I’m a copyright radical, like most younger people. I wasn’t born that way, but Napster, and the war on Napster and filesharing helped shape my vision of what people need to do to remain free.
As most TED talks are, this is an amazing video on how to understand culture and arguments against copyright/SOPA. Youth consume and create content online, and childhood is now criminalized and forced underground, which radicalizes people both for and against the law. I’ll freely admit I take a radical view of copyright now to work around it when possible, and help balance the situation by leading others away from the boxes they are put into by companies like MPAA and Viacom. This doesn’t mean I take whole DVDs and make perfect copies to try and sell for a profit, it means I will use photos or video available online, put a funny caption inside it, and share that new article. And I download TV, and have for more than a decade before most people knew it was technically possible. Now most people take it for granted that they can PVRecord shows, or find them on The Pirate Bay.
Hey look, it’s a Creative Commons photo, coupled with a newsworthy image of Lt. Pike! With amusing caption and credit to those who provided the original works.
I’m a published author with three books out now and a fourth coming this October. I know that within hours of the electronic release of my book this fall, it will be available on numerous sites with illegal copies of my book, free for the world to download.
The irony, of course, is that authors aren’t exactly swimmingly rich. It’s not like I have millions in the bank like a big name band or pop star and so anyone who downloads a copy of my book (or any author’s book) is stealing from someone who has a day job still (most of us do) and who write and revise and redraft and write again for up to three years before the book actually gets published. Were you to look at a royalty statement and do the math, we’re really making peanuts for all our efforts. And at the heart of the matter, it’s stealing, plain and simple. You didn’t pay for it, you stole it.
So, I’m not stupid enough to realize that any legislation in this galaxy can stop e-piracy, but I would like to be paid for my labours. It’s not too much to ask, is it?
And legislation isn’t the answer, there are already laws against it. Is enforcement of “trespassers” the answer? Your own “common sense” of what is expected signifies the clear answer: no. “E-piracy” as you call it, is simply the level playing field that creators must expect now. Yes, it may mean fewer professional artists, but it means millions more amateur artists. The “BMI” example is rising, and if you can catch that wave, you may find there is a way to make more peanuts, without fretting over the e-product shared.
For instance, you’re making use of e-sharing technology that would not exist if SOPA passed. WordPress would not exist as it does now. Web 2.0 would still be just the WWW (not exactly interactive), and you’d have one less means of promoting your work to paying customers.
http://sean-cummings.ca/
If copyright and libel law maximalists had their way, posting hyperlinks would be a crime.
I get that – but help me understand what gives you or anyone to steal my book?
I would never walk out of a store with your book, without having paid for it, and I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to either. It’s also unlikely that I’d ever buy your book too. However, if a free copy of it were available online, I’d be inclined to download it, and then possibly read it, much as I might do at a library. Finding it to be inspiring, I’d make a note of telling other people about you, and they may be people who buy books, or attend your speaking tours.
Making digital copies, and not reselling a copy is not theft, it’s at worst copyright infringement. Copyright is intended to encourage the creation of culture, and original artwork, literature, and music/movies. It’s not intended to prevent people from sharing these things, for the prevention of sharing, works against the creation of culture.
No, actually it’s theft. You might not have posted it there, but you made a conscious choice to download it when you could have easily bought it. If you wish to share my book or another author’s book, then go buy it – it’s as simple as that. Let me break it down for you further:
Even if only a fraction of the downloads from websites allowing illegal downloading of books represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors.
Making a digital copy of something I or any author has written
essentially reduces the concept of being an author to that of a content
provider. I don’t write content, I write books. There’s a big difference
between the two. I’m always amused when people try to defend illegal
downloading because they never address the fundamental question:
what gives anyone the right to steal something that I earn a living
from? So I’ll ask one last question and leave you along: given that
authors basically make dirt money to begin with and most books don’t
even earn out their advance on royalties, do you think that illegal
downloading of books is right?
Did you even watch the TED video? It explains what you’re talking about, and why you’re having a hard time grasping my position that sharing is not theft in your traditional line of thought that doesn’t consider advances in technology and common sense.
If my blog were copyrighted, (rather than just released Creative Commons) according to your line of thinking you’d be stealing a copy of it anytime you load the page because your computer is storing and displaying a digital copy for your use. Common sense dictates that this definition of “theft” isn’t legitimate even though it once was.
We’re at the critical juncture of common sense adjusting, and values and business models changing with it. Some art forms we’re familiar with may become the realm of amateurs, if professional livings cannot be earned in the new marketplace of digital sharing. To blame individuals makes no more sense than assembly line workers cursing individual machines that replace them.
Do I think that downloading books that I have not paid for is right? Yes, I do, it’s common sense that it’s fine, just like downloading music, TVs, movies, and websites. Do I wonder what will happen to authors and other professional creators? Sure, but I’m also looking forward to seeing what will rise in their place if they fail to capitalize on digital sharing.
Do you count your book borrowed at libraries as multiples of lost income as well? You must, by your thinking that every download equals a lost sale. Studies into downloaded music indicate that’s not the case. Downloading promotes musicians, and gives them a wider following upon which to sell products and services to.
Yeah, I watched the video. Look, I don’t care what happens to my book once it is bought. You want to share it, knock yourself out. BUT.. if you go to a site that you know full well is distributing illegal copies of my book and you choose to download it, then you’re stealing the book – it’s as simple as that. As for your stoic defense of your position which is essentially wrong, it’s the same arguments, interestingly found in the book and blog “Stuff White People Like.” It’s a great book about hypocrisy – here’s the link to the blog posting, enjoy! http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/30/93-music-piracy/
It’s not that simple, obviously, or you wouldn’t find this discussion all over the Web, and healthy file sharing sites everywhere too that spawn political parties the world over. You also wouldn’t see the #TwitterBlackout, or Internet Blackout of last week, if there weren’t millions of people who disagree with your assessment. The old sense you have comes from equating paper books with digital copies. Digital copies are more like memories stored in minds, than they are like physical papers bound together. Common sense realizes that you can’t own ideas or memories.