J.G. Ballard Dies at Age 78

jefu writes "J.G. Ballard, an author (of science fiction and other fiction) has died. His works include some of the strangest and most compelling novels ever, including 'The Crystal World,' 'Crash' and 'The Atrocity Exhibition.' For a truly weird read, try his 'Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race," compared with Alfred Jarry's "The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race.'" Here is Ballard's obituary at the BBC.

Comments

For those with ebook readers

[linzeal]

All of his works are on Piratebay and since copyrights should be nullified upon death, enjoy.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[4D6963]

Yes! Copyrights nullified upon death! Intellectual property vultures rejoice, the author is dead, let the feast begin!

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they should not be nullified upon death. What if the author dies a day after his work is first published? The publisher still has to pay their bills. Copyright should be restored to its original condition as laid down by the founding fathers; 14 years is more than fair in this day and age.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Anonymous Coward]

That way when an author starts to suck we can sacrifice him to memory of his former glory and enjoy his works for free! Genius!

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Anonymous Coward]

"George Lucas was seen fleeing his California ranch today after visiting an unnamed website."

Re:For those with ebook readers

[ZosX]

Yeah, because maybe his family shouldn't get a windfall from the surge in book sales his titles are about to recieve. Funerals are expensive too. Maybe when you die you won't care if you leave your kids with anything, but seeing as how many authors are broke most of their life, I'm sure he would just be ok with his family getting nothing. I mean, the guys not even in the ground yet and suddenly his life's work should be free? Your logic fails me. I could see maybe like 10 to 20 years or something, but jeez, copyright exists for a period of time after death for a whole bunch of reasons.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Mprx]

14 years is excessive, as improved distribution methods mean more people can access the work soon after publication than was possible when copyright was originally designed. Additionally, improved communications technology increases the pace of meme distribution, and as a great deal of value of a copyrighted work is in the novel social interactions it enables this shortens its time of highest value.

An automatic copyright of 5 years, with an extension of another 5 years available on paying a several thousand dollar fee sounds reasonable.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Anonymous Coward]

You realize that the same theory applies to real estate, right? You don't "own" real estate, you own "title" to real estate which may or may not be in your possession (i.e., which you may or may not inhabit and protect through fences, locks, etc.), but since you can't put real estate in your pocket, the whole concept of owning it is abstract. Paying a kind of property tax on "intellectual property" would put it in the same category as real estate and automobiles (unlike cash savings, for which you do not pay taxes - only income). Twenty years after death is a little short. I'm all in favor of going back to death+50. Except in the case of Walt Disney; their copyrights should all expire immediately just to spite them.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[OrangeTide]

Some of us take more than 14 years to finish our creative works. Sorry if your flash animations aren't as hard as painting a building sized mural by yourself or writing a field guide on all known North American bird species. While we can certainly adjust it so that when you're finished is when the clock starts, going from one project to another if it takes more than 5 years to complete is not very economical. I assume for a steady income we'd like to have royalties for at least as long as it takes us to make another project that can produce steady income.

I'd argue 5 years for corporate entities, and 20 years for individuals. With no extensions possible. If you need to protect your work for more than 5 years, you'll have to figure out a way to tie trademarks into it and protect it the hard (and expensive) way.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[aztektum]

Doesn't mean those reasons are right. Copyright shouldn't allow someone to collect forever for working once. And it really shouldn't be relied on as a gift to for their family after death. If I die my family doesn't luck into some extra cash because from users of the network and computers I support.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Tweenk]

Maybe when you die you won't care if you leave your kids with anything

I'd rather put money in the bank while I was alive rather than leave them at the mercy of the society's interest in my works. Copyright is NOT supposed to be a life insurance.

An even better solution would be to tie copyright to first publication date instead of the author's death date. For instance, it would be MUCH easier to determine whether a given book is in the public domain, because the first impression's publication date is usually printed on the second page. The authors' death dates on the other hand may be unobtainable, especially for obscure works.

I mean, the guys not even in the ground yet and suddenly his life's work should be free?

The guy's family did not write the things that were under copyright. Giving them money for someone else's work will not cause them to create more, which is supposed to be the purpose of copyright. It may be cruel not to give money to a family in mourning, but this is what life insurance is for.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[SanityInAnarchy]

I wouldn't, mostly because I see no reason why you should keep getting a check for something you did 15 years ago. Surely you could have produced something new by then?

Yes, you could retire and live off the royalties, and it'd be great. But why should copyright be special that way? In other jobs, you set aside money for retirement. Do that with copyright -- set aside money for retirement, then you won't be penniless when your works expire.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Miseph]

If you make the time too short, then you can actually encourage people to just wait. Even 14 years will likely be short enough for the vultures (ie. large publishers, film studios, the chronically unhip and cheap) to opt out of bothering until the copyright runs out and they can do whatever they want.

Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Nefarious Wheel]

I am so not going to illegally copy your building sized mural. Promise.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Macthorpe]

I see no reason why you should keep getting a check for something you did 15 years ago

Mainly because that assumes that whatever I created spontaneously jumped out of my mind one day 15 years prior.

The large majority of things that this covers would take time to make that people aren't being paid for, e.g. books/music. If it takes you a large amount of unpaid time to write something, why shouldn't you get paid for that time after you wrote it?

As far as I'm concerned, it balances itself out, and I feel 15 years isn't so long it's ridiculous, but not so short it ceases before your work's popularity dies out. Maybe a shorter term would be better, but I'll freely admit that I'm not an expert.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[Polumna]

In these arguments about copyright terms, I am always stricken by two things: the general assumption that all copyrights should be identical and that copyright is binary.

We could have different copyright terms on different creations... entertainment software could be 5 years, serious commercial trade software like CAD/CAM or 3DS Max could be 15. Reference materials like your guide on N.A. bird species could be the life of the author or 25 years for the publisher. Textbooks similar. Movies 10 years. Etc.

Further, copyright doesn't have to be absolute. As in my above example, after 3 years, all entertainment software could go id-style where the engine is pretty much free and mod-able, but the art remains under control for the duration of the 5 years. Another case that comes to mind were the lawsuits over Harry Potter guides. Say Harry Potter's copyright is 12 years, but after 6, all of this control over derivative works goes away.

I'm not really asserting that this is the right way to go or anything, but it seems obvious to me that a lot of these problems are the result of lumping all copyrightable material into one set of rules. Should flash animation be legally the same as a mural in this context? I don't ever see anybody really asking these questions directly.

Re:For those with ebook readers

[vidarh]

You're aware that most book writers are little guys who hardly can even make a living out of it and wouldn't do what they do if it wasn't for the hope that their work could benefit them and their family durably?

If they do it for the "hope that their work would benefit them and their family durably", then they are fucking stupid. As you say, most can hardly even make a living out of it. Yet they still do it, and they still did it BEFORE copyright even existed. Even today, people still write to self-publish AT A COST with no hope of even recouping the printing cost.

My contention is that the number of people who write primarily because they hope for a major monetary reward is vanishingly small. Even those that dream of being able to even live off their writing is likely a small minority.

Sci Fi authors don't die.

[jd]

They get abducted by Government agents when their books get too close to the truth. (Tinfoil hats at half price, today only.)

Re:Sci Fi authors don't die.

[Repton]

They get abducted by Government agents when their books get too close to the truth.

Hmm, both Stanislaw Lem and Robert Anton Wilson "died" recently. I'm not sure which worries me more :-/

JG Is Now A Voice Of Time

[cybrpnk2]

Among his other works, JG Ballard's short story The Voices Of Time had a huge impact on me as a teenager and has haunted me thru this very day. IMHO the VERY BEST SF story depicting man's place in an uncaring universe. Farewell, JGB, and thanks for your works.

Re:JG Is Now A Voice Of Time

[b4dc0d3r]

I have not heard of this guy, and while I usually think whoop diddly bang whop another bloke is dead, in a bit of a sing-songy voice, right near, but not actually in, the back of my head, no, I mean closer to the front, this guy seems like a hoot and I'm happy the internet brought me something new today.

Update: captcha = hooted.

Re:JG Is Now A Voice Of Time

[Have Brain Will Rent]

"Concrete Island" is the work of his that I most remember reading back then.

Supremely Ironic Indifferent Technophilia

[meehawl]

Ballard's writing for me was always the epitome of supremely ironic indifferent technophilia and, as such, a template for our hyper-connected present. Considering he first realised his vision during the 1960s, this makes him even more of a legend. The Drought or The Crystal World are just fucking classics. So many Sf writers, and even "non" writers like Cormac McCarthy with The Road, are just excavating the upper layers of mine shafts that Ballard plunged into decades ago.

The volumes of Helen's thighs pressing against my hips, her left fist buried in my shoulder, her mouth grasping at my own, the shape and moisture of her anus as I stroked it with my ring finger, were each overlaid by the inventories of a benevolent technology - the moulded binnacle of the instrument dials, the jutting carapace of the steering column shroud, the extravagant pistol grip of the handbrake. I felt the warm vinyl of the seat beside me, and then stroked the damp aisle of Helen's perineum. Her hand pressed against my right testicle. The plastic laminates around me, the colour of washed anthracite, were the same tones as her pubic hairs parted at the vestibule of her vulva. The passenger compartment enclosed us like a machine generating from our sexual act an homunculus of blood, semen and engine coolant.

Re:Supremely Ironic Indifferent Technophilia

[Anonymous Coward]

Please post another excerpt.

Thanks

Re:"Truely Weird" no thanks.

[Hurricane78]

So you are the type of guy that all those unimaginative books and series are made for? Where every goddamn alien looks like a human with some patch on his nose and an unusual haircut, and you can see stranger things on underwater nature tv shows. Where they are in the future and/or in space, and do the same boring shit that they could do in a historic novel. And where you just think: "My god, this is all the futuristic stuff you can come up with?"

No offense. If you like it, be happy. :)
But I for one, just wonder why you read sci-fi then? If the weird futuristic stuff does not matter, and you even dislike it...?

I know that many people create a false dichotomy, that goes like this: Well, the story matters. Not all the weird things.
But in reality, nothing stops you from writing a good story that also includes the weirdest things. In fact there is no reason why that should not add something to it.

"Truely weird in a futuristic way" is the very point of sci-fi, in my eyes. (Good stories are what I expect in any genre anyway, and does not need being specially mentioned.)

Crash is earth-shattering

[matt_morgan]

Crash--a cautionary tale about our love of technology, and a science fiction novel written in the present, with no fictional technology, blew my mind and changed my life. A worthwhile read for anyone (it takes some guts sometimes), but especially for tech people. Give it a shot.