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Pirates & Authors: Working It Out, Together

It’s Saturday afternoon in the hood: the sun is shining, the scent of pizza is in the air and your dog is begging you to take him out for nice game of Frisbee. But you don’t go. You are immune to that siren song because you’ve just surfed onto a website that lets you download free movies. An hour later you’re on another site downloading free books. An hour after that (you really do need to get a life at this point) you try to download some free software and the bubble bursts. Your attempted download has sent you to the naughty pirate page where you are now subjected to a written lecture on the evils of fraud, with a reference to Thou Shall Not Steal and “How could you do this to your poor, old mother?”

For any sociopaths who may be reading, the owner of said software would really like you to be feeling some massive guilt about now. That way, when she offers the alternative that all sins will be erased if you purchase an official registration key, entitling you to a higher quality product and free tech support, you will be on your knees praising her for being so magnanimous (and promising that next week, you really will go to church).

Shame as part of a business model- is this a productive way to go? There are ways to deal with piracy (crush it) and there are other ways to deal with piracy (collaborate with it). The above example falls somewhere in between.

That’s a good point though, the naughty pirate thing. The intention behind it is to get people who may be pirating out of ignorance to step up and pay the fee, but shaming someone into it is counterproductive long-term. What this company attempts to do is control people, something self-respecting pirates would never tolerate. But let’s put them aside for a minute and focus on the company that hopes to exploit the ignorant by converting them into customers to increase sales. On the surface there’s nothing wrong with that because owners providing goods and services should be compensated. However, the sinister underbelly of control is something that cannot be ignored.

Before we become entrenched in the philosophical aspects of this issue, some background information on copyright infringement is appropriate. This is important because online piracy is often equated with stealing, and from a legal standpoint that isn’t necessarily the case because the property in question is intellectual, not physical. The sticking point here is that theft generally encompasses two things: potential economic loss to the property owner and the appropriation of an object that deprives the owner of its use and possession. Copyright infringement (theft of an intellectual property) doesn’t take away the copyright holder’s idea (movie, book, software, etc): it’s still available for the owner’s use at any time, nor does it eliminate the owner’s ability to use the copyright, but as copyright law now stands, pirates are sharing and borrowing said property, not stealing. To get some perspective, check out Lawrence Lessig and the Creative Commons alternative. When you’re done there, try the transcript of a Creative Commons debate featuring “Download My Free eBooks!” poster boy, Cory Doctorow and then see what you think.

Whether or not to go the Creative Commons route requires serious thought because if you do choose this path, you can’t go back (at least not for that particular piece of work). Copyright law is messy and forever: there is no changing your mind if you don’t like the results, so do your homework first.

Still skeptical about the benefits of sharing your work, dear authors? How can giving away free copies of something that took you a year or more to create be anything but financial suicide? Don’t worry, that’s just the fear talking. Try looking at this another way. Assuming you aren’t a member of the 1% elite, chances are most people don’t know who you are, what you do or care either way. Tough love, people, you can do this. If a couple hundred thousand books get printed every year and you sell 500 copies of yours, how much of an impact have you made on the book-buying public? Expanding your audience is far more important than controlling every nickel. Just because someone gets something for free, it doesn’t mean that they would buy it otherwise so how many “sales” are really being lost? Those who are on the fence, however, may like what they see enough to purchase a physical copy, recommend it to a friend or write a positive review. Buzz is marketing gold and this is an opportunity to get it for free- do you see how this works now?

Hopefully, a few more hearts are starting to thaw over our wayward pirates. Yes, some are malicious power mongers bent on destruction, but many are average people like you and me, just living their lives. What was that? You’re not a pirate: you’ve never done anything illegal in your life and my grandmother wears army boots? Well, my grandmother’s taste in fashion aside, have you ever photocopied a recipe from a cookbook and given it to your neighbor? Have you forwarded an email containing photos that were likely copyrighted? The lines of piracy starting to blur a bit, are they? At one time or another we’ve all been pirates and in the big picture that’s not such a bad thing.

Picture a world where piracy is mainstream, vital to our economic health and well-being. Matt Mason has and was kind enough to write The Pirate’s Dilemma, which discusses the history of piracy and how it makes sense as a business model. Pirates serve to point out inefficient systems and force companies to innovate and compete. They operate from a perspective of empowerment, not shame, where anyone with an idea that adds value to society can succeed and prosper. Doesn’t that sound like a more intelligent approach; providing consumers what they want, the way they want, instead of manipulating them to accept what is offered? Complacency is fatal in business, art and life, but so many fall into it because it’s the path of least resistance. It’s only when we’re confronted with those mavericks swimming against the stream that we notice there’s a problem. Society needs pirates and pirates need society: it’s all about the dance.





A Special Message from Chris

Hey, party people! I’ve done pretty much all I can do in terms of articles geared to “inspire” so I’m going to focus more on the business side of art now. If anyone has a business topic as it pertains to artists (particularly authors) that they’d like to see addressed, email me. I appreciate the input.