Why Was Donald Trump the Best President Ever?
By: Tessa Schlesinger
Tags: Payments, Copyright, Writing, Business, Quora

Why Was Donald Trump the Best President Ever?

Somebody asked the question on Quora. So I answered it. And now Quora tells me that they can use my content wherever they like without my permission and without payment. Tessa Schlesinger Dec 15, 2020·5 min read

By using my content in any way they like, Quora has effectively removed my copyright. Fair Use. Own artwork.

Every now and then (about once a year) I go answer a few question on Quora for a week or two. I was vastly put off, though, when I was approached by Quora ownership contacting me asking me if they could republish one of my responses elsewhere — without payment. I said no. They then said I could set my settings so that my responses wouldn’t be reproduced. That was about a year ago. I’ve just received their new terms and conditions. In it, they indicate that they now have permission to use our responses for any of their publications, royalty free, for any purpose whatsoever, without asking.

They can sell our work, use it for advertising, change it, and a lot more. Effectively, they are removing all the protections that copyright supplies.

So I’m going to delete all my answers and close my account. It’s not as if I earn anything from them. I did, however, think I would publish the answers for which I received the most response. For this response, to date, I have received 175K reads in three weeks, with 6.K 24, 408 shares, and 428 comments for this particular piece.

Here it is.

Donald Trump Balloon in London made to show him the displeasure of the Brits. Fair use.

Donald Trump is the best president that the USA ever had because:

He managed to prove to the world — single handedly — what most had only guessed at for decades — that America had a large number of stupid, ugly, ignorant people. He was able to destroy what America had built up in centuries in a mere four years — a reputation for democracy. That takes some doing — true greatness. He got away with lying 20,000 times in four years, and he managed to convince 71 million people that he was honest. That is a quite remarkable achievement. You have to hand it to him. He knows how to lie with equanimity. He single handedly destroyed all trust in the USA. The USA has no more friends. He changed the balance of power so that the west now prefers to look to China for trade rather than the USA. He was the first American president to lay a thorough foundation for future dictatorship in the USA. He is responsible for establishing a Nazi like resistance to human decency. It takes an incredible president to openly do that. He was able to convince millions of Americans that the virus was not serious in spite of it being highly dangerous. He even admitted to a journalist in January that he knew it was dangerous, but he wasn’t going to tell people that because he didn’t want to worry them. It takes absolute greatness to be that convincing to 71 million people when the evidence to the contrary is right in front of them. A remarkable achievement. He convinced his supporters that he is a business supremo when, in fact, he owes so much money that he is probably bankrupt. He got away with not showing his tax forms (obviously because, as we now know, he lied and cheated on them), and it’s quite remarkable that he did so. In spite of laws against nepotism, he got away with appointing relatives to the White House. It definitely takes an amazing president to commit so many crimes in front of everybody and get away with it. Politicians aren’t generally honest people, but Trump is in a category of his own. Make no mistake that Donald Trump will be remembered as the best president the USA ever had — the best conman, the best liar, the best stable genius, the best peroxide blond, the best obese man, the best ever at playing golf when the country was burning. You tell me who else set records like this. Absolutely nobody. Not even close.

So, yes, Donald J Trump is definitely the best president that America has ever had, and his touch on people’s lives (and deaths) will be remembered for a very long time to come.

The Effective Theft of Copyright by Quora

This is what the new licencing agreement says.

“By submitting, posting, or displaying Your Content on the Quora Platform, you grant Quora and its affiliated companies a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid up, transferable, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), license to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, create derivative works from, publish, transmit, store, display and distribute, translate, communicate and make available to the public, and otherwise use Your Content in connection with the operation or use of the Quora Platform or the promotion, advertising or marketing of the Quora Platform or our business partners, in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed), including via means of automated distribution, such as through an application programming interface (also known as an “API”). You agree that this license includes the right for Quora to make Your Content available to other companies, organizations, business partners, or individuals who collaborate with Quora for the syndication, broadcast, communication and making available to the public, distribution or publication of Your Content on the Quora Platform or through other media or distribution methods.”

There is absolutely no point in my having copyright to the piece when they have effectively taken control of the piece I wrote. This effectively means they now have my copyright. Quora is not the only platform that does this. In their licence, they also give everybody else permission to use my piece — provided I have labeled it not for reproduction. What an absolute gall. The power of large corporations is unbelieveable. Nobody is going to sue them, of course. And most people won’t bother to read the licence.

It’s going to take me a while to remove everything from Quora, and after some thought, I will simply remove the pieces that have garnered many views initially, and then I will gradually remove the rest, and close the account.

Does Quora Send me Traffic to Other Platforms?

Maybe once or twice a year, I will note that Quora has sent me three or four readers. It really isn’t worth the effort put into it, and I do it for fun more than anything else. At this point, if they’re going to use my copy for their profit, and I’m a starving writer with little income, I have every right to be angry.

I think you should be, too.

What say you?