Comments on Here's Me Using the Word Blog in a Sentence: A Pirate's Dare

The same thing happened to me, so I feel your pain...

2010-11-18T00:45:18.942-05:00

The same thing happened to me, so I feel your pain! UGH!

I'd double-check every few months that it hasn't been re-downloaded.

Late to the party... this issue makes me physicall...

2010-09-21T14:46:44.630-04:00

Late to the party... this issue makes me physically ill. I've seen download numbers for my book in the 10s of thousands. I like to tell myself this is because people think they're downloading a tv show with a similar name.

The biggest problem is that to address piracy is to spotlight it and educate a whole new generation of pirates that there is such a thing out there.

It really, really, hurts my soul if I think about it too hard.

Anon-- I love libraries. I do a lot of free event...

2010-09-07T18:53:31.047-04:00

Anon--

I love libraries. I do a lot of free events for them and I serve on the board of my local one as a trustee.

I'm confused by your question. Are you asking if illegal downloading is like a library? It is not. Libraries buy copies and circulate them and they are legally allowed to do this, and in some cases, libraries stock additional contracted books set out in the publisher's contract. In the UK, each library loan earns the author a royalty, too. Isn't that cool?
I'm not really sure you're actually asking me something here. But if you're trying to say that illegal piracy, which brings high fines if prosecuted and an established library system, which is not in any way illegal are the same thing, you're incorrect.

As for how it pays my expenses--I'm lost. What does that have to do with anything? I love when readers find my books at libraries. I donate many books *to* libraries so my readers can read them. Do you think this is all about money?

I've got a question! how do you make money if...

2010-09-07T18:21:23.865-04:00

I've got a question!

how do you make money if gotten from the library. Yes, you make for that ONE book brought by the library but when tons of people borrow it after wards you don't so then what? How does that help pay for your expenses? It doesn't. Please make me understand.

A-ha! You have discovered my little secret! Of c...

2010-09-07T08:09:23.081-04:00

A-ha! You have discovered my little secret! Of course Del Boy would be out shamelessly downloading everything he could, if only he could work the computer...

No need to apologise for not knowing the full ramifications of copyright, there are plenty of lawyers out there in full time work dealing with the small print. You just need to know we all - writers and readers alike - need to defend it, which you're doing really well - many thanks.

Sarah, Thanks for clearing that up. I knew that P...

2010-09-07T07:20:54.064-04:00

Sarah,

Thanks for clearing that up. I knew that PD existed before illegal downloading did, but I'd be lying if I said I understood that part of law. We can't all know everything can we? Which is why I focused this post on what I do know. Thank you for bringing it back on subject.
Stealing is stealing.

But STOP!!! You're Rodney's girlfriend from Only Fools and Horses! Mr. King is going to freak out when I tell him that. He loved that show. When he's being especially cheap or scheming, I call him Del Boy.

Material is either in public domain or it isn'...

2010-09-07T03:50:09.454-04:00

Material is either in public domain or it isn't - the download aspect is irrelevant. Wicked wasn't written because of the availability of downloads.

Writers have always used characters from other novels, eg Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, written long before computers were even thought of.

Amy is talking about illegal downloading of work still in copyright. AKA theft.

April-- Believe me. I'm sitting here with a t...

2010-09-06T14:37:57.144-04:00

April--

Believe me. I'm sitting here with a toddler crawling up one leg and a list of things to do a mile long! I do not like debates and I didn't want to get into one.
I was kinda surprised at how harsh your tweets were about that comment I made because I watched my wording and your version didn't quite match, but hey, I guess I hit some sort of nerve and that's fine with me.

I totally get now where you are coming from. Having heard Gregory Maguire speak last year, and being a good friend of more than one author who has reanimated characters from the PD, I totally get you now.

This is why I asked! I'm not a finger pointer by nature. Rather, I'd like to know where the other side is coming from. That's all.

Thanks for answering!

April-- Believe me. I'm sitting here with a t...

2010-09-06T14:36:29.537-04:00

April--

Believe me. I'm sitting here with a toddler crawling up one leg and a list of things to do a mile long! I do not like debates and I didn't want to get into one.
I was kinda surprised at how harsh your tweets were about that comment I made because I watched my wording and your version didn't quite match, but hey, I guess I hit some sort of nerve and that's fine with me.

I totally get now where you are coming from. Having heard Gregory McGuire speak last year, and being a good friend of more than one author who has reanimated characters from the PD, I totally get you now.

This is why I asked! I'm not a finger pointer by nature. Rather, I'd like to know where the other side is coming from. That's all.

Thanks for answering!

I think that your purchase does help to preserve c...

2010-09-06T14:24:44.542-04:00

I think that your purchase does help to preserve cultural heritage. Although, I think with classics the difference between what is in the store and Project Gutenberg is the foreward, and also translation. Like, I would totally buy a good Dumas translation.
However, I do think PD is advantageous. I mean, without PD would we have the wonderful musical Wicked? Would we have that new Jane Eyre retelling, Jane by April Lindner? I think PD is great because of these new, creative takes.

I won't lie, I am a terrible, terrible debater. I think this website says it better than me:
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/whyitmatters

I do realize that authors do not make a lot of money, hence why I purchase new as much as I financially can. I mean, I want authors to keep creating. However, when they can inspire a great new take on an old tale because of PD, I consider that a great thing. I mean, I like that Robin McKinley can retell the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty in Spindle's End because of PD. I like that the retellings in the Once Upon A Time series exist. I like that there is a place for tales such as Wide Sargasso Sea.

As said, I really suck at this whole debate thing. However, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question.

Oh. April. I just saw your tweets and see you real...

2010-09-06T14:08:45.052-04:00

Oh. April. I just saw your tweets and see you really got riled up about that thinking I was "complaining" about public domain.

I really wasn't. I know to word my posts carefully and I tend to read carefully, too. I see that you think public domain is a huge plus for our cultural heritage.

I need to understand that better. I mean, I just bought three classics at a bookstore. They cost me money and I will FINALLY read Wuthering Heights. (I know. I know. I should have read it a long time ago!) So, I am aware that I could have downloaded that book for free.

What I can't understand is how my purchase isn't preserving cultural heritage and the free download is?

Or am I looking at it all wrong?

I'll tell you why I said "I'm not all...

2010-09-06T13:20:44.793-04:00

I'll tell you why I said "I'm not all that happy about" public domain, April. It's because it makes me very aware that I don't know how long my own rights to my own work will last.

If you know anything about authors like me, you know we don't make a ton of dough. So, when I serve my kids soup for dinner now and then, I daydream of a day that my royalties might help them (or their kids) serve their kids more than soup for dinner...long after I'm dead.

I know--a strange daydream. But it's true, no matter how crazy it may make me seem. I do this for my kids.
So, when it comes to public domain, it's one of those things I haven't really made my mind up about. Which is why I worded it the way I did. ("not all that happy about" vs. "I dislike" or "I'm against") I think the reason it makes me uncomfortable is that I occasionally see articles about long-dead authors' families fighting to get their royalty rights back. I guess I can't figure out why they ever lost those rights. I do not want my descendants to lose their rights, either.

Does that make sense?

I do agree that pirating books is terrible, howeve...

2010-09-06T12:36:46.435-04:00

I do agree that pirating books is terrible, however I have downloaded books in public domain, such as Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Books which are perfectly legal to download. I see a world of different between pirating books in which copyrights are still held and legally downloading books where the copyright has run out from a site like Project Gutenberg. So, I am sort of wondering why you don't like public domain, as mentioned in the first paragraph? I mean, I do agree with this entire rant and purchase upwards of $1000 worth of books per year (probs spent 500 alone on books over the summer) and have never pirated a book. So please don't think I am asking from a pirate perspective, I am merely asking from the perspective of someone who supports public domain for the classics.

Liz--are you quoting that from somewhere (did I mi...

2010-09-06T11:21:10.848-04:00

Liz--are you quoting that from somewhere (did I miss that comment?) or is that your version of the mentality we're up against? :)

Seriously. My annual income is so low I probably qualify for government programs. And anyone who knows my publication story knows I'm not in it for the money. So far, any argument I hear is simply another person trying to reason themselves into more stealing. :)

But to make this clearer for those who:
Didn't really get this post and think I am actually daring people to steal books.
Don't really get how this affects writers' wallets because they don't know much about publishing...

Here's an analogy I just thought up to a "normal" job:
Let's say your weekly gross pay is $300. All those payroll taxes come out of that. You say, "Cool. I know where that money is going." It hurts to look at it at first (my teenage friend has recently seen a chunk of her summer paychecks get eaten by taxes--remember that feeling?) Then maybe you've got a job that offers benefits (lucky you!) and you have to pay into them. So there's some more money subtracted. You say, "Cool. I know where that money is going."

Now--imagine that in a year, anywhere from $2000 to $20,000 just disappeared from your paycheck. And the only explanation for it was: Someone took this because they wanted it.

How would that feel?

Imagine they bragged about this on Facebook. "Hey! I got some of this person's paycheck! Look!" Imagine they publicly posted the method with which they stole that money on the internet and each person who used it after them posted "Thanks! That was easy!" underneath those instructions. And you couldn't do a damn thing about it even though this is obviously wrong. And imagine people who promoted this sort of theft came out of the woodwork saying, "Oh come on! This was money you were never going to see anyway, so why even count on it as being earned money?" and other bizarro nonsensical arguments like that.

Oh. And imagine the future of your job rested on how much other people used those online instructions, no matter how hard you'd been working.

Does that help?

Over the past year or so I've become increasin...

2010-09-06T10:59:51.491-04:00

Over the past year or so I've become increasingly frustrated and angry about this issue. Such a culture of entitlement has developed around digital works that so many people think nothing of downloading movies, books and music for free. Eventually, if this isn't thwarted, there'll be many less movies, books and music created. Most people, no matter how much they love the art they work at, can't afford to do it for free.

Thanks for shining a spotlight on the problem Amy.

I didn't realize this was such an issue, but I...

2010-09-06T10:26:15.321-04:00

I didn't realize this was such an issue, but I completely support the authors. It's appalling to be stealing someone's work. I agree, Theft is Theft!

"but I want it so I should have it! and write...

2010-09-06T10:11:38.384-04:00

"but I want it so I should have it! and writers just want people to read their books, right! I'm a HUGE fan and you should be so happy and thankful that I like your books! I cannot believe you're in it for the money."

sigh. excellent post, but I doubt the "I'm entitled, so what" mentality will easily go away.

Clap, clap, clap .... theft is theft no matter the...

2010-09-06T09:37:27.758-04:00

Clap, clap, clap .... theft is theft no matter the medium.

Whoa! That is crazy! People can request books fr...

2010-09-06T07:56:47.718-04:00

Whoa! That is crazy!

People can request books from the library for them to buy, join book swap groups, etc. My sisters book club is made up of housewives who all don't have a lot of money. They share the books they buy.

It costs me 50p to request a book from the library and then I'm 1st on the list to enjoy it. My library has bought every single book I've ever requested. I then in turn donate books every 2 months (about 20+) that I receive free for review, or books I bought to the library to help cover the costs they spent in buying the book I wanted. It is a win win for the community.

Thank for all these comments! David-- It's a ...

2010-09-05T20:14:25.538-04:00

Thank for all these comments!

David--
It's a little weird that we're communicating but your posts aren't actually showing up here. I can only hope that they'll show up at some point if you mean for them to. (And if you want, I can always post them for you so others can join into this conversation. I have both posts in email.)

But your "copying isn't stealing" argument is an old one. *shrug* We'll never agree on that. When I loan my books, I expect my friends to give them back to me. I have good friends. They usually do! And no--I don't loan my books to strangers.

And you're right--I'm most annoyed (and I think that's pretty clear from my post) that file sharing sites like these exist, because we all know they are used mostly for this sharing of stolen goods.

Comparing stealing a digital book to a real book is not all that "out there" when you look at who makes the money off the book. It's my "job" and I think I deserve pay for my job. And when someone steals a book from me, I get no royalty.

I'm not sure how much you know about publishing. I was originally a photographer, so I totally understand your example of a photograph for personal use vs. a photograph for commercial use. I get that. But photography isn't usually paid on a royalty rate, is it? From what I remember, even stock images were a paid-for-use setup, yes? At least the ones I sold were.

But I agree 100% with this: "This is just one of the pitfalls of being a creator working in a medium that can be digitized."

I agree. And I'm not fighting anyone. I just wrote one little blog because I was thinking about it yesterday morning--funnily enough on Labor Day weekend.

The rest we'll just have to agree to disagree. Obviously I wrote this post to make a very clear and simple comparison between stealing digital material and stealing real material. See, to me, as the person who made that material I should make a royalty off that product no matter what the medium. It is the only way I make money doing what I do. So when you steal a book, no matter the medium, I lose money.
I don't care if you don't read it.
I don't care if you are calling it a "sample."
I don't care if you think that copying isn't stealing.
I certainly don't even get what I call 'the glutton argument' about people who download it not because they want it, but because they want to download it out of some weird need to download things they don't want. (i.e. you can't say you're losing money because who knows if they would have bought it?) That's "out there."
My wallet feels all that thievery, no matter how much you want to dilute the argument...which certainly is a convenient argument to enable more stealing.

people are such selfish little pigs. this modern d...

2010-09-05T19:00:34.306-04:00

people are such selfish little pigs. this modern day and age nobody wants to own up to what they do. "but... but..." is their excuse as a child, and nobody ever tells them different, so they 'grow up' (ha..) and say the same thing as an adult.

i wish i could personally slap every single person who ever stole! it makes me physically angry and my blood boil. they have no right to just rip opportunities away from you and your family!

"And it's not only digitized versions bei...

2010-09-05T17:30:02.750-04:00

"And it's not only digitized versions being stolen. As you mentioned, they scan actual books and post those. Hard to put something like DRM on a real-life book."

Which is why DRM is a bad idea. It stops you using a book you've legitimately bought in a perfectly legal manner. So if you want to use it on, say, a linux system, a pirate copy works better than a legit one. I'm not condoning it, just saying DRM is self-defeating.

Amusing aside: when an encryption tool called PGP was originally released it was banned from export from the US because it was "military strength" and classed as a weapon. So the author produced a good old fashioned book that was designed to be scanned - loose pages and an easily recognisable font for a computer. Books can't be banned from export under US free speech laws, so people could buy it, scan the source code and build the program.

Although I'm not published yet, this really bo...

2010-09-05T15:59:20.313-04:00

Although I'm not published yet, this really bothers me.

What bothers me more is the direction some people are taking this: that all information/writing etc. should be FREE, that no one should have to pay for it anymore. There are those trying to get that made into law in various countries in the world.

If that happens, I have to wonder just how many people will continue putting quality stuff out there. We're supposed to do it for the love? If that's so, then why do I bother sharing it? I can do it for the love and just keep it in a desk drawer to read when I want to.

Sorry. This whole idea just twigs a nerve.

And it's not only digitized versions being stolen. As you mentioned, they scan actual books and post those. Hard to put something like DRM on a real-life book.

Thanks for this post. I'm going to retweet it. People who think that piracy is okay need to be slapped in jail. Or slapped out of jail. But slapped, anyway, and not just on the wrist.

I have had conversations with people about copyrig...

2010-09-05T15:44:48.349-04:00

I have had conversations with people about copyright until I'm blue in the face - and yep, I too have heard every freaking excuse there is.

Recently I heard someone say, "We wouldn't download NZ movies or books."
I replied, "Steal, you steal them."
"No they're free, the sites say they are free."
"Who owns the copyright?"
"Someone's filmed the movies in a theater, there is none."
After attempting to explain the stupidity of the person who thought that meant it was FREE...I lost the plot ended up swearing like a sailor and leaving.

Fucktards the lot of them!

You rock Amy!

Awesome post. I do wonder if anyone will have the...

2010-09-05T14:36:19.271-04:00

Awesome post. I do wonder if anyone will have the guts to take you up on the dare, though...