The biggest lie on the Internet...

(Paywall-free popularization like this is what I do for a living. To support me, see the end of this post)

is that ridiculous disclaimer plastered over too many clueless websites

:

All images on are readily available in various places on the Internet and believed to be in public domain

This is crap, guys. Now, if you believe that everything online should be in the public domain, that’s an entirely different matter. We may even discuss it some other time.

But stuff readily available online is NOT by default in the public domain. Not at all. It never was. Get real. If, in 2013, you still put a “disclaimer” like that on your website, you are either lying or your “understanding” of copyright is screwed beyond repair and should be reset. Please do it. The current copyright system is a mess, but one of the first steps to reform it is to understand how it actually works.

Who writes this, why, and how to help

I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.

To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.

The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!

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