[WEB4LIB] "Piracy is Progressive Taxation"

[Karen G. Schneider]

:Lesson 1: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative
:artists than piracy.

(Edward, I know you aren't making the argument here, just citing the
arguments.)

Oh, pish tosh.  That's a false dichotomy.  What if you're as well-known
as you wanna be, and someone steals your work?  Imagine my shock at
finding Northern Light had stolen my American Libraries columns--freely
available on the ALA Web site, and owned by ME according to the generous
AL copyright agreement--and to add insult to injury, was selling them
for $2.95 a pop!  (No royalties to me, of course--but then I only
discovered the theft by accident, while doing research, and thanks to AL
for going after them for me...)

Yes, I suppose if it were handed to me, I'd like fame, fortune, and a
MacArthur fellowship.  But really, I was perfectly happy with the level
of exposure AL provided, and felt very well compensated for my columns
both in exposure and payment, and I certainly didn't need my own
personally owned works to be sold like stolen books on a street-corner.
Please, spare me from "information wants to be free, as long as it's
yours." 

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Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
Director,    Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
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