Musing on book piracy

The Internet is talking about e-book piracy and there are some really interesting posts on it.

Here is a roundup of some of them: http://troisroyaumes.dreamwidth.org/38222.html

I think the thing that really struck me, reading through these links, is that I had never realized how pressing the issue of access to books can be in the majority of the world (even in my own country, among people who can't afford books or have easy access to libraries). This is fairly naive and it isn't a very nice thing to realize about myself, but I had really never considered it in any depth at all. I had honestly never thought about -- or at least not sat down and connected to book piracy -- the problem of getting English-language books in countries that aren't majority English-speaking, or the cost of buying foreign books when most of the books that your friends are talking about are foreign (American or British) books, or getting affordable books at all in countries that don't have well-developed publishing industries (often because, oh look, bestselling American books have all the prestige, and no one is willing/able to invest in local publishers). I mean, I grew up poor but I also grew up awash in cheap and free books. I have no experience at living somewhere that isn't true.

My own thoughts on piracy are, well. Conflicted. *g* As a creative person who would like to make a living at creative endeavors, I am all for writers and artists being paid for what they do, especially if they own their own work and all or most of the money goes to them! But I am also well aware that I produce a luxury item, and I feel like it's kind of entitled of me to throw a fit about someone getting it for free rather than spending money on it that they can't afford. ("Don't want to pay for it? Don't read my book then" is not an answer I'm prepared to give somebody. I'd much rather have them read the book!)

( More rambling about piracy )

So ... um, yeah. I guess that I am firmly in the middle of the fence here. I can see both sides' point of view, and I hope all of this made some kind of sense. What do you think?

ETA: Oh! One more thing, but I think it's an important thing, especially if you backtrack the linkspam to the author posts who started the whole round of piracy debates this time. ( Cutting this because it got long-ish )

Musing on book piracy

The Internet is talking about e-book piracy and there are some really interesting posts on it.

Here is a roundup of some of them: http://troisroyaumes.dreamwidth.org/38222.html

I think the thing that really struck me, reading through these links, is that I had never realized how pressing the issue of access to books can be in the majority of the world (even in my own country, among people who can't afford books or have easy access to libraries). This is fairly naive and it isn't a very nice thing to realize about myself, but I had really never considered it in any depth at all. I had honestly never thought about -- or at least not sat down and connected to book piracy -- the problem of getting English-language books in countries that aren't majority English-speaking, or the cost of buying foreign books when most of the books that your friends are talking about are foreign (American or British) books, or getting affordable books at all in countries that don't have well-developed publishing industries (often because, oh look, bestselling American books have all the prestige, and no one is willing/able to invest in local publishers). I mean, I grew up poor but I also grew up awash in cheap and free books. I have no experience at living somewhere that isn't true.

My own thoughts on piracy are, well. Conflicted. *g* As a creative person who would like to make a living at creative endeavors, I am all for writers and artists being paid for what they do, especially if they own their own work and all or most of the money goes to them! But I am also well aware that I produce a luxury item, and I feel like it's kind of entitled of me to throw a fit about someone getting it for free rather than spending money on it that they can't afford. ("Don't want to pay for it? Don't read my book then" is not an answer I'm prepared to give somebody. I'd much rather have them read the book!)

( More rambling about piracy )

So ... um, yeah. I guess that I am firmly in the middle of the fence here. I can see both sides' point of view, and I hope all of this made some kind of sense. What do you think?

ETA: Oh! One more thing, but I think it's an important thing, especially if you backtrack the linkspam to the author posts who started the whole round of piracy debates this time. ( Cutting this because it got long-ish )

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/310521.html with comments.

Some fic recs

I've had some things hanging around for a long time that I've meant to rec but never got around to it.

Doctor Who:
2000 years of boredom, or how Rory Williams made some friends by puppetdumbly - I don't read much Doctor Who fic, but I lurked on dwsanta this year and stumbled across this little gem about what Rory did during his 2000 years of solitude. It's awesome and such a wonderful missing scene for the episode.

From sga_santa - I expect that I don't really need to rec gen stories to the gen-leaning portions of my flist because you probably read all of them, but you all might have missed a couple of rather neat team stories that also include incidental pairings:

Forbidden Planet by saffronhouse, PG - There is a very background, established McKay/Sheppard relationship, but mostly it's about the team hiding out on Earth after an attack on one of them, with a neat Ronon POV and lovely team interactions.

Welcome Home by penknife, NC-17 - This is a "Return" tag and it contains an NC-17 John/Teyla scene, but otherwise it's a series of little vignettes with John rotating between different people on Atlantis as they all settle back in. It's a lovely slice of (Atlantis) life.

I swear there was more multifandom stuff I wanted to rec, but I can't remember what now ...

Some fic recs

I've had some things hanging around for a long time that I've meant to rec but never got around to it.

Doctor Who:
2000 years of boredom, or how Rory Williams made some friends by puppetdumbly - I don't read much Doctor Who fic, but I lurked on dwsanta this year and stumbled across this little gem about what Rory did during his 2000 years of solitude. It's awesome and such a wonderful missing scene for the episode.

From sga_santa - I expect that I don't really need to rec gen stories to the gen-leaning portions of my flist because you probably read all of them, but you all might have missed a couple of rather neat team stories that also include incidental pairings:

Forbidden Planet by saffronhouse, PG - There is a very background, established McKay/Sheppard relationship, but mostly it's about the team hiding out on Earth after an attack on one of them, with a neat Ronon POV and lovely team interactions.

Welcome Home by penknife, NC-17 - This is a "Return" tag and it contains an NC-17 John/Teyla scene, but otherwise it's a series of little vignettes with John rotating between different people on Atlantis as they all settle back in. It's a lovely slice of (Atlantis) life.

I swear there was more multifandom stuff I wanted to rec, but I can't remember what now ...

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/310547.html with comments.