Joe Konrath on copyright and fair use

[fjtorres]

Konrath is never boring:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/04/fair-use.html

So many writers seem unduly concerned about copyright infringement. On one hand, if someone makes a film called AFRAID and uses my plot and characters without paying me, then releases that film nationwide, I'm going to sue.

But if someone makes a student film out of AFRAID to show on YouTube without monetizing it, go for it.

Want to write a song about a book I wrote? Knock yourself out.

Share my ebooks with your family? Go for it.

Quote a paragraph I wrote in your work? Be my guest.

Sample my voice and put it in a song? Cool.

Seed a Jack Kilborn torrent? Enjoy yourself.

Sell your used copy of WHISKEY SOUR, paper or ebook or audio, to somebody else? No problem. I'm for first-sale doctrine.

I define "fair use" as: You can do whatever you want with my intellectual property, as long as you're doing it without intending to make money. Once you want to make money from it, get in touch and we'll try to work something out.

There is more... though he stops a bit short of explaining *how* copyright law is going to have to change to accomodate digital fair use. (For example, I can see a DRM regime that says: Buys an ebook new, you can resell it--buy it used, you cannot.)

It's a good start to a conversation that needs to happen.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Hasn't this been figured out through the Creative Commons terms already?

[caleb72]

He's a clever one Konrath. Keep in everyone's collective face and no one will ever forget you. Just by posting stuff like that and being popular enough to have the link posted all over the place, he keeps his name in everyone's awareness. And because he really is addressing the masses, he gets the popularity he needs.

You see the replies to his post and some other authors get pissy with him, but what does he care about other authors. He just needs a million people to say how cool and righteous he is and have even a fraction of those people convert into a sale or two and he's in the money again.

I've never paid for a Konrath book because I've realised he's bound to make them all free at one stage. I just look out for them and scoop them up when they become available. But even I'm tempted by Fuzzy Navel which is available for $0.99 at Amazon at the moment, because I'm collecting him.