If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/#sampling-license
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*Fables* is a #DCComics title; DC is division of the massive entertainment conglomerate #Warners, which is, in turn, part of the #WarnerDiscovery empire, a rapacious corporate behemoth whose screenwriters have been on strike for 137 days (and counting). DC is part of a comics duopoly; its rival, #Marvel, is a division of the #DisneyFox juggernaut, whose writers are *also* on strike.
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The DC Willingham bargained with at the turn of the century isn't the DC he bargains with now. Back then, DC was still subject to a modicum of discipline from competition; its corporate owner's shareholders had not yet acquired today's appetite for meteoric returns on investment of the sort that can only be achieved through wage-theft and price-gouging.
In the years since, DC - like so many other corporations - participated in an orgy of mergers as its sector devoured itself.
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