talkmagic.co.uk

Just thought I'd chime in with the point that illegal download = lost income is a highly dubious claim.

Studies (a recent one done for the eejits that run the EU was fairly big news over here) have shown that people who download copyright material for free generally wouldn't have bought a copy were it not available for free, and those who would have paid for a legitimate copy aren't exactly likely to see it for free and get it that way instead.

That doesn't mean you can't desire some sort of control over your work, but arguing that it's harming your income isn't really grounded in reality.

Just like home taping didn't kill music (nor did the grammaphone, the radio, the tape, the CD or the mp3 - bought, ripped or downloaded) and home recording didn't kill movies and ebooks didn't (and won't) kill the printed book - people who make your work available for free aren't harming your income - certainly not in a significant way if at all - and if some people are right, could be helping you by making more people aware of your work, thus increasing your pool of potential buyers.

Now if you'd rather keep a tight grip on your copyrights for whatever reason, that's perfectly fine by me. It won't really affect me if you do because if I far prefer a nicely printed and bound copy than something on a screen I can't conveniently pop in a bag and take with me (and no, laptops don't count on the "convenient" front - books are solar powered, laptops are not) not that I'm not thinking of getting an ebook reader when prices become more justifiable.

I get a bit tired of the whole "we're losing money" argument that's constantly pumped out by the mainstream media companies (and more interestingly, their lawyers) and find it a shame that smaller outfits, authors, artists and the likes seem to be taken in by it now too.

I think you'll find the authors on TM, and thaere are many, will disagree with you from their own experience. Copying and sharing is most certainly theft and does affect their income.

Robbie wrote:

bmat wrote:The average person out there really doesn't care.

They're no more likely to go hunting up your book than I am to search for the latest tome on arc welding.

As I'm currently recovering from arc eye after welding up part of my new baby, I wish had looked up that welding tome!!!!