Nina Paley quotes

Because I didn't sell it to a distributor, it can be in lots of film festivals. It's been in, I think, at least 200 festivals, it's won more than 35 awards which is great. I like that! If I had gone with a distributor they would have immediately said no to film festivals which I do not understand why distributors do, but that's what they do. (Nina Paley)
When you shut down neurons to prevent them from transmitting signals, we call that "brain damage." Copyright is brain damage. It's brain damage in the great mind, and it's brain damage in the individual mind.
Nina Paley
Mimi: Silencing you because I don't like what you say is censorship. Silencing you because I can make more money that way is copyright. They're totally different! Eunice: The profit motive makes it OK.
Nina Paley
Mimi: I like you! Eunice: So what? You like everyone. I want assholes to like me - that'll mean I'm really special!
Nina Paley
Mimi: Copyright's all about balance: balancing creators' and the public's need for free expression... Eunice: with copyright lawyers' need for paychecks!
Nina Paley
My grand total for the free film was $132,000, and that is a business model I am totally sticking to. And everything that I do now is totally free.
Nina Paley
Total box office so far has been $22,350 ... that trickles down to $3,000 for me. Which really isn't much, but it's fine. People are seeing the film and they're seeing it the the way it should be seen. I do not feel like the distributors are ripping me off. I feel like this is the model of film distribution and this is the reality of it and fortunately my income is not dependent on it.
Nina Paley
I love money! Just because it's free doesn't mean I don't like money. And actually I've made more money this way than any distributor said I could possibly make, which isn't much because independent distributors are notoriously without money. So the most money any distributor told me I could possibly hope to make on this film, total, maximum, in my wildest dreams was $50,000, and they said much more realistic would be $10,000 or $25,000 and the biggest advance I was offered, I think, was $20,000 and that's for locking up all the rights.
Nina Paley
Pronounced "me-me and you-ness.” Mimi has pointy ears and Eunice has floppy ears.
Nina Paley
I am not a copyright reformer. I am a copyright abolitionist.
Nina Paley
♡ Copying is an act of love. Please copy & share. (Nina Paley)
I think artists do need to do work with no contract, because what we're motivated by is not money. We're motivated by a need to express ourselves and to get our ideas out.
Nina Paley
Estimates vary, but it's said that 98 percent of all culture is unavailable right now because of copyrights.
Nina Paley
Audiences want to support artists. Which is pretty much how it's always been except during the last 100 years where it's turned into this really vicious, cutthroat, nasty business with all these blood-thirsty, parasitic middle-men.
Nina Paley
Making more of a thing That is what we call copying Sharing ideas with everyone That's why copying... ...Is fun!
Nina Paley
Copying is not theft Stealing a thing leaves one less left Copying it makes one thing more That's what copying's for.
Nina Paley
You don't deserve to be paid because you choose to do something that somebody else may, or may not, want.
Nina Paley
Bad bad people can use our shared Language and Technology for evil too, but I'm not going to constipate culture out of fear of imaginary worst-case scenarios. I'm confident much more good will come from this than bad, and that's motivation enough for me.
Nina Paley
In ten years I think the [copyright] laws are going to be worse and I also think they are going to be less relevant. I mean, already the difference between the laws and people's behaviour, It's like they're different planets.
Nina Paley
I don't think distributors are cheating or evil or anything like that, I just think that the business model is unsustainable so they truly don't have money.
Nina Paley
Copyright law as it is, it's just completely out of touch with human behaviour. (Nina Paley)
I have a lot of doubts about following my muse when my muse leads me down some weird path. Again, like quilts. But I also know that if I do something just because I know people will approve of that, that's not really going to help me as an artist.
Nina Paley
Yes, I know bad bad people can also use the .fla files for dastardly deeds (the dreaded hypothetical "Nazi Porn Version” that always comes up at Q&A's). Bad bad people can use our shared Language and Technology for evil too, but I'm not going to constipate culture out of fear of imaginary worst-case scenarios. I'm confident much more good will come from this than bad, and that's motivation enough for me. It's Free Culture, baby. If programmers can tinker with the Free Software's source code, artists can tinker with Sita Sings the Blues‘ source files.
Nina Paley
You don't deserve to be paid because you choose to do something that somebody else may, or may not, want. If you want to be paid for your work, you negotiate that beforehand. Otherwise I would just be walking around talking. Here I am talking now. "You owe me money", right? ... It's up to you whether or not you want to do work with no contract. I think artists do need to do work with no contract, because what we're motivated by is not money. We're motivated by a need to express ourselves and to get our ideas out. That's the motivation. It turns out that when people like it they frequently will support you if you give them a means, but this is not a contract.
Nina Paley