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Copyright Infringement of Books
Maximum Prophet recommends a NY Times piece on the growing phenomenon of unauthorized digital versions of copyrighted books showing up online. The problem has been growing exponentially, fed in part by the popularity of reading devices such as the Kindle and the iPhone. The article features the odd photographic juxtaposition of Cory Doctorow and Ursula K. Le Guin, who take opposite views on electronic editions, authorized or not. Ms. Le Guin: "I thought, who do these people think they are? Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?" Mr. Doctorow: "I really feel like my problem isn't piracy. It's obscurity." "Doctorow, a novelist whose young adult novel 'Little Brother' spent seven weeks on the New York Times children's chapter books best-seller list last year, offers free electronic versions of his books on the same day they are published in hardcover. He believes free versions, even unauthorized ones, entice new readers."
re:"Mr. Doctorow: "I really feel like my problem isn't piracy. It's obscurity.""
I think his real problem is he can't write. Might explain the obscurity.
Really? Who the fuck is LeGuin, anyhow?
FTFA:
"The question is, how much time and energy do I want to spend chasing these guys," Stephen King wrote in an e-mail message. "And to what end? My sense is that most of them live in basements floored with carpeting remnants, living on Funions and discount beer."
Parent poster:
Go to Usenet
Sounds about right.
Mr. Doctorow: "I really feel like my problem isn't piracy. It's obscurity."
There, there, Cory. People are paying attention to you now. It's okay.
Back in his day they had this distributed network of his plays called Uyznettee. Only Uyznettee used horses as the transport. They would stick a small cannonball up the horse's backside for a "one." An empty horse was a "zero." Occasional errors occurred if a horse voided before the transfer was complete, but a parity horse took care of that.
A writer of trite, wanky fantasy who gets extremely litigious when someone borrows from her work as much as she borrows from others.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Honestly, lets all give up making unauthorized copies of books. I mean, when you do that, its almost like distributing them in a fully public medium, for free- readers don't have to pay a DIME.
Well, that, sir, is the worst form of terrorism. Certainly neither I nor our great US&A government could support an endeavor of such despicable intent.
Besides, you cant beat the independent authors industry- they're too powerful.
They would stick a small cannonball up the horse's backside for a "one." An empty horse was a "zero."
Up the backside, huh? I guess that should be called "rear-to-rear sharing" then.
Oh no... it's the future.
Heh, reminds me of a story I heard about Ellison.
Ellison is notoriously short. Seems he was at a party and approached a beautiful young lady and (charming as ever) said, "What would you say to a little fuck?"
The lady looked down at the diminutive Ellison and replied, "I'd say, `Hello, little fuck.'" 8^D
Any plan which depends on a fundamental change in human behavior is doomed from the start.
Sometimes, just to be a jackass, I will find these illicit copies and do subtle things before I pass them on. Things like a find/replace on character names or finding the "dénouement paragraph" and putting it on the first page. I also like to get MP3s from torrents, run them thru Audacity to make them left channel only, and then seed them out to some cheapskate on the other end. They should try that....it's fun!
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Pages 211 and 216 must have been really good!
How we know is more important than what we know.
Come on Stephen, your books are pretty much the equivalent.
Can you recommend one that doesn't cost more than 300 books?
Given that the GGP's comment was about how Usenet allowed him to collect hundreds of books for free...
No.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Oh My God. Do you want a cigar and a bottle of brandy to go with that?
He seems like a reasonable guy.
Because it excites them sexually? Man, I'm gonna get onto this copyright-violation thing if it's as good as licking your own balls...
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Congratulations, you're the proud (you should be if you aren't) winner of this year's: MOST PEDANTIC SHIT AWARD! Your prize? A lifetime of -1 Pedantic moderation on all your /. posts.
Sorry about that. There were no corncobs in the outhouse.
West Texas Redneck