I have always wondered why people become so agitated about pirated music or movies but have no problem with lending books. Why is it “stealing” to listen to a song or watch a movie without paying but perfectly okay to borrow my books and read them without paying? We even use tax dollars — my tax dollars! — to support this scandalous book-lending via public libraries.
I understand the technical argument. Borrowing a book does not involve making an unlicensed copy of that book, the thing that copyright specifically forbids. But in the case of books, that is a distinction without a difference. One does not need to own a copy of a book to enjoy the full benefit of it; one only has to borrow it. That is because books most often are read only once then never again, at least not for several years. So possessing the book for a few days or weeks is as good as owning your own copy, unlike a song, which you will likely want to listen to over and over if you like it. Of course, this excludes the value of books as display objects — “books as furniture.” But then, the current frenzy about internet piracy is about illicit digital copies only, and you can’t very well display an MP3 file either.
I am not advocating for piracy and certainly not for closing the public libraries, only for keeping things in perspective. There has never been — and should never be — an ironclad rule of copyright that demands a payment for every single use of an artwork. It violates society’s interest in the free flow of ideas, yes, but, as Neil Gaiman points out, it is also not in the artist’s interest to have his every creation locked up out of sight behind a pay wall.
(Via)
I’m a *huge* Neil Gaiman fan – I’ve been reading his stuff since the early days of Sandman, and I’ve got just about everything he’s ever written. But while I respect his argument here, I suspect that that his ‘putting entire books online for free ultimately increases sales’ experiment really only works if you’re as famous as Neil Gaiman…
I agree, Andrew. It also only works if you’re as prolific as Gaiman, so that giving away a book or two for free still leaves you with plenty to sell. Still, I think Gaiman’s attitude is a useful corrective to the prevailing view these days in legal and corporate circles that copyright should be ever more restrictive. On the web, Gaiman is an evangelist for the opposite view — “information wants to be free” — along with Cory Doctorow. Where are the Wise Men who will find the sensible middle ground for us?
piracy is good in other ways too…read @ http://bit.ly/fRqVc4