I think I will be posting information concerning how far technology has come in making traditional copyright laws impossible to enforce. I hope to come to an understanding of how the world of publishing will overcome or adapt to this new lawlessness concerning intellectual property.
For this first post I would like to just simply send all people to www.scribd.com . This is a site intended to share any kind of document. However, it has become a home of copied works including many of today's bestsellers.
I'm a big fan of geeky fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. To take a look at the full text of many of his books and to download them in any number of formats such as txt or pdf simply follow the link below. Heck, you can even embed a player that will display the complete text in your blog. Maybe I'll try that feature out at the end of this post.
http://www.scribd.com/search?query=terry+pratchett&x=0&y=0
But my thought is how will this near impossibility of copyright law enforcement influence the way publishers distribute material and how consumers consume it? I hope to look at a few methods that have already been used, and discuss their ramifications.
6 comments:
So are you breaking copyright by posting that Scribd doc? Interesting take on the whole thing! I'll be watching to see what everyone else thinks. I am wondering just what publishers can do in this environment.
Interesting topic! I have never heard of this website before, but I will be sure to check it out. It seems that the availability of copyrighted material is a nightmare for publishers and authors alike!
Yes, I am very much breaking copyright by posting that scribd document. I hope that people will forgive me because it is just to show an example of how easy it is to steal, and that it is so out in the open that it can feel as though you are doing nothing wrong. When you steal a physical object you have to hide it--nobody knows--you usually don't tell a soul about it, but when that property is digital and not physically tangible it becomes difficult for many people to feel they are stealing. By posting that Scribd document am I preventing Terry Pratchett from receiving any money from a hypothetical transaction from a physical book. Is this it really even about the money, or is it something else? I'll have to fill these thoughts out, and maybe this will end up being my next post.
I would assume that eventually it will become like the stealing of music and how all the musicians came together in order to solve the problem of free music download and transfer. My guess is that authors will begin to receive money for each download and if they don't the website will be held accountable for the payment.
Thanks for showing us scribd. I already joined. Is that bad?? I think that it is a very cool site. I think that we have all been breaking copyright laws for a long time! :)
Yes, it has become easier to access information. The day is approaching fast when we will pay a hefty fee for the Internet to cover "information theft" issues. Thank you for passing on scribd. That's a pretty cool tool!
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