Comment by Michelangelo11
4 days ago
> Some Corpo-type, no doubt.
The opposite. Consider Harlan Ellison's views on piracy: "If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump."
4 days ago
> Some Corpo-type, no doubt.
The opposite. Consider Harlan Ellison's views on piracy: "If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump."
Harlan Ellison was an asshole though.
I wouldn't describe him that way but, at any rate, his point is right: pirating books is taking money out of authors' pockets. Corporations (publishers?) aren't hit hardest and don't care the most about it.
You may prefer the same point expressed in less colorful language by Ursula K. LeGuin, from the same article as Ellison's quote: “I thought, who do these people think they are? Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?” https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12dig...
Now, as we found out in the meantime from Rudy Rucker's comment, this anthology isn't pirated after all. If you put up your work for free, there's no piracy.
I have no issue with Ellison's colorful language, but the point expressed by LeGuin is quite different. Copyright violation is not theft. It's not even a criminal charge in the US unless done for profit! You know what also deprives authors of royalties? Borrowing books from public libraries, buying used books, and loaning books to friends. So does playing video games instead of reading a book! The fact that an action yields less money to an author does not in-and-of-itself make it theft, or even immoral.
Copyright was chartered to encourage authors to contribute to a large public domain of works. Lobbying (by wealthy corporations) perverted this purpose. Sure it's a nice fringe benefit that some authors were made more comfortable by this. That doesn't stop many authors from taking a "I wrote it, it's mine" attitude as if a monopoly on the use of works you authored is a natural right.
LeGuin has taken a nuanced view on this, with the apparent understanding that copyright is a framework under which she was promised certain things, and the piracy is a violation of that promise.
2 replies →
But they do get away with it! And that's the whole point of cyberpunk.