As the Internet has exploded and the number of online readers have skyrocketed, there has been some serious collateral damage and negativity attached to it. And while some of the finger pointing is warranted, there is much more to gain from the contributing of content than what is reported at times.
The increased demand of the blog and the e-book has left print publishers scrambling a bit from the fallout. Newspapers and magazines who for years scoffed at the Internet writers have seen readership drop off as more people consult the Internet for their reading pleasure.
However another dilemma has reared its ugly head again in light of the content driven blog and e-book world. Pirating, as in stealing, has become an entire enterprise on the Internet. For many of us this is old news or certainly not a shocker. The music industry already dealt with this issue 20 years ago as people were sharing music files like there is no tomorrow, for free, with their Internet friends. Soon to follow was the rapid increase in “bootleg” films popping up all over the Internet.
Ironically the whole copyright infringement concept has been re-opened and still unresolved in many ways. Some argue that sales of CD’s and DVD’s were aided by what they call an unplanned mass promotion. Others have claimed enormous losses of potential sales.
And now the content piracy has writers and authors having a tizzy fit over what amounts to the plagiarism of their work. Oddly enough part of the wood feeding this fire is the insatiable appetite of on line readers. It appears as if you can write enough content for the Web. How severe has this problem of bogarting other people’s material become?
A business of finding illegal copies has spawned from this. In fact some publishers employ their own trawlers to find unauthorized copies of their releases. Some claim the number of discoveries have risen 5 fold in the past year!
Who is behind this loathsome act of pirating? Any number of people unfortunately who consider themselves opportunists. In a May 11,2009 NY Times article Stephen King had this to say: most e-book pirates “live in basements floored with carpeting remnants, living on Funions and discount beer.”
In fact in this modernistic time we live, we have heard many a print media take shots like this at web bloggers and Internet writers. Is it true?
Most definitely there is an element and a crop of despicable losers who have sought financial gain at the expense of someone else’s hard work. But is it any different than the scum who sell “Coach” and “Gucci” products at a flea market for a fraction of the retail value? Or people who steal truckloads of Nike and Reebok sneakers and sell them in a parking lot? Or how about what I call Tai-pods (made in Taiwan) being sold as IPods?
I guess some would argue the Internet piracy of electronic content is more widespread, which may or may not be true. Actually many studies suggest the electronic piracy of books is nowhere near as bad as the “Napster” days and the music piracy explosion. Still, there is no excuse or rationale to condone this obscene, egregious, and arrogant display of humanity. But what is going to be done about it?
Well as I previously noted, publishing companies are making a reasonable attempt at “whacking the moles” as one publisher put it. As an individual, however, there is only so much you can do. It should be duly noted that it is safe to say that if you are quite adept and efficient at finding bogus unauthorized use of Internet published books, articles or blogs you may be able to become a paid investigator with a little imagination and by contacting interested parties.
With that said there are flocks of talented and aspiring writers who have a role in the Internet publishing arena. If you are one of them or wish to be, you cannot let the scandal and controversy of piracy prevent you from acquiring the knowhow and the capacity to earn an income from being an Internet writer.
As a musician who has released a commercial CD, I have learned you can’t worry about things you cannot control. Granted we are just small potatoes having only sold thousands of copies of our CD in the Philadelphia area. But we know there are many who simply burned copies and gave it to their friends. But you know what, we didn’t technically lose money from that in the sense it did not cost us anything for a copy to be handed out at someone else’s expense. And the reality is we calculated a percentage of give aways in our marketing game plan. And some of those people who received a pirated copy ended up coming out to see us and buying a legit copy anyhow. Honestly in our case it may have helped us sell more copies. We will never know, but we do know what we did sell and the money we did make. And it was a plus not a minus.
So as you slice it and dice it, it is hard to pinpoint exactly how much harm is being done as far as the potential lost sales or lost earnings for an author’s web work. And yet as we have discussed it is clearly contemptible and shameful that there is anyone willing to steal someone’s hard work. Nevertheless it is crazy to become obsessed, perplexed, or daunted over what to do about it.
Don’t let the bad rep and the actions of perverse degenerates deter you from your goals and dreams of being a web blogger or web author. They’re going to eat their “Funions” and sit on their futon and do what their feeble mind tells them to do. They will have to live with selling of their soul and of their dignity.
In the meantime count the gains and the rewards that come with your success and the enjoyment people get from your expressions! Earning money as a result of our work is always a good thing.
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