says you!
Captain Teach would like a word on deck.
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… and if it does not diminish the supply for others
This hypothetical scenario pushes people’s buttons because it evokes an unseen rule-breaker sneaking around in the dark with physical access to unconsenting strangers
Media piracy has nothing to do with this
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by definition, people who can’t afford your book reading it anyway are not lost sales
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Or they go to the public library where we have paid for a copy that will be read by 10, 100, perhaps a 1,000 people. Some of our books (and other media) stay in circulation for years! This is, by the way, an actual argument against libraries that comes up.
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Right?
I’m sure the same folks hate archives and the like, too.
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You know that’s a parody song, right? And it’s a criticism of the piracy paranoia of the record industry?
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Music, game, and literature publishers insert themselves between the creator(s) and the consumer, then take 90+% of the money. In the modern era, the marginal cost of production and distribution is negligible.
Who is the pirate in this scenario again?
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So he thinks he can Teach me a thing or two, eh? All right, I’ll parlez with him.
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just don’t mention the whole beard thing. he’s gone grey and is a bit techy 'bout it
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Inserting burning fuses into it will do that!
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Well, I know I can count on you for Teach support.
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I’d love to have a chat with ol’ Eddie, as long as we’re on shore and in a well-lit spot full of other folks. And as long as he stays far away from me with this:
Old-fashion medicine was awful.
And are we supposed to be talking about music piracy still. ‘Cause real pirate arrrr farrrr more interesting.
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yes, I know that. That’s why I said his actual gripe is about the misattribution, not the things the record industry gets in a snit about. He mentions the issue in the faq of WeirdAl.com, and has mentioned it, jokingly, in interviews.
Maybe try looking at it this way?
The (by and large) studio system that began in Hollywood was built upon systemic institutional racism.
Reparations are owed, and the bill is past due. 
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Most media doesn’t stay in circulation till reaching 100 checkouts, let alone 1000. Paper, glue, and pressboard aren’t magical. It’s more like 25, and only if it’s a particularly well bound book, like a hardback. The library then, surprise, purchases a new copy from a distributor, and the author gets paid.
Here’s an essay regarding this, with more details:
I don’t agree with every point the author makes, or their overall tone, but they do make some some decent ones. For the record, I’m an indie author, and I make my living by selling my work. I really don’t care that some people pirate my books (hell, I give away copies all the time, even the print ones), because enough people are willing to pay for them.
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The biggest irony was if you did the ‘right’ thing and paid for a DVD, you had to sit through an unskippable warning from the FBI (‘I live in Britain mate, why are you telling me this?’), whereas the pirate copy looked and sounded just as good, but you could just hit play and watch the film, n sitting through a warning first.
Cory Doctorow publishes free versions of all his books on his website, and has done for years, so he clearly feels that it works for him. You can also look at how piracy rates of various media dropped when there was a easy and convenient way to pay for content (iTunes for music, and Netflix for video), and rises again when the service becomes less easy and convenient.
There’s also the rise of people getting paid via Patreon etc. when in many cases most of their output is available for free, but because it’s easy and convenient people chip in to see more of it.
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Yes, that is exactly my point! That and how bootlegged copies didn’t have unstoppable warnings, commercials (Disney was bad at this) or badly programmed DVD menus you had to navigate through.
Tor Books also did what Cory did, and kept track of sales and costs before and after they made their library available for free, and sales went up by a considerable margin. Part of it was publicity bump, but they remained consistently higher.
People like knowing that they are supporting artists. People go to concerts and live shows, and even toss a coin to buskers, It’s the middlemen who scream bloody murder, and even tried to demonize Apple when they made public how many purchases and downloads were made, because it exposed the lies they told artists to duck paying royalties.
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Slight correction, Tor publish DRM-free epubs, but you still have to pay to get them. Cory gives away completely free copies of his books (sometimes with adverts for local bookshops at the top of each chapter).
Tor saw the obvious, which is that DRM doesn’t work (afaik every major ebook DRM has been cracked), so they might as well save money by not paying for DRM to be added.
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