* Nina Paley

http://sitasingstheblues.com/

http://sedermasochism.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO9FKQAxWZc (TEDx Maastricht talk: "Copyright Is Brain Damage")

Nina Paley is a popular and wildly creative artist who, both directly and through her art, makes a passionate and eloquent argument against copyright restrictions.  She releases all of her works under free (libre) licenses and tells her audience why she does so.

Nina takes care to conspicuously demonstrate how audiences can support artists without taking part in a monopoly system, and she gives generously of her time and attention in order to help other artists, producers, and venues learn how they can operate, as she does, in cooperation with their audiences.

Nina has followed this path persistently for a decade now, enduring a surprising amount of vitriol and even threats, all the while continuing to develop as an artist and put out brilliant new work.

There are naturally some artists who push back against Nina's message, usually because they earn money from monopoly-channel sales, e.g., per-copy royalties and prohibiting audiences from sharing.  One of the things I've been most impressed with about Nina is how she responds cheerfully, with reasoned argument, even when her interlocutors make personal attacks or accuse her of holding positions she does not hold (which happens fairly often).

* Floyd Webb

https://blackworldcinema.net/

http://bwcTV.tv

http://space-race.net/

I live in Chicago, as does Floyd Webb.  The degree of racial segregation in this city, in 2018, would shock most outsiders -- certainly it shocks people from other countries, but it's even surprising to people from elsewhere in America.  Floyd Webb is among the people in Chicago doing the most to show the people on the whiter, wealthier side of that line how much really good art and culture they never get exposed to because distribution channels are in many ways segregated too.  His Black World Cinema screenings and events are attended by people from all over the city -- people of all classes, races, accents, educational background -- who are brought together by an appreciation for experiencing good art that would not have otherwise found its way to them.

When Floyd Webb finds a hitherto-hidden gem of Black cinema -- which he frequently does, because he's constantly scouting back catalogs, archives, estate sales, etc -- his first instinct is to share it, to clear the rights and get it the exposure it deserves.  He does not try to monopolize what he finds.  He sees his role as a vessel, not as a rent-seeking middleman.

Floyd is himself a talented filmmaker, and, by necessity, one who makes good things happen within tight budgets.  Despite having to constantly negotiate with producers and deal with financing issues (as most filmmakers do), Floyd was immediately and intensely interested when he first heard about copyright-free, audience-based distribution models and started exploring how he could release his future films under that model.  He has talked with Nina Paley (a filmmaker who distributes all her work using that model) about it, and he has also presented the idea to his producers, who are so far at least willing to consider it.  Floyd understands the connection between the exposure he wants for the historical and neglected films he digs up and getting the same kind of exposure for his own films.  He is very social and is well-known in Chicago filmmaking circles; his championship of this method of distribution -- and, assuming he and his producers reach agreement, his demonstration of it with one of his own upcoming films --  will have an effect on a lot of other people, who will start to realize they could do the same thing.

Floyd is working right now on http://space-race.net/, a documentary about two black astronauts who were initiallly part of NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s but who never made it into space.  Floyd writes: "I am particularly worried about getting an interview with Edward Dwight, Jr, one of the first African American astronaut candidates for what is now NASA, he is 85, and a living witness to the 1960s NASA in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement."