Well, we all know that the RIAA is nuts. But the problems you cite--
disappearance of paper books and Big Brother controlling the
officially received version of history--are there too.
And the basic problem for me is still: if you write something, do
you, or do you not, get paid when someone consumes it? In the long
run, if you pay for something, you get more of it. If you don't pay
for it, that item becomes scarce and/or deteriorates in quality.
What happens to my field--fantasy and science fiction--if nobody, or
next to nobody, gets paid for producing it? No great loss, the Great
Literature types would probably say; but in the long run, the
Mainstream Literature types are going to be worse off than us. The
SF community has adapted to some degree to the online world; there
are a few markets where you can get paid for online content. Online
publishers of fantasy and science fiction are scrambling to find ways
to pay for it; a few of them have been (moderately) successful.
But what happens when SF, and serious literature, is produced--and
published--exclusively by wealthy amateurs who alone have the leisure
to produce books--or book-length projects? What happens when your
favorite author can't write that next book you're eagerly awaiting,
because he/she has to take a part-time extra job at Home Depot to
make up for the income the book would have provided? (To take one
case I know of).
The situation isn't all bleak--there are good things in the Internet
revolution as well as bad. (And mainstream publishing is no rose
garden, either.) But, basically, if authors (and other creators)
don't get paid, there will be much less of the good stuff for you to
enjoy, whether you download it for free or pay $24.95 for a new
hardcover edition in a bookstore.
--Constance Warner
On Jan 13, 2010, at 11:55 AM, mike wrote:
I was thinking while reading this...some, if this were Dick Cheney
type of a
guy would be saying well now he's just being paid off by big Music and
Movies. By the end that's what this seems to become, a collaboration
editorial about the evils of music piracy. I think there are
larger issues
on the web they don't touch on...the various projects of scanning
books
frightens me because in 50 years or 100 will there be any paper
books? Will
one company or government have access to history and be able to
edit it to
their will as easily as we edit office docs? He decries the lack of
punishment of music pirates, I can't seem to bring myself to care
when drunk
drivers can kill and pay less than someone who downloaded 24
songs. 1.9
million for 24 songs...when is the last time anyone saw someone pay
like
that for almost ANY crime?
There are real issues with piracy of intellectual property, but
cases like
the 2 million dollar fine make most dismiss piracy because those on
the
other side are so crazy about punishment.
A provocative article in Tuesday's Science Times (the New York Times
Science pages, http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/):
"The Madness of Crowds and an Internet Delusion" by John Tierney
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