Sharing or Piracy?
Every day, I do a quick sweep of the Internet to check for new web pages offering my work for free. Every week I set in train a few more page-takedowns. On one occasion, someone was even offering my novel before it was published, free to download on a torrent site. (They must have got hold of an advance review copy.)
‘Piracy’ - that is what I would call it. But I am aware that those who partake of copyright material in this way often perceive it as ‘sharing’.
One of the sites that pirated my work was called oceanofPDF. It has recently been taken down, sparking a fierce online debate. Perhaps shouting match would be a more accurate term. As with so many political issues these days, there is sharp division and few people seem to be listening to the other side.
The unusual thing about OceanofPDF was that it had a kind of mission statement, presenting what it was doing as a virtue. Its main claim was to be offering books for free download to people in parts of the world where they were excessively expensive or not available, to people too poor to afford to buy. It even addressed the authors to some extent, encouraging readers to review the books as a way of paying something back.
I still had the pages that were offering my work taken down.
In the aftermath of the death of OceanofPDF, users of the site have been angrily lashing out at authors, calling us elitist, wishing we rot in hell, saying they will hunt us down and kill us. (Yes, really.)
This is an issue I have kept quiet about for a long time. But with that kind of language being used, I feel that I do now need to speak up.
1) Almost all authors can’t support themselves through their writing. That means we take on other jobs. Which means less time writing, and thus, fewer books. Far from being a wealthy elite, most professional authors struggle to make ends meet.
2) It is argued by some that stopping piracy is impossible, therefore we should not try. If this is really true, they should not mind OceanofPDF being taken down. There will be no end of other piracy sources.
3) It is argued by others that piracy actually helps authors by getting the word out about their work. It is free advertising. Neil Gaiman has said words to this effect. There are plenty of counter-arguments to this. But we don’t need to explore them here.
For authors who wish to avail themselves of this free advertising opportunity, there is a legal route. We can simply release our books with a creative commons license, allowing them to be freely shared. Indeed, many people do exactly this. There is a wealth of free books legally available online. But if an author has not released their work in this way, it’s a pretty good bet that they don’t agree with the free publicity argument.
4) It is also argued that none of the people illegally downloading would have bought the book, so there is no loss of earnings. And on the other side of the argument, people state that every illegal download represents lost income. It is fairly easy to see that the truth must lie somewhere between these two extremes. Thus, some illegal downloads do represent lost income. And as I suggested in point 1 - lost income results in fewer books being written.
5) Another argument presented in favour of piracy is to counteract the perceived unfairness of Digital Rights Management software (DRM) which tries to stop people who have bought an eBook from copying it to other devices. However, my publisher Angry Robot led the way in abandoning DRM, a trend which spread through the publishing industry. Even if this was once an issue, its significance has dwindled.
6) It hurts. I don’t often see this spoken about. But writing a novel takes every ounce of emotion and intellect and determination that you have. It takes terror and fatigue and elation and hope beyond hope. You go through it all willingly, of course. (It is the best job in the world.) But the product of all that striving is something infinitely precious to you. It is an emanation of your soul. To see it casually given away contrary to your wishes - that really hurts.
Reading Twitter comments about the demise of OceanofPDF, it is clear that many of the readers have no idea how much they are hurting the authors whose works they enjoy. ‘I’m so sad it has gone. Where will I get my free books now?’
7) Some people can’t afford to buy books. Here we get to the most interesting discussion to come out of the OceanofPDF debate. Many of the complaints being voiced on Twitter ran something like this: In my part of the world books are too expensive to buy. And many are banned by my government. This website was a lifeline. Now it is gone, I am so sad.
Of course, the counterpunch from authors and their supporters is something like this: If you can afford a computer and the Internet, then you can afford $1.30 for a novel.
However, I don’t think this point is so easily dismissed by upholders of copyright like myself. Gross inequalities ARE endemic in the world. Inequalities originating in nationality, race, religion, class, cast etc, DO give or restrict access to education and culture. Libraries do not exist everywhere.
On the other hand, there is a vast amount of written culture available for free and legal download. Copyright has a limited term. Want to read Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Dracula, Jane Eyre - they are all yours. Project Guttenberg is a good place to find this kind of thing. And there are millions of pages of fiction being written today that are released free by the authors: fan fiction, original novels, short stories.
8) Other economic models have been proposed to support writers. Micro patronage, for example, and the universal basic income. Copyright is not perfect. But at present it remains our only legal framework. It makes writing as a career possible. Piracy undermines writers. It undermines the production of new work. I do not believe it is the answer to global inequality. It damages the very thing that its users presumably value.
Read other articles at : https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire
‘Piracy’ - that is what I would call it. But I am aware that those who partake of copyright material in this way often perceive it as ‘sharing’.
One of the sites that pirated my work was called oceanofPDF. It has recently been taken down, sparking a fierce online debate. Perhaps shouting match would be a more accurate term. As with so many political issues these days, there is sharp division and few people seem to be listening to the other side.
The unusual thing about OceanofPDF was that it had a kind of mission statement, presenting what it was doing as a virtue. Its main claim was to be offering books for free download to people in parts of the world where they were excessively expensive or not available, to people too poor to afford to buy. It even addressed the authors to some extent, encouraging readers to review the books as a way of paying something back.
I still had the pages that were offering my work taken down.
In the aftermath of the death of OceanofPDF, users of the site have been angrily lashing out at authors, calling us elitist, wishing we rot in hell, saying they will hunt us down and kill us. (Yes, really.)
This is an issue I have kept quiet about for a long time. But with that kind of language being used, I feel that I do now need to speak up.
1) Almost all authors can’t support themselves through their writing. That means we take on other jobs. Which means less time writing, and thus, fewer books. Far from being a wealthy elite, most professional authors struggle to make ends meet.
2) It is argued by some that stopping piracy is impossible, therefore we should not try. If this is really true, they should not mind OceanofPDF being taken down. There will be no end of other piracy sources.
3) It is argued by others that piracy actually helps authors by getting the word out about their work. It is free advertising. Neil Gaiman has said words to this effect. There are plenty of counter-arguments to this. But we don’t need to explore them here.
For authors who wish to avail themselves of this free advertising opportunity, there is a legal route. We can simply release our books with a creative commons license, allowing them to be freely shared. Indeed, many people do exactly this. There is a wealth of free books legally available online. But if an author has not released their work in this way, it’s a pretty good bet that they don’t agree with the free publicity argument.
4) It is also argued that none of the people illegally downloading would have bought the book, so there is no loss of earnings. And on the other side of the argument, people state that every illegal download represents lost income. It is fairly easy to see that the truth must lie somewhere between these two extremes. Thus, some illegal downloads do represent lost income. And as I suggested in point 1 - lost income results in fewer books being written.
5) Another argument presented in favour of piracy is to counteract the perceived unfairness of Digital Rights Management software (DRM) which tries to stop people who have bought an eBook from copying it to other devices. However, my publisher Angry Robot led the way in abandoning DRM, a trend which spread through the publishing industry. Even if this was once an issue, its significance has dwindled.
6) It hurts. I don’t often see this spoken about. But writing a novel takes every ounce of emotion and intellect and determination that you have. It takes terror and fatigue and elation and hope beyond hope. You go through it all willingly, of course. (It is the best job in the world.) But the product of all that striving is something infinitely precious to you. It is an emanation of your soul. To see it casually given away contrary to your wishes - that really hurts.
Reading Twitter comments about the demise of OceanofPDF, it is clear that many of the readers have no idea how much they are hurting the authors whose works they enjoy. ‘I’m so sad it has gone. Where will I get my free books now?’
7) Some people can’t afford to buy books. Here we get to the most interesting discussion to come out of the OceanofPDF debate. Many of the complaints being voiced on Twitter ran something like this: In my part of the world books are too expensive to buy. And many are banned by my government. This website was a lifeline. Now it is gone, I am so sad.
Of course, the counterpunch from authors and their supporters is something like this: If you can afford a computer and the Internet, then you can afford $1.30 for a novel.
However, I don’t think this point is so easily dismissed by upholders of copyright like myself. Gross inequalities ARE endemic in the world. Inequalities originating in nationality, race, religion, class, cast etc, DO give or restrict access to education and culture. Libraries do not exist everywhere.
On the other hand, there is a vast amount of written culture available for free and legal download. Copyright has a limited term. Want to read Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Dracula, Jane Eyre - they are all yours. Project Guttenberg is a good place to find this kind of thing. And there are millions of pages of fiction being written today that are released free by the authors: fan fiction, original novels, short stories.
8) Other economic models have been proposed to support writers. Micro patronage, for example, and the universal basic income. Copyright is not perfect. But at present it remains our only legal framework. It makes writing as a career possible. Piracy undermines writers. It undermines the production of new work. I do not believe it is the answer to global inequality. It damages the very thing that its users presumably value.
Read other articles at : https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire
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