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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
Jane Fancher you could also spam the 'darknet' with flawed copies of your work. So that anyone searching for a free download instead of just paying for it at your site would likely just find that flawed copy. Then again that just might provoke the sort of response apparently given to Harlan Ellison.
Speaking of which … I've never met the man or seen him in person and all the talk here makes me regret that. I do recall that when I was young, must have been about 1968 – 1969, I read a collection of SF stories that included his story Shattered Like a Glass Goblin. In it a female character asks a male character: “You want to fuck?” At 15 years old I was shocked that a SF author could include such dialogue in a book. No other SF author that I was aware of was doing such.
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Heh heh...don't know about spamming. But being a pirate of my own work. That's just so bent...
If you ever get the chance, do meet Harlan. He's brutally honest. (I guess writer's workshops with him are/were something else!) Stands up for his work's integrity and his creative rights like no other author I've ever met, and the three of us are pretty tough, at least where it comes to messing with our work. Most of us don't have the money, time, or energy to take on the Hollywood Big Guns when they rip us off...and probably most authors have been by now. I know I was. Blatantly. Someone like Harlan reminds Hollywood that they aren't completely invulnerable.
Love him or hate him, he makes people think, and that, IMO, is a very good thing.
Oh...yeah...Harlan was definitely one of the first, if not the first, to use any sort of "vulgar" language in SF/F prose. He's also the author of the City on the Edge of Forever...I think that's the title...the first of the time travel Star Trek episodes that ends with Kirk saying "Let's get the hell out of here." Harlan fought really hard for that one. Was ultimately furious with how they hacked his script (I've read the original and it was greatly changed, but the final version was still pretty outstanding) but that line got through. It might have been a first for network TV.
Even when I began submitting in the late 80's some publishers still wouldn't let you use profanity, esp the F word. It's one reason I ended up at Warner rather than DAW because not using it in the 'NetWalkers books would be...I dunno, disingenuous? I guess that covers it.