Is online book piracy a good or bad thing for authors? Whichever it is – can we really do anything about it? And what it’s got to do with Cory Doctorow’s sperm count (quite a lot, actually). Our special guest tonight is author and podcasting diva Mur Lafferty, and she fits right into the dystopia that is Litopia After Dark with frightening ease.
Seeing her and raising her one are our veteran panellists Donna Ballman from Florida, Dave Bartram from the west of England and Eve Harvey from bonnie Edinburgh.
Topics covered on tonight’s show include:
- How a heat seeking, venomous throbbing python of love required seven burly fire-fighters to extricate it
- Posh girl slums it for EastEnders
- Dawn of the real-life Stepford wives
- Marmitology
- Facebook’s Zuckerberg succumbs to hubris – we give ‘em five years
- Doctorow scatters 31 billion seeds, makes one sale
- TV producer tells you how to write a book
This week’s titles for the Commissioning Meeting are:
DONNA
“The Adventures of a Bear And a Great Bear too”
Alfred Elwes, 1819?-1888
EVE
“The Affectionate Shepherd”
Richard Barnfield, 1574-1627
MUR
“Awful Disclosures – Containing, Also, Many Incidents Never before Published”
Maria Monk, 1816-1849
DAVE
“At the Sign of the Barber’s Pole – Studies In Hirsute History”
William Andrews, 1848-1908
We would like to express our deepest sympathy to Tee Morris, our guest on Litopia Daily on the 21st December last year, on the sudden death of his wife Natalie. Tee was generous and inspiring with his words of advice for authors. Listeners who wish to express their condolences may visit RememberNatalie.org.
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We would like to express our deepest sympathy to Tee Morris, our guest on Litopia Daily on the 21st December last year, on the sudden death of his wife Natalie. Tee was generous and inspiring with his words of advice for authors. Listeners who wish to express their condolences may visit RememberNatalie.org.
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This podcast, and Martyn’s latest article on the Litopia homepage (“Are Digital Book Pirates Ahoy?”), have brought up a question for me, one that I feel rather foolish for asking, and even more foolish for thinking of so late in the game. Has anyone defined “book piracy” yet? Especially with the new, fuzzy lines defining “book”, as Martyn discussed in the article? And Mur’s wondering whether her work might have shown up as “pirated,” though she offers it for free in the first place. Has someone (maybe Donna?) spoken about this, and I just missed it?
Is it only piracy when the author (or someone) calls them out on it, and demands that the file be taken down from whichever site is offering it?
And with the internet being such a global beast, whose laws apply to the issue? Are the posters of content bound by the laws of their native soil, or the soil they happen to be standing on, or the soil their server resides upon, or the objecting author’s home? Eeep. My head is swimming!