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[personal profile] tahariel
Since I left the Hell-Job on Friday I have:

  • tidied the entire flat so it is now all clean and lovely

  • cleaned out all the photos I don't actually want to keep (elbows and people I don't know)

  • spent all the iTunes vouchers work gave me as a leaving present

  • finagled a single ticket for the National Theatre's production of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the monster! (It was EXPENSIVE. More than I thought, anyway. But I am so stoked. Also awesome about this production: Benedict Cumberbatch and the other actor are alternating who plays the monster and who plays Dr Frankenstein. Neat.)

  • started up two tumblr accounts and worked out how to use the damn things

  • went to visit a local film studio to see if we might use it for Taken/Quitados, the short film I am Assistant Producing this year (AWESOME, BTW.)


    So feeling pretty accomplished right now! I start the New Job on Monday so plenty of free time this week to do some writing and such.

    On a more studious note, I've been reading a few articles today by authors I love about publishing, e-publishing and internet piracy that I want to talk to you guys about.

    I can't lay claim to sainthood in this arena by any value system. As I'm sure most of my flist do, I download a lot of TV shows to watch as they come out in the US rather than waiting for them to be shown here in the UK or buying them on DVD. I justify this by telling myself that they're not losing any money from me as I wouldn't be paying to access their TV channels anyway, etc, etc, I don't want to be spoiled, etc. This does not make it okay, and I am also aware of that. I wouldn't have to justify it if it wasn't a problem in the first place.



    Now, the big TV companies? The movie studios? (I don't, as a rule, download movies, but let's assume that I did.) Them I'm not so concerned about, because I don't live in the US, and my opinion - my business - never seems to carry any weight with them when they decide whether or not to keep my favourite shows on TV or whether to make a sequel to my favourite films. But authors? I do care about them.

    [livejournal.com profile] anywherebeyond (YA author Saundra Mitchell) has written a really eye-opening post about the direct impact ebook piracy is having on her livelihood and on the trajectory of her career. (“Free” Books Aren’t Free.) I've never pirated a book, and have no intentions to, but the numbers alone really stunned me. So I followed a few links, and read a bit more, and winced a bit more every time.


    Kimberly Pauley:And furthermore…why illegal downloads suck (i.e. status of a third Mina book)

    Barbara Caridad Ferrer:An Open Letter to Book Pirates…

    Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant:"As to hanging, it is no great hardship...": Internet Piracy, and Who It Hurts


    As a related aside, Why Do eBooks Cost So Much? (A Publisher’s Perspective)


    So if you see me buying a few more books, a few more things on DVD in future, don't tell me 'you could have got that for free on the internet', because it's a choice I want to try to make. Even though I am so, so broke. Especially after buying the Cumberbatch ticket.

    But I feel good about paying for it.
  • Date: 2011-01-18 07:45 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] lemniciate.livejournal.com
    OH MY GD WHAT WHAT FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CUMBERBATCH? :OOO WHAT A FABULOUS COMBO I CANNOT EVEN

    Date: 2011-01-18 07:53 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tahariel.livejournal.com
    I NO RITE?

    Apparently they open up tickets for the Circle on the day of the show, but as I don't live in London this is clearly no good for me. Also they will be opening more tickets in, like, March, but I will totally forget by then and/or fail to get to see it, so, I have bought ONE TICKET and will go to see it all on my lonesome.

    Date: 2011-01-18 09:00 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tellezara.livejournal.com
    Thanks for those links, they were an interesting read! Everybody seems to have a Kindle these days and it's disappointing to think they might be used for pirated ebooks.

    Date: 2011-01-18 09:44 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tahariel.livejournal.com
    I have a Kindle these days too, but you don't need one to read pirated ebooks - you can just get them on your computer, too, which is why there isn't even that minimal extra outlay for people. It just makes me really sad when you think how little money authors make anyway for their hard work that this screws up their livelihoods so much. At least musicians get paid to do gigs on top of producing albums.

    Date: 2011-01-18 09:48 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] wickednotevil.livejournal.com
    Downloading things is a bit of a weird thing for me. I do it constantly, but as a musician we're constantly being told the only way to make money is to get people to pay for our music. Which they won't because they don't have to. But the lecturers who tell us this also make us go download so much music a week that it's sort of lost all meaning ;P
    Idk, I buy official things when I like them. Even when they're awful (like some of the 'officially' translated manga, urgh) I have my own little code of download-y-ness which goes something like:
    Books I pay for
    Things to watch I dl then buy if I like (...I like the portability of my hard drive versions...)
    Music should be free

    Date: 2011-01-18 09:54 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tahariel.livejournal.com
    But the whole "music should be free" thing is an embodiment of modern culture's entitlement complex regarding art. Why should it be free? Why should somebody who spends a lot of time and effort making something not be recompensed for that time and effort in such a way that they can a) afford to live and b) afford to make more of the music you like?

    Without the superstructure of the recording industry - flawed as it may be - music would not be of the quality it is today, nor could most artists achieve the kind of publicity, quality, platform that they can achieve with this kind of support. But it's a retail market and if things don't sell the company won't pay them for more of it and so they effectively are put out of work and can't make more music, because the company won't pay for more of something that doesn't sell, because to make more music and try new artists they have to make a profit to pay for it.

    Why should it be different for music as opposed to other types of art?

    (I know I'm pretty full-on about this stuff, it's just something I'm really passionate about. Sorry if I come on a little strong :/

    Date: 2011-01-19 12:53 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tourdefierce.livejournal.com
    YOU ARE SO PRODUCTIVE, I'M SUPER JEALOUS AT YOUR SKILLS.

    ALSO. CUMBERBATCH ON STAGE. SOOOOO JEALOUS.

    Date: 2011-01-19 03:11 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] pikasafire.livejournal.com
    FRANKENSTEIN AND BENEDICT?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!? A MORPHING OF TWO OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS! WHYYYYYYYYYYY DO I NOT LIVE IN THE UK?!

    Oooh, piracy. This is totally a topic i'm in two minds about (most of the time actually!) I download TV shows as they come out, for sure, but i'm usually pretty careful about buying them when they're released on DVD (that said, I DO wait until they're cheaper. I refuse to pay $80 for Supernatural s5. $30, no problem, but $80 is ridiculous) and movies, I do download sometimes, mostly because I a) don't want to pay money for something that I won't like and I suck at actually going to the Blockbuster and b) everything is released nine million years earlier in the USA and I hate waiting for them to be released here in Australia. But, again, I WILL buy them when they are released and no longer $40.

    Music is a weird one. If I love the artist, I'll pay for their music without hesitating (and buy whatever merch I want without quibbling) BUT, I will admit most of my music is downloaded from friends or online. In return, when ever artists I like come to town, I pay the horrendous amount for the concert ticket ($120 my last one cost me!) (apparently, concerts are where they get the most of their money anyway?). Unfortunately, I live in Australia and most artists skip little Adelaide.

    Books. Now, this one is interesting. I have e-books, no problem. I even have a ton of pirated e-books. I prefer to have a tangible, paper copy most of the time. BUT, this is where I get annoyed: It costs me, on average $25 for a paperback novel because Australia has stupid taxes. An author will see $2 of that. Now THAT pisses me off. I write, I've published, and I understand that $2 is better than nothing and that it adds up but I would rather GIVE an author $10 directly than have $23 of what i've paid go to taxes and publishing houses. Unfortunately, none of them work like that. SO, I actually buy all my books brand new from the UK and have them shipped (and the Australian government is trying to STOP that). But I can understand why people would download instead.

    This is a really interesting topic. :D Rambling reply is rambling.

    Date: 2011-01-19 03:15 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] tahariel.livejournal.com
    No, it's interesting to see other people's POVs on this, so thank you for taking the time! Wow, though, $25 for a paperback?! How do Australians even afford to read at all?! I think the fact that you do go to the gigs and buy the DVDs and books kind of balances out. Piracy is just one of these endemic things nowadays where we all subscribe to this collective opinion that if everyone is doing it it's not stealing. I hadn't really thought of it so starkly before reading all of those articles yesterday, but it has made me really seriously consider what I do on the internet.

    Date: 2011-01-21 01:06 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] nyargles.livejournal.com
    I have strange views on this. :x On the one hand, I download a lot of my music and tv shows. On the other though, I then also go and buy the legal copy if I do like the show/musician. Like I had all of Merlin, but I still went and bought the boxset to show my support, and I have DVDs of films I already had a copy of. I like to show my support through buying the merchandise and stuff, but at the same time, I hate paying like £8-£10 for a cinema ticket to see anything in London, urgh.

    When it comes to books, I mostly own e-copies of loads of old books that all come free. My only complaint with this is that I have a lot of books I already own that I want to put on my kindle. Having paid £10-£12 for a book already, paying another £4/5 for a book I ALREADY BOUGHT and still own is incredibly annoying and upsetting, especially when you get to your 20th book you want to put on your kindle and realise you've spent a fortune on things you already have. @___@

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