Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Herley
It's called Public Lending Right, and most authors get no more than £100 a year from it. Although it is of course true that libraries buy books and hence pay some royalties to authors, and although it is true that libraries act as showcases for lesser-known authors, the fact remains that authors are deprived of much income by libraries. In effect, authors subsidize the public library system, paying for the entertainment and enlightenment of people who earn far more than they do.
To the pirates and apologists-for-the-indefensible posting here: if you persist in not paying the author, he will be unable to write. It is as simple as that. If you want nothing new, of any quality, to read in 20 years' time, by all means keep ripping off the authors and the publishers. Just don't complain when all you have left to read are books written 20, 50, or 100 years before -- by authors who, being conveniently dead, no longer need to feed themselves. |
This point of there not being any good books out there because of pirating is a rather WEAK point. Most of the books published in the industry are rather poor in quality or crap. I would say less books published would be a good thing in general. Plus, the point of authors not having enough to live on is pathetic. Writing is a luxury not a right. Most writers and artists do have "regular" jobs as do most of the writers on this site.
There was plenty of "culture" in many countries before writers and artists were paid handsomely for their work.