there’s an ancient chinese saying that goes: “locks prevent honorable people, but not scoundrels.” most people are honorable and won’t actively try to put an artists’ work through AI when they say not to / make it harder to, but AI grifters will do everything they can to steal from and hurt artists. the AI mantra may be “it’s too inevitable,” “it’s too late,” “there’s nothing you can do about it” - but in reality, every day, you can choose to try to hurt others or not. finding happiness in life is hard for everyone and I hope you’ll choose to contribute to someone’s joy instead of their pain. I promise it’ll bring you more joy that way. merry christmas