• Sarah, a travel photographer with 80K followers, discovers her Santorini sunset in a Mercedes ad and gets paid exactly zero because the “I Accept” click granted Instagram a sweeping license to host, use, modify, display, create derivatives, transfer, and sub‑license her content globally, which is spelled out in the Instagram Terms of Use.

• Platforms justify this as progress: hand over rights and data now and prosperity will “trickle down” later if creators clear monetization gates and policy hurdles, as the YouTube Partner Program overview and earnings rules make clear.

• The creator economy grew into the hundreds of billions, but value concentrates at the platform/infra layer via data moats, distribution control, and rights centralization while creators absorb production and discovery risk, a pattern captured in reporting like the New York Times’ look at Instagram’s pivot and creator fallout (feature).

• Major platforms reserve broad licenses so uploads can be repurposed downstream without fresh negotiations, which is visible in the Instagram Terms.

• AI training is the new extraction layer: user content feeds models under “service improvement,” enabling style replication without direct compensation, as explained in Scientific American’s analysis of data used to train generative models (overview).

• Access is gated: 1,000 subscribers + 4,000 watch hours + policy compliance + AdSense linkage before ad share, per the Partner Program.

• “55/45” split applies only to eligible ad revenue on qualifying content: Platforms still keep 100% of the audience graph, data profiling, algorithmic control, and non‑ad value, as the earnings overview clarifies.

• Doc Searls describes these one‑sided clickwraps as “contracts of adhesion”: accept everything or don’t participate, which normalizes non‑negotiable terms at internet scale (essay; background interview).

• Arbitration and jurisdiction friction: Make disputing payouts or rights expensive for individuals (AAA rules).

• The “creator tax stack” is simple: platform cuts on eligible revenue + policy gates + data/AI capture + discovery volatility as formats pivot to suit platform priorities, which photo‑led and SMB creators experienced during Instagram’s video pivot (NYT feature).

• Programmable rights at mint: encode display vs. commercial use, remix rev‑share, time‑bound licenses, and “no AI training,” as demonstrated in the 0x × Zora case study.

• Sovereign social at the protocol layer: own account and graph, switch clients without losing followers, and transact value peer‑to‑peer, per the Farcaster docs.

• True: Farcaster’s DAU is in the five figures, not mass‑market—but that’s ideal for high‑intent conversion/community (see a representative Dune usage panel: Farcaster activity).

• Use a practical qDAU proxy: Clean accounts that clear spam heuristics, appear on OpenRank/Rewards leaderboards, or hold Farcaster Pro; prospect directly by FID (see OpenRank leaderboards, Rewards winners board, and Farcaster Pro discussion).

• Audit risk/rights and note where AI training/sublicensing is permitted (Instagram Terms).

• Ship one programmable asset with “display OK, commercial by request, AI training prohibited” (0x × Zora).

• Announce the “home base” and pin email + Paragraph + Farcaster (Farcaster docs).

• Launch one membership ($9) and a single sponsor slot; expand to $3/$18 after 30‑day retention read.

• Gate for quality by default (OpenRank > 0.5/0.7, Pro perks, Rewards prospecting) (OpenRank; Rewards board).

• Track onchain capture rate, MRR by tier, D30/D60 retention, Farcaster follower quality (OpenRank/Pro share), and list growth; deprioritize any channel with <10% discovery or <5% revenue for two months.

• Defaults beat lectures: make ownership feel like normal internet UX.

• Don’t pretend Farcaster is mass media yet: It’s the right middle‑/bottom‑funnel for 1,000 True Fans.

• Programmable rights work: When culture and tooling honor them—encode, then package simply.

• Why it matters: rented distribution is unstable and expensive; portability makes experiments cheap, reversals painless, and compounding possible again for creators.

• Payments: fast/cheap rails make micro‑support and global members viable.

• Distribution: the social graph is portable by default. (Farcaster docs)

• Rights: assets carry own licenses and revenue splits onchain (0x × Zora case study).

• First moves: claim Farcaster as the “home base,” keep email/newsletter active, and publish at least one onchain, permissioned asset with explicit “display OK, commercial by request, AI training prohibited” defaults (Farcaster docs, Zora overview).

• Contract reality: broad, transferable, sub‑licensable licenses are standard; revenue sharing is gated and narrow compared to the overall value captured (see Instagram Terms of Use, YouTube Partner Program, and YouTube earnings overview).

• New extraction layer: creator content trains models without direct compensation under “service improvement” policies (Scientific American).

• Ownership playbook: mint with programmable permissions and onchain royalties; route premium content, community, and payments to protocol social and email; start with a single $9 membership tier before adding $3 and $18 and one sponsor slot (0x × Zora, Farcaster docs).

• Important caveat (steelman): Farcaster is a high‑intent conversion/community layer today, not mass top‑of‑funnel—prospect quality via

• Rent‑free era is practical now: creators can own identity, audience, and economics by splitting discovery on rented surfaces and value capture on owned rails anchored by portable identity and programmable rights (Farcaster docs, 0x × Zora case study).

• Biggest unlock is “permissions at the asset” and “portability at the account”: set the rules once at mint and move the audience once at the protocol layer, then let formats, clients, and marketplaces compose around those foundations (Instagram Terms of Use, Scientific American on AI training).

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