Piracy–Just Say No
I recently signed up for Google Alerts, and let me tell you…talk about an education. I knew my books were appearing on Torrent sites (because I send a never ending stream of “you’re violating my copyright, please take this down” emails), but I had no idea how MANY torrent sites until I signed up (which is weird because, like 99.9% of authors out there, late at night when the manuscript is going slowly, I’ll Google my name, just to see what’s out there, and I would only rarely find these sites. GA finds tons. Several per day. Damn depressing.)
So I thought this post was particularly appropriate, and very informative. My husband works in a school, and from what I hear about what the kids talk about, most of them just don’t get it. It’s out there, online, how can it be bad? But it is, because, hey, it’s stealing. Folks need to be educated, folks. Pass it on.
“Piracy.” It sounds so romantic, doesn’t it? The high seas. Adventure . . .
But there’s nothing romantic about the case in Minnesota where a woman was fined $2 million for illegally downloading 24 songs and sharing them with others. Last Friday, the judge slashed her fine dramatically – by more than $1.8 million — saying the initial punishment was too much.
via Blog – Murderati.
January 27th, 2010 at 12:07 am
And ask yourself why the kids *should* “get it.” In their eyes (and mine, and I’m sixty years old), copyright has become nothing more than a club used by corporate bullies to force people to pay them money. You cite two million dollars as a fine for twenty four songs. Do the math: that’s over eighty *thousand* dollars a song. For songs that sell at a dollar apiece over at iTunes. With math like that, why should the kids or anybody else listen? There is NO, repeat NO perceived justice in verdicts like that.
As for your books, I’ve bought legal, paid-for copies of everything available on Fictionwise. My reward for honesty: EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM ARRIVED DRM-INFESTED. What that means is that, if Fictionwise ever stopped making them downloadable, I would never be able to replace them unless I ponied up for them, all over again. My only other alternatives would be either to “pirate” fresh copies, or jailbreak the ones I already downloaded. By the way, that loss of access has already happened to fifty four books I bought from them. That’s over two hundred dollars worth of books, even at paperback prices.
If you want a real education on the subject of copyright and piracy, go visit http://www.baen.com/library/palaver_index.htm and read Eric Flint’s essays. He’s a working author, just like you, with a legion of fans likewise, and I think you’ll find what he has to say to be a real eye-opener.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Hey Geoffrey — I completely agree with you that DRM is ridiculous-I dread Kindle going kapooey or me deciding I prefer a different device, but that doesn’t change the basic underlying issue that taking a book off a Torrent site without paying for it is stealing. You point out that the songs on iTunes were only a dollar/piece. Does that mean that it’s okay for kids to steal candy if it costs a dollar? To go to the Dollar Store and walk off with their inventory? I’m not disagreeing that the fine imposed was excessive, but I also don’t know the underlying facts of the case that might or might not have supported the hefty imposition of punitive damages. My point in starting the discussion was not to debate fines, but with regard to the fact that a lot of folks simply don’t realize that taking a book or a song or whatever off the internet without paying for it means that the artist isn’t compensated. {nb: I haven’t had a chance to look at the site you point to, but I will — and I invite you to click through to the Murderati post I cited and read the comments. They are enlightening as well.}
January 27th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I know Julie, I work in a college library in Toronto and the kids really don’t understand and in most cases care. I have seen many of them trying to scan or photocopy ENTIRE textbooks and when you try and talk to them about it they either totally blow you off or are completely clueless that they are not allowed to do it. Now don’t even get me started on what they do to our magazine (ok let me tell you they cut them up or pull out pages and when you talk to them they don’t understand that they are not allowed to do that) Thanks for letting me get that off my chest
January 27th, 2010 at 8:16 am
Most consumers hate DRM. What’s interesting to me is that they generally blame the producers/publishers–or, as with Geoffrey, copyright itself. They don’t get upset with the people whose piracy makes publishers use DRM in the first place.
I’m not defending DRM. (Though I will defend copyright if anyone wants that discussion.) I’m just saying that authors aren’t the only ones who suffer because some people don’t want to pay for things. Millions of honest readers pay a price, too.
January 27th, 2010 at 8:31 am
First of all, that huge judgement was because the woman lied-REPEATEDLY. She even bought a new hard drive-but she was caught out. So the judgement was not for stealing the books.
The problem with Eric Flint’s example about shoplifting is that a shoplifter takes a book (and also a risk, which an e-pirate doesn’t have to worry about) and then could perhaps pass it on to ONE other person. E-piracy passes it on to a potentially infinite number of people.
As to Flint’s assertion that it makes sales for authors, I respond: Maybe right now it does. For some authors. But what happens when EVERY book is available free? Who will buy them then? And if no steps are taken, that IS what will happen.
January 27th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Great post, Julie. I don’t know how many times people will need to hear that the whole issue writers have with piracy is that it is theft of our property, period.
Geoffrey, your comment that “copyright has become nothing more than a club used by corporate bullies to force people to pay them money” is a bit over the top. For one thing, no one is forcing anyone to buy books, or music, etc. Presumably, people buy them because they want the book, the song, etc. That’s a choice. Perhaps the real issue is that they just don’t want to pay for it. Well, that’s a pity, isn’t it? There are a lot of things I’d like to get for free; that doesn’t drive me to steal them. I guess I just don’t have the inbred sense of entitlement that pirates and their clients apparently possess. To your other point: Copyright has not changed. It has never been a weapon, corporate or otherwise. It has always been a protection to allow the creators of tangible/visual/audible artistic works to profit from them. Publishers buy the rights to our books with the understanding that they will *sell* them to willing consumers and return a share of the revenue to us. It’s our due, not a benefit.
When pirates–of any age–steal (i.e., take without paying for them) copies of those works, writers don’t get paid. If our books don’t generate real sales for the publishers, irrespective of our “popularity” among readers, we don’t get offered another contract. In other words, we get fired from our job. That means readers do not have another book to read by a favorite author. That’s really the end of the story; piracy is an incredibly short-sighted practice that ends up hurting the writer first, but ultimately the reader as well.
I read somewhere yesterday–wish I could remember where–that only about 3% of working writers can afford NOT to have another job. Piracy must be all about the thrill of the moment; there is certainly no long-term strategy or thinking involved. If pirates continue to plague the industry, there will be fewer writers around from whom to steal. There will always be new writers who get a buzz from their first book going “viral” for free (like all those free “Bestsellers” Amazon keeps crowing about—oxymoron, anyone?) but even they will eventually realize that *just writing* and posting it for free might satisfy the Muse, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
To wrap up here–I didn’t mean to go on so long, Julie!–writers who speak out against piracy are not evil, money-grubbing despots as we have been made out to be on so many blogs; we’re working professionals who deserve compensation for our labor, as does any other worker. No one is forced to buy our books, just as no one is forced to use a certain attorney or doctor, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to steal our books.
And one last comment: Bitching about the stand writers take on piracy and then downloading our books for free is not the ultimate revenge, it’s the ultimate hypocrisy.
January 27th, 2010 at 10:17 am
While I disagree with almost everything Flint says–especially his assertion that copyright somehow is hard on the blind and crippled, and more on that below–I agree with him about one thing. The extension of copyright term was a mistake. That was done purely for the welfare of corporate copyright holders.
Corporations are not people. No matter what our current Supreme Court seems to think. IMO, this extension of the length of copyright muddies the waters and makes it easier for the “content is free” crowd to complain about copyright in general.
(Note about copyright and those with physical impairments: blind people do get an opt-out when it comes to copyright. All major publishers include this opt-out in their contracts. The Library for the Blind gets to record books without paying any fees. I have a legally blind friend who listens to books from that library all the time.)
January 27th, 2010 at 11:19 am
My new book came out yesterday. I had a google alert last night that three people had posted to a torrent message board looking for a copy.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Piracy is stealing. Just because we don’t like some of the protective measures put in place does not mean that it’s okay to steal. I don’t like a lot of the laws that the government passes that erode our individual freedoms, even though the purpose of the law is to protect the innocent. (Such as some of the new DNA laws that aim top protect children from sexual predators–noble and necessary–but ultimately sets up a DNA pool from people who were only arrested, not convicted, of a crime–a serious erosion of individual liberty.)
I don’t have the answers to how to protect copyright better than we’re doing now, but I’m sure everyone with the ability is looking for answers (I’m not hugely technical.) I do know that it’s not just the kids–it’s the kids parents as well. If parents set the example, fewer kids would be pirating. But does anyone know a parent (other than me) who has threatened to take away their teen-ager’s iPod if they illegal download music? My daughter’s best friend’s excuse for stealing music is that she has to pay for her own gas and doesn’t have any money. So somehow that makes it okay to steal the latest 3 Doors Down album? Because she can’t afford? She wouldn’t walk into a store and shoplift it–she flat out told me that would be wrong because it’s stealing. I countered with, but that’s what you’re doing when you illegally download music on the Internet. She absolutely did not see the similarities.
We need to find protective measures that protect writers/artists AND consumers. But stealing until those measures are put in place is wrong, and it also sets up a mentality that stealing is acceptable.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Julie,
The reason I wrote the blog at Murderati is that it’s becoming more and more of a problem, not less. I think Harlan Ellison’s rant in the comments of that post sum it up. Creative work is not INFORMATION. It is not for free.
If people want my work, they have to pay for it. For those who don’t want to pay the $14.95 or $24.95 or whatever price I decide to charge for my e-versions of my books (and those e-versions will be MY decision) — I have a solution:
They can support me completely for the months it takes me to write a book. They can take my children to school, put dinner on the table, replace the sleep I lose, and everything else that’s involved in producing a work that brings them pleasure.
Also, as to people with physical impairments . . . one of my children has a vision impairment. Kidd and Flint would be advised to look at the fair use doctrine adopted by the US Congress in 1976 dealing specifically with this issue. Here’s a good source for further info on this particular subject:
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sccr/statement/us-intervention.pdf
January 27th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Thanks to everyone who’s come in and commented on the reprehensibility of stealing pirated books (and music). I think it’s safe to say the comments mirror my own thinking, and do it much more eloquently than I managed in either my post or my initial comment. Pari, it’s definitely becoming more of a problem–and potential solutions aren’t increasing at the same rate. In a word, it sucks.
January 27th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Marianna,
You pretty much took all the words right out of my mouth. But when you mentioned:
“There will always be new writers who get a buzz from their first book going “viral” for free (like all those free “Bestsellers” Amazon keeps crowing about—oxymoron, anyone?)” I have to disagree a bit with that.
Many of us have and are going to put out perhaps one title for free for a short time for a promotion, and as noted from the NY Times article the other day, that can work as a great promotion for an author’s other titles. Of course, the novel isn’t left on Amazon for free forever, just a limited time. Plus, it is the author and the publisher agreeing that it be given for free for that short time. It’s sort of like the free short stories I have up on my site.
As for piracy, I always hark back to a fellow author who heard someone on a train talking about ripping off books. She heard these people were computer software engineers or something like that. She confronted them and hit them with both barrels by asking how they’d like it if someone told them they were going to do their jobs for free? After all, why should computer software engineers or anyone else be paid for their jobs? Their services should be for free, right? To me, whenever someone puts out an excuse why it’s okay to pirate copies of anything, whether it be music, movies, or books, they’re simply doing it because they don’t give a damn that they’re hurting someone else. I don’t write for money as the bottom line, but that isn’t an excuse for someone else to think it’s okay to pirate my work.
Denise A. Agnew
January 27th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Geoffrey is a bit confused about copyright, at least as far as books are concerned. Copyright is not DRM (although DRM exists because copyrights are violated. Copyright is an individual working author’s notice that they created something and they own it. DRM exists because people steal. I’m sorry that people are inconvenienced by DRM; I’m even sorrier that I’ve lost contracts because the publisher says I’m not selling enough copies to justify their buying another book from me. People are out there reading my stuff, but they’re not going to be getting any NEW books for quite a while. Hope they’re happy reading the first three in the series!
January 27th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I do write for money, plain and simple. This is my salary, and like most people, I need my salary to, oh, buy gas and eat and keep a roof over my head. My income shrinking because of piracy is a very real threat and a very real fear. Not simply not getting royalties, but not getting that sale counted toward your ultimate sell-through. Publishers pay advances and decide on whether or not to offer a contract based on how an author’s previous book(s) did. If that book has sold X, but would have sold 2X if even a fraction of those downloading it illegally had bought it, then the author is hurt in yet another way.
As for the writing for money or love or creative fulfillment, it doesn’t make a whit of difference in the end. As Denise said, the author’s motivation for putting the book out there for sale isn’t an excuse for someone to pirate their work.
January 27th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Yes! exactly what I was just saying.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Before everybody here assumes I’m some kind of an evil person determined to pirate every book on the planet, I need to clear some things up.
1. I am, as I have said elsewhere, very big on authors and publishers eating hot food and sleeping indoors. That means they get paid. There’s no other way to assure that, and I am quite insistent on PAYING for my book addiction. I believe I mentioned, in my original post, putting up with DRM-infestation in order to pay for Julie’s books.
2. I’m sorry, but DRM *is* copyright. Copyright is a “No Trespassing” sign. DRM is copyright accompanied by automatic weapons.
To quote from a blog on the topic of the Kindle:
The good news is that DRM is the biggest motivating force behind piracy. The DRM’ed stuff you buy “legally” seems deliberately calculated to be an affront to your convenience. You can’t switch from one platform to another, despite the fact that you supposedly “bought” it, because that would make it easy to lend to other people who might not pay for it. And it’s illegal to circumvent DRM so you can use the content you published in a way that’s easy for you. The traditional copyright doctrines of “fair use” and “first sale” that apply to printed material go out the window when it comes to digital content. But if you download a DRM-free version via a file-sharing network, you can do with it whatever you damn well please, without paying for the privilege of being kicked in the teeth.
—
Let’s consider some examples of treatment I’ve received in my efforts to expand my legal eBook collection.
First, Baen Books: I’ve been buying and reading their books for ten years now. They are, in fact, directly responsible for my migrating to buying eBooks only. Their approach? No DRM. Paperback prices for eBooks, since each additional electronic copy doesn’t costs effectively nothing.
My response: I bought entire YEARS of eBooks in advance, even when the last six months of that year said “To Be Determined.” In addition, I buy literally every new book they bring out, in paper, and donate it to my local library to attract new fans. Their webscription website has stuff from other publishers, sold with the same approach. I buy an awful lot of those.
–
Second, fictionwise: They offer both open (zero-DRM) and eReader.
My response: I buy an awful lot of books from them. (current count is 3316 items). I buy them in open formats, or eReader, since I’ll always know the keys to those. eReader works on my Palm, which is, by no coincidence, the same device I use to read Baens and other legally purchased books with no inconvenient requirement to carry a third accursed gadget to go with my Palm and phone.
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Third, a recommended book: Yesterday, over at lifehacker, one of the blog entries mentioned Seth Godin’s “Linchpin” and recommended it highly.
My response: Not at fictionwise, where I could get it in eReader. So I toddled off to Amazon to check its availability. Hmmm. Never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Kindle format. Over to Barnes and Noble. Hmmm. Ten bucks and eReader format. It’s sitting in my Palm even as I type this.
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Fourth: “The Lightning Thief”. I spotted the movie poster and thought it was something for a rock concert. Found out it’s a movie, went looking for the book.
My response: No fictionwise. No B&N. Amazon? Kindle [five minutes of cursing deleted] Ok. I’m a customer, I’m ready/eager to buy it. There is NO legitimate outlet unless I’m willing to either a. read the book only on my PC at home *and* trust Amazon’s Kindle4PC software(long loud laugh) or b. Spend $259 on a Kindle with its migraine-inducing eInk display and commit myself to carrying the bloody thing around in addition to my Palm and Phone.
My response: I ask myself, is it time to raise the Jolly Roger and buy the book later IF it ever comes out in an acceptable format? I’m still thinking.
The fourth example is what motivates most piracy.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
I’m running out the door, but I just a quick reply: I don’t think that your contempt of DRM is resulting in vilification
But what I do think is happening is that the two issues are getting smooshed together. The downloading of books without paying for them is a completely different (although related) issue from the mechanism by which a publisher puts out an ebook into the marketplace. And, at least in your case, the free market is doing what it’s supposed to: you’re buying from a source that sells in a format you want. But the key is that you are buying. And for that, we thank you 
But, no, the lack of availability is not cause to “raise the jolly roger” and steal the book. I might want to read Amazing Bestseller in paperback, but the fact that it’s only available in hardback doesn’t justifying me ripping off Barnes & Noble and Amazing Author just because I’m irritated that my favorite format doesn’t exist.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
You are right about one thing. DRM is one of my hobbyhorses. So let’s return to my original question: Why should the kids “get it”?
Children learn by what the observe, the same as the rest of us. So what have we seen to teach us in the past few years?
A large corporation invading people’s computers and seizing control of them, which is a felony under California law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Rootkit If you or I did as they did, we’d be looking at three years’ imprisonment for computer trespass. Sony never so much as paid a dime, and none of their precious executives spent a day in jail.
The Digital Millennium Copyright act, which, under some circumstances, makes computer security research a felony, since code and mechanisms cannot be considered acceptable or secure unless they can be examined and tested.
And the “three strikes” proposals of the RIAA/MPAA, whereby mere *accusations* (which can be anonymous) of copyright infringement can lead to permanent disconnection from the internet. (So whatever happened to providing proof beyond a reasonable doubt? The right to face one’s accuser? Trial by jury?)
Remember, justice must not merely be done, it must be seen *and* understood to be done. None of the above actions by the large copyright holders (Sony, Disney, et al) even remotely approach that standard. And THESE are the people who scream “copyrights” just as the authors do.
The result, as I’ve noted, is to undermine ALL copyrights, regardless of their justification or justice. Why?
Well, consider. If you have a 55-gallon drum of toxic waste, with a tablespoon of distilled water in it, you have a 55-gallon drum of toxic waste. If you have a 55-gallon drum of distilled water, with a tablespoon of toxic waste in it, you have a 55-gallon drum of toxic waste.
All authors and creative people have a 55-gallon drum of distilled water, but I see little or no movement toward purifying it of the toxic waste of copyright maximalism. And unless the kids see authors and writers fighting for THEIR rights, you won’t get a lot of help from them in preserving yours.