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Greg Anos · 08-12-2008, 01:12 PM

Here is the nub of the discussion. (And thanks for putting the cuss back in discussion

)

***RANT WARNING***RANT WARNING***RANT WARNING***

How should authors be paid?

Not how much, but how?

Currently, it's being paid in an advance/royalty method, created by copyright law. The copyright law is under seige and failing. disrupting (and potentially destroying) this payment method.

Everybody else in the world except I.P. creators get paid once, with no future royalties attached.

Why are authors (I.P. creators) so special?

When I hear authors rant about how their livelyhood is being taken away by "pirates", I think about all the factory workers and technicians in highly paid countries who have had their livelyhoods hammered by labor substitution in poorer countries. The generic response is "that's too bad, but still it's good for everybody else, just retrain." To listen to authors, when their world gets disrupted by uncontrollable competition, it's armegeddon.

Maybe author should join the rest of the world, and get paid once. No future royalties. Just like engineers, brain surgeons, and garbagemen.

And if you can't make a living at it, do something else. That's what everybody else in the world faces every day. There is no guarantee that what you want to do for a living will make you a living. Never has been, never will be.

The truth is, there are far too many authors, living and dead, all competing for the same pool of money and time. There isn't enough to go around, even without digital "piracy". In any other business, bankruptcy would eliminate the weak competitors. I.P. potentially lasts forever. Current authors are still competing with Shakespeare, John Donne, Balzac, Alexandre Dumas (both), Mark Twain, H.G Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemmingway, Louis L'Amour, Robert Heinlein, (and on and on and on....), as well as each other. The real problem isn't "piracy" per se, but the fact that it makes the competition even more stiff for current authors, by making more works readily available. Project Gutenberg is as big of a threat to current writers as "piracy" is. It's legal and it's readily available and it's free.

(White men with straitjacket and hypos enter room, backing me into a corner. The needles jab, and things start spinning.... A voice in the background, say "Don't worry, nobody will listen anyway.")

08-12-2008, 01:12 PM	#490
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,532 Karma: 37057604 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	Here is the nub of the discussion. (And thanks for putting the cuss back in discussion ) *RANT WARNINGRANT WARNINGRANT WARNING* How should authors be paid? Not how much, but how? Currently, it's being paid in an advance/royalty method, created by copyright law. The copyright law is under seige and failing. disrupting (and potentially destroying) this payment method. Everybody else in the world except I.P. creators get paid once, with no future royalties attached. Why are authors (I.P. creators) so special? When I hear authors rant about how their livelyhood is being taken away by "pirates", I think about all the factory workers and technicians in highly paid countries who have had their livelyhoods hammered by labor substitution in poorer countries. The generic response is "that's too bad, but still it's good for everybody else, just retrain." To listen to authors, when their world gets disrupted by uncontrollable competition, it's armegeddon. Maybe author should join the rest of the world, and get paid once. No future royalties. Just like engineers, brain surgeons, and garbagemen. And if you can't make a living at it, do something else. That's what everybody else in the world faces every day. There is no guarantee that what you want to do for a living will make you a living. Never has been, never will be. The truth is, there are far too many authors, living and dead, all competing for the same pool of money and time. There isn't enough to go around, even without digital "piracy". In any other business, bankruptcy would eliminate the weak competitors. I.P. potentially lasts forever. Current authors are still competing with Shakespeare, John Donne, Balzac, Alexandre Dumas (both), Mark Twain, H.G Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemmingway, Louis L'Amour, Robert Heinlein, (and on and on and on....), as well as each other. The real problem isn't "piracy" per se, but the fact that it makes the competition even more stiff for current authors, by making more works readily available. Project Gutenberg is as big of a threat to current writers as "piracy" is. It's legal and it's readily available and it's free. (White men with straitjacket and hypos enter room, backing me into a corner. The needles jab, and things start spinning.... A voice in the background, say "Don't worry, nobody will listen anyway.")