Content Owners need to calm down.
Written by Free Audio Books - Free audiobooks on October 15, 2009 – 5:46 am -Content owners aren’t always wrong to say they’re being unfairly harmed (one thinks of writers like Dickens and Tolkien whose works were reprinted in the US without payment, though it did help fuel a lucrative lecture business for Dickens), and lobbyists and trade groups would be derelict if they didn’t conjure up worst-case scenarios and try to keep them from happening. Unfortunately, though, as we look over the statements above, the total result of this resistance to new technology is clear: it limits (or attempts to limit) innovation.
Copyright expert William Patry put it strongly at the conclusion of his new book, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, writing, “I cannot think of a single significant innovation in either the creation or distribution of works of authorship that owes its origins to the copyright industries.”
The great irony of these debates is that most new devices become popular only because buyers really want them, which means they open whole new markets that can then be monetized by rightsholders. ARS Technica
Tags: content owners
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
By Gary Poyssick on Oct 15, 2009 | Reply
clearly you’ve never had a college professor say “We LOVE your books. Thanks SO much for the sample books you sent us!”
“We’ve used them already in ten classes”
When asked where they bought them (except for used books, we’re the sole source of our work, and used in 1200 colleges and universities nationwide) they responded:
“We cut off the spiral binding and simply made our own copies”
And you’re saying that I should take it easy??? I own — own — 5,000 plus-pages of college textbook materials that have to be upgraded every 18 months.
Respectfully, sir, you’re basing your commentary on what you’re reading. Not what you’ve ever experienced. I wrote the second title on Adobe Press more than 25 years ago. I speak from experience — not reading of editorial scripture.
gary poyssick
Saint Petersburg, Florida USA
By Ed Book (real name) on Oct 15, 2009 | Reply
This post was written by someone named “Free Audio Books”? I can’t imagine what was in mind his/her parents.
Peace,
Ed Book
By Theresa Chaze on Oct 17, 2009 | Reply
Reselling books is one thing. Making unauthorized copies and selling/giving them away is theft. It is no different than shoplifting in any store. It all goes back to the disrespect writers are subject to. They are the creators yet they receive the least amount of regard when it comes to financial compensation and rights. Most seem to forget the fact that every piece of entertainment ever produced started with a writer. Without them, there would be no movies, music or books.