrated into the system used to create the images, it is commercial use of my art without my consent.

Until there is an ethically sourced database that compensates artists for the use of their images, I am against AI art. I also think platforms should do everything they can to prevent scraping of their content for these databases. 

An important message from the National Lawyers Guild - Detroit & Michigan Chapter

Denise: Oh, hello!

Bill: We were just talking about you kids.

D: I’m Denise Heberle (HEB-er-lee)…

B: And I’m Bill Goodman.

D: Together we’ve been fighting fascism for over 50 years.

B: And so much has changed over those 50 years, such as the ingredients to a successful firebomb!

D (cheerily): And the glass that bank windows are made of!

B: But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed over 50 years, something that is so important to tell you kids who are new to this movement.

Both: Shut the fuck up.

D: You’re sitting in the police transport van after a protest?

B: Shut the fuck up. In a holding cell, with your comrades?

D: Shut the fuck up. Cop knocks on your door?

B: Shut the fuck up.

D: Texting on an unsecured device?

B: Shut the fuck up. Pulled over by the cops after a protest?

D: Shut the fuck up. Cop just asking about your day?

B: Shut the fuck up. Feds call your mom?

D: Tell your mother to shut the fuck up.

B: Now. Repeat after me. When the cops come calling, what do you do?

(Cut to Bill standing with eight kids)

Kids: Shut the fuck up!

(Cut to Card:

“Shut The Fuck up A Public Service Announcement from

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD