Stealing Trek Literature

[JWolf]

Not all independent authors are bad at editing their books.

Ummmm, like who? What creative person worth his or her salt puts out a work of commercial creativity without asking at least one trusted, perceptive ally, "What do you think?"

I've read a few eBooks of Steve Jordan and they are good. That's the first example that comes to mind.

And when authors do get full control of their backlist books, they can make them eBooks and sell them however they want.

Yeah, just like no one Internet browser is capable of seeing every web page exactly as the publishers intended them, and any idiot can be an Internet publisher?

Throwing this stuff back at the individual authors is going to make today's situation better? I guess while ever you see Publisher = Evil/Greedy you won't be convinced of anything else. You really need to meet some publishers, and discover they are just as passionate about the written word as the authors and agents.

Some authors are putting some of their backlist up at Smashwords. http://www.bookviewcafe.com/ is another site. Even Vonda N. McIntyre has eBooks there. There are other places that I cannot think off off the top of my head.

 

[Deano2099]

Imagine you are an author about to have your first book published but your innovative, future-seeing publisher, who is attempting to sign you to a contract that seems unlike any other existing contract, and they say, "Trust me!". You and your agent may be very reluctant to sign, just in case the whole publishing industry pans out differently.

It's a gamble. It may or not pay off.

Yes, but if you stick with the traditional model you risk your book being pirated to death. That's also a gamble. I genuinely think failing to change quickly enough is as big a risk as changing too quickly.

And the reason the whole thing is laughable is that we've done this before. The music industry has gone through it, the film industry is going through it and just about coming out the other side now. And no technical measure, DRM, or complaining on forums helped at all for them. I'd say the music industry's size and lobbying power is just a little bigger than publishing? It's go no chance.

And yeah, I see the role of the editor changing to be a more freelance, contracted by the writer sort of role, with the writer engaging more directly with the audience. I work in non-fiction publishing and we're already starting to use more freelance editors rather than doing stuff in-house. The in-house editors manage everything for the product from cover design through to marketing, as in the system you mention. But the freelancers just copy-edit and fact check, working with the author then passing the thing on to us.

 

[jhempel24]

Here's an opinion on the subject coming from someone who openly admits to pirating some ebooks:

Is what I'm doing right? NO!
Do I feel that if I own a hardback copy then the eBook copy is justified. YES! (Kind of like buying a DVD and getting a digital copy free)
If I love the book, will I buy it? YES!!

One thing that it has done, is it allowed me to discover authors that I may have never read before, and wouldn't even think about paying for. Buy by reading that book that I pirated, if I loved it, it's bought....and so is the next few books the author has.

I look at it as a try before you buy type thing.

That being said, I've also supported all the authors in the Trek Universe, I love Trek books, and will continue to purchase what's available.

 

[ST-One]

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/01/book-piracy-drm-data.html

Some interesting points there.

 

[Thrawn]

^ That is a really good read. Thanks for the link. I think the real problem is what he describes early on, that there just isn't good information on the effects of piracy, and just as much indication right now that an increase in piracy leads to an increase in sales.

There was an indie game publisher that hosted their game World Of Goo for free (or, actually for "whatever you want to pay") for a week, and it had the effect of boosting legitimate sales in the weeks afterwards hugely. They estimated they ended up making about $200k more than they would've without it. In a lot of cases, being able to get something free lets word of mouth get around more easily.

 

[jhempel24]

Case in point of Scott Sigler, he gave his stuff away free, continues to do so, and hit the NY Times best seller list. If your stuffs good it will get bought in most cases. Having a fan base and connecting with your fans goes a long long way. Like the authors do here. I've got mad respect for the authors that connect in a real way with the fans.

 

[Technobuilder]

I still remember seeing Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for Free over a period of 3 days.

Loved it.

Then it got the free to watch, sponsored bit permanently in conjunction with HULU...

So now I could show it to everybody (and I did) whenever I wanted.

Then they announced the DVD and I had a pre-order that day.

Again, not every project has Joss Whedon and his reputation behind it, but fair is fair.

I bought the DVD because I wanted my own copy to have and show around and enjoy the BONUS MATERIALS despite being able to get it for free online.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Oddly enough, authors throughout history did just peachy without most of that stuff for hundreds of years.......

Yeah, but only the good stories survived. The bad storytellers and wandering minstrels were chased out of town, and were probably stoned to death.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

 

[lstyer]

Nothing wrong with buying used. I can't afford to buy everything new.

I can see by your location listing that you're in the U.S., so buying used is legal. But buying used is only legal in the U.S. because the Supreme Court adopted the First-Sale Doctrine in copyright matters. That's not universal, and it's a deviation from the "principle" of copyright, which would otherwise allow the copyright holder to forbid the sale of used copies. If you lived in such a jurisdiction would it then be wrong to buy used? Did it stop being wrong to buy used when the Supreme Court announced the First-Sale Doctrine, or was it already not wrong, just not legally recognized?

The truth is intellectual property and tangible property aren't the same thing, and can't really be treated without distinction by the law. Pirating a copy of a copyrighted work does not do the same harm to the copyright holder as shoplifting a copy of the same book does to the shop owner, and to argue that they are the same is disingenuous. At the same time, to argue that because the harm isn't the same that piracy isn't wrong is also disingenuous. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, and what we have to do is figure out where.

A pirated copy is, in and of itself, without economic cost to the copyright holder.

 

[JarodRussell]

You could argue that those who get pirated copies would have never ever bought a legal copy to begin with. If you for instance shut down the Interblag to make downloads impossible, how many of them would suddenly buy the books?

 

[Leathco]

I haven't bought a real book for awhile, with a few exceptions. Mostly due to Amazons Kindle sales model. I love having a huge book collection on my cell phone, and anytime I want I can pull it out and read from my entire library. If I decide to read on my actual Kindle at home, the Whispersync automatically opens the book to the last page I read no matter what device I last read on. I have an actual Kindle, the kindle app on my blackberry, and the kindle app on my desktop, and the kindle app on my UMPC, and its great no matter what I read on, I never lose my spot.

I think thats a huge reason why I don't pirate books, the Kindle system just has so many benefits over a ripped text version. And, to be honest, my old DVD collection of Trek was "pirated" (I rented all the discs from Netflix and burned them), but I am also slowly buying up all the box sets (I am only missing 2 seasons each of TNG, DS9, and Voyager, and a single season of Enterprise). And its for a stupid reason, but I like the way all the cases and discs look in a bookcase. The same bookcase has some Trek ship models, all my Star Trek CCG cards in the CCG game boxes (I have a Federation storage box and a Cardassian storage box, I hope I find the Borg and Romulan boxes later).

With that said, I have pirated a LOT of the older Trek PC games just cause I can't find the things anymore. I own copies of all the newer ones but wanted to play the old ones too. I wonder how far copyright goes on that.....I have a copy of 25th Anniversary on the NES, but only a pirated copy for the PC. Since I own the NES version, do I have the right to play the PC version?

 

[Deano2099]

You could argue that those who get pirated copies would have never ever bought a legal copy to begin with. If you for instance shut down the Interblag to make downloads impossible, how many of them would suddenly buy the books?

A very small number. Maybe 5% at most. Thing is, book publishing is in such a bad way that if it was only 1% then that'd be a huge boost to a book's sales figures.

 

[seigezunt]

After all, as we remember, home taping destroyed the music industry.

 

[kkozoriz1]

However, you first needed a copy of the tape or LP. With digital downloads one person with the CD can supply the entire world with a copy. Digital copies make sharing much, much easier.

 

[ST-One]

However, you first needed a copy of the tape or LP. With digital downloads one person with the CD can supply the entire world with a copy. Digital copies make sharing much, much easier.

Suppose that neither of use here intents to share any files for which he paid good money.
Why should we have to put up with very restrictive DRM-'protection'?

 

[kkozoriz1]

Because there are people who would shrare the file in a heartbeat. That's why the publishers are insisting on DRM. I can see their point, however misguided I believe it to be. The music labels insisted on DRM when iTunes Music Store first opened. Steve Jobs was opposed to it then but went along to help move from physical delivery to digital online delivery. You'll notice that iTunes no longer uses DRM.

The book publishers are where music was 10 years ago. It'll take them time to work it all out. Remember the old saying about "people who don't remember the past..."

 

[Scout101]

I have a copy of 25th Anniversary on the NES, but only a pirated copy for the PC. Since I own the NES version, do I have the right to play the PC version?

As far as that goes, no. They weren't the same game, although same name/release time. It's not the same as a paperback and e-book of the same title. Different argument, and you'd be in the wrong on that one...

 

[Deano2099]

However, you first needed a copy of the tape or LP. With digital downloads one person with the CD can supply the entire world with a copy. Digital copies make sharing much, much easier.

That's the point though. People here go "theft is theft is theft". Or it's "morally wrong full stop".

But it isn't. This thing is on a continuum.

Why is sharing with one person okay, but one million people not okay? It's the same thing, just a matter of scale.

If sharing with one person is okay, and one million is bad (which you know, I'd hold to be entirely true) then what about five people? Ten? Fifty? When does it stop being sharing and start being piracy?

 

[JarodRussell]

How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? Five, fifty, fifty thousand, a million? HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE?!

 

[Deano2099]

How many people does it take before it becomes wrong? Five, fifty, fifty thousand, a million? HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE?!