> From: Cory Doctorow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 07:08:11 +0100 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > I'm writing a six-times-a-year column for Locus Magazine, the > excellent trade magazine for the science fiction publishing industry. > > My first column, "Science Fiction is the Only Literature People Care > > Enough About to Steal on the Internet" has just gone live: > > > Before copyright, we had patronage: you could make art if the Pope > > > or the king liked the sound of it. That produced some damned pretty > > > ceilings and frescos, but it wasn't until control of art was given > > > over to the market � by giving publishers a monopoly over the works > > > they printed, starting with the Statute of Anne in 1710 � that we > > saw the explosion of creativity that investment-based art could > > create. Industrialists weren't great arbiters of who could and > > couldn't make art, but they were better than the Pope. > > > > The Internet is enabling a further decentralization in who gets to > > > make art, and like each of the technological shifts in cultural > > production, it's good for some artists and bad for others. The > > important question is: will it let more people participate in > > cultural production? Will it further decentralize decision-making > > for artists? > > > > And for SF writers and fans, the further question is, "Will it be > > any good to our chosen medium?" Like I said, science fiction is the > > > only literature people care enough about to steal on the Internet. > > > It's the only literature that regularly shows up, scanned and run > > through optical character recognition software and lovingly hand- > > edited on darknet newsgroups, Russian websites, IRC channels and > > elsewhere (yes, there's also a brisk trade in comics and technical > > > books, but I'm talking about prose fiction here � though this is
> > clearly a sign of hope for our friends in tech publishing and > > funnybooks). > > Locus Online: > http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/07DoctorowCommentary.html >
