Beware Audiobook-Vault.com

My strong impression is that there isn't anything you can do about it. If you follow the adventures of outfits like PirateBay on slashdot or other geekfeeds you become aware there is little that governments or even combined governments can do about it.

The concept that literary properties like eBooks, podcasts, and audios can be swiped is just one of the facts of life in these formats. Some people react to that in horror and refuse to publish their work in such formats for fear it would be stolen (freqently it's inconceivable that the works in question would be tempting to any imaginable thief) but a lot of big players in these fields (such as Cory Doctorow) have evolved an ethic in which that is just part of the set-up.

You don't lose more from theft than from giving work away and giving work away is an emerging paradigm in sales. Anybody who puts novels online for open readership has come to grips with that.

Thing is, even print books have "leakage". You get no money from used sales or library readers, for instance. Yet writers either write that off, like stores write off shoplifting, or see it as positive outreach for your work.

Piratebay's lost a court case over copyright infringement and its owners sold it to cover the costs of what they were sued for. Piratebay's home page has been banned from Google over DMCA complaints filed with the search company. ISPs pull questionable material (and the hosting of those who host it) at the mere mention of a cease-and-desist notice. The governments of several companies are doing a TON about piracy, and if you have works that are being pirated you can register a complaint with the ISPs responsible. Even torrents can be tracked - to the dismay of some Americans that have been sued by the RIAA for downloading and distributing illegal content over the last few years.

I'm letting you know this because any artist whose material is stolen should know that they CAN take action over it and that there are governments CHOMPING AT THE BIT to do even more about the problem of piracy. So much so that it's become ridiculous, in fact. But people do have protection and they need to be aware of it.

I'm not sure if you realize it, but equating library books to piracy is pretty insulting to the public service that libraries perform for those they lend to, and also a poor analogy when it comes to the scale of distributing one audiobook for free to thousands simultaneously versus lending one LEGAL copy of a book via a taxpayer and endowment funded service to thousands of people over the course of years.

Off-topic but perhaps of passing interest:

> You get no money from used sales or library readers, for instance.

In Canada, you do. We have a lovely little program called "Public Lending Right" by which the gov't randomly selects seven libraries across the country, checks to see if copies of your books are on their shelves, and pays you a set amount per copy they find, up to a maximum. I get a $150-300 cheque every February for that, and I have to say, sometimes it's saved my bacon with the bill collectors. It's also nice to find out that people are still borrowing my dead-tree books as much as they ever were, almost 20 years later.

I'm not sure if you realize it, but equating library books to piracy is pretty insulting to the public service that libraries perform for those they lend to

I'm not sure whether you actually think I was "equating there" or this is just more of your usual "follow Lin around and smear crap on his posts" game. If the former, can't help you. If the latter, why not just stop doing it?

In fact, there isn't much you can do about piracy. sorry, but that's the case. Every time a napster or pirate bay gets closed a dozen others open.

I think it's much healthier to think in more modern terms. Read what Doctorow says on this. Then come back ans snarf. I'm offering a positive attitude and posture to writers. If anybody wants to be paranoid and think they can go shoot up the bad guys, have fun.

O KAAAAAAY?

Linton, I'm pretty sure you just don't read any real news. The only reason I bother reading your posts is out of the fear that others might actually take you seriously and become mis-informed. I will continue to point out the inaccuracies in your posts to keep others aware of the reality of things instead of your errors. If you tire of this, please take care to research your posts. All you've done in this thread is attempt to dissuade authors from defending their copyrights. That's a kind of madness I simply can't allow to persist unchecked. Again, if this frustrates you, then correct your actions and it will stop happening.

Pay attention to your own words, eh? That's pretty blatant.

That is a flawed syllogism (it's called "undistributed middle term"...look it up)

The resemblance between piracy, shoplifting, and libraries is only in the sense that it could be seen as money lost the artist.

You're just groveling around for reasons to insult me and give me a hard time whenever I post.

Why don't you just stop it? What purpose does it serve?

But like I said, if you want to go hire some lawyers or spend a bunch of time chasing revenue from the ebooks that I'm sure the world is just DYING to steal from you, be my guest.

I postulate another way to look at it.
If only one way is allowed here and any other draws personal insults, then okay, there are forums like that.
Too bad this is one of them.

One more time...why don't you just stop following me around and yapping at my heels like a fucking chihuahua?

You two are the only ones I see here making personal attacks. I know you're part of the setup and can get away with it. But it sure doesn't do much for a forum to have that sort of crap.

I just feel like any post I make about anything is going to get me insulted. Why is that a good thing?

This is from the New York times. That's a newspaper. Where people read news.

Others view digital piracy as a way for new readers to discover writers. Cory Doctorow, a novelist whose young adult novel “Little Brother” spent seven weeks on the New York Times children’s chapter books best-seller list last year, offers free electronic versions of his books on the same day they are published in hardcover. He believes free versions, even unauthorized ones, entice new readers.

“I really feel like my problem isn’t piracy,” Mr. Doctorow said. “It’s obscurity.”

I've read a lot more of Doctorow's comments on this...and he's far from the only one.
And what he says here is almost exactly the same thing another major writer told me in an interview a few months ago...about libraries and why free reading isn't lost money to a writer: the problem isn't losing royalties, it's getting people to read who might then recommend, but gifts, even buy a book to have around to read.

The article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12digital.html

But more to the point... I just don't see why viewpoints that oppose irk and company should meet with insults.

Or why fear and militancy has to be the only way to talk about this matter when there are other, very sensible ways to think of it that don't involve negativism or alarmism and a "war on piracy" or whatever.

That's a kind of madness I simply can't allow to persist unchecked. Again, if this frustrates you, then correct your actions and it will stop happening.

Seig fucking heil

Whoa. Were a bunch of posts deleted here or something? Because I just can't see anything worth getting this upset about.

Sorry Lin, I'm not noticing this campaign of personal insults--maybe it's just a difference of opinion and you're taking it a little harder than necessary? I've read all the threads here and there doesn't seem to be enough to justify such anger. Unless you're referring to something elsewhere, in which case, never mind.

To go on topic, thanks for the heads up, MeiLin. I'm sort of torn between both positions. I'm a strong supporter of intellectual property rights, and if an author doesn't want to make his/her work available for free, then s/he shouldn't have that decision overruled by others. However, I also think it might not do as much damage as some authors fear. I look at Jonathan Coulton, who isn't thrilled by piracy but he creates so much goodwill by providing his songs for free and allowing others to use them in creative ways that he doesn't seem to be particularly victimized by piracy. Then there's Gabe Newell from Valve, the game producer; unlike the other gaming company chiefs, he doesn't blame piracy for lower sales issues. I'm sure Valve's games are as pirated as everyone else's (though they use DRM very cleverly), but Newell seems to be pragmatic about things.

But as I said, it should be up to the creator to decide what or how much his or her work is available. Creeps like the site in the OP aren't justified in gainsaying this decision.

I haven't really stated my own personal position on piracy in this thread - simply that authors are, in fact, able to do something about it, as well as governments. Whether an author wants or does not want to take action when they find infringement is their own business - I just want them to know that they can, in fact, take action. Considering that I have two and a half novels up for free on PK's site, it's kind of easy to tell where my heart is when it comes to free content on the internet.

I'm in the "information wants to be free, man" camp myself, but it should be up to the author. My work is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License, which means I wouldn't want this asshat pirating my books because he's making ad revenue off them.

I'm new here (hi), and sad to say, but Irk does follow Lin around and pees all over his posts. I've seen it in multiple threads so far. It's not really helpful either, especially with the self-righteous tone that the comments are delivered in, like he (Irk) is on some holy mission.

That aside, it does suck when people steal your work, and thanks for the heads up.

>> I'm new here (hi), and sad to say, but Irk does follow Lin around and pees all over his posts. I've seen it in multiple threads so far. It's not really helpful either, especially with the self-righteous tone that the comments are delivered in, like he (Irk) is on some holy mission.

You do realize those are old posts, right? Lin's been banned for awhile, fyi.

Lin's been booted off a number of forums. It's not just Irk.