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Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

authorsguild.org

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Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#41

Post by kemotep »

wbl wrote: post #33
ipython wrote: post #16

Oh my god this attitude absolutely infuriates me. I just assisted my kids’ piano teacher in organizing an online virtual piano festival. The technical piece was easy- set up a google form where students could submit their information and a video of their performance. The hard part? In an in person festival, the student hands their sheet music to the judge sitting in the room before performing, so the judge can track…

Don't most violin students play pieces from before 1923?

The arrangements can and do have a separate copyright that the publishers own.

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#42

Post by erikerikson »

decasteve wrote: post #22

"Unlike a real library..." The online equivalent can stay open in these times. Physical libraries cannot. The ability to make books accessible while people are isolated is a good reason for the Internet Archive to open up in cases of emergency.

See also Hoopla [1]. It works as you describe. Our local library offers it and yours might too.

[1] https://www.hoopladigital.com/

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#43

Post by throwawaynerdy »

ddevault wrote: post #17

How much of your annual $100-$500 membership dues are you waiving in the light of the difficulties you explain your membership as facing in these dire times? Screw copyright and screw this rent-seeking noise. Self-publishing is rapidly becoming the norm, and who knew - authors are seeing way higher returns on it. Copying e-books incurs no material cost and therefore charging for it is not justifiable.

I don't know if any of that is true. I'm a free information guy and author and despite having a million users of my website, I'm not even profitable.

It's not some clickbait garbage either. It's been front page HN numerous times.

What should I be doing? I have a paid book as an option. But everyone Google searches "free book", it was so bad I ended up making my own free link for SEO reasons.

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#44

Post by coldpie »

arpa wrote: post #5

Well, thank you authors guild, for pointing me to the great library. 'Tis a shame you are people who would see the great library of alexandria burn in the sake of profit.

Also a good reminder to donate to the Internet Archive if you can. They do amazing work and it is not cheap: https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1204428347444547584

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#46

Post by hirako2000 »

coldpie wrote: post #39
pontifier wrote: post #25

I have to say I agree with the authors guild on this. There must be rules concerning intellectual property. Laws are the rules our society lives by, and when a prominent public organization decides to willfully break copyright law in this manner it harms everyone. Copyright law is messy and there are many unintuitive parts. Educating people about the details is difficult and this change they have made is essentially…

The current effectively-infinite length of copyright is brand new, it was only put into place in the 1970s. The original length set in 1790 was 14 years, optionally extendable to 28 years. Under those terms, the first Harry Potter book would have entered the public domain in 2011, or in 2025 at the latest. Copyright should be a balance between the rights of the creator and the rights of the public. Right now it is wi…

I'm entirely with you. Even though being an author myself.

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#47

Post by moron4hire »

throwawaynerdy wrote: post #43
ddevault wrote: post #17

How much of your annual $100-$500 membership dues are you waiving in the light of the difficulties you explain your membership as facing in these dire times? Screw copyright and screw this rent-seeking noise. Self-publishing is rapidly becoming the norm, and who knew - authors are seeing way higher returns on it. Copying e-books incurs no material cost and therefore charging for it is not justifiable.

I don't know if any of that is true. I'm a free information guy and author and despite having a million users of my website, I'm not even profitable. It's not some clickbait garbage either. It's been front page HN numerous times. What should I be doing? I have a paid book as an option. But everyone Google searches "free book", it was so bad I ended up making my own free link for SEO reasons.

Go to book fairs and industry events for the genre of book you are writing. My wife writes sci-fi novels and is an officer in a large writers' club (I think it's one of the oldest ok the country). Pretty much all of the members talk about how they really only make sales on their own at in-person events, even the ones with traditional publishers. My wife mainly manages to cover her costs with the sales, though we don't really go out of our way to go to really big events and have yet to do any sci-fi conventions. She sees a few sales on Amazon, but the peaks are usually right after we've been to a book fair.

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#48

Post by incompatible »

gvjddbnvdrbv wrote: post #23
dash2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that artists should be first forbidden from selling the work they create, and then supported by the state, is totalitarian. Analogy: would you make all code compulsorily open-source? (I know some people will answer yes: in my view, they're nuts.)

I think OP was suggesting that authors should have a choice. Either take a government grant in which case output is open source or don't.

Yeah, well I'd prefer to see copyright abolished. It's totalitarian to try to control what data people can share and store on their devices. But as a first step, we can start finding alternative methods of funding the creation of information. I'm not a supporter of Soviet-style bureaucratic command-and-control socialism, everything should be voluntary.

I suppose you could complain that funding creators by taxation (or government debt, more likely these days) is involuntary. True, but I just see it as a way of paying for civilization. In total, the cost may be similar to what people are currently paying in copyright licenses, but with the benefit that all works would now be available to all.

Re: Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Harms Authors

#49

Post by scrollaway »

ipython wrote: post #16

Oh my god this attitude absolutely infuriates me. I just assisted my kids’ piano teacher in organizing an online virtual piano festival. The technical piece was easy- set up a google form where students could submit their information and a video of their performance. The hard part? In an in person festival, the student hands their sheet music to the judge sitting in the room before performing, so the judge can track…

If you reached out to "licensing lawyers", this is wholly unsurprising. Their entire job is to be overprotective, both during normal times and during exceptional times.

The client's job is to recognize that and sidestep them once in a while, of course. Especially during exceptional times.

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