By Sandra Aistars
Everyday, we encounter the work of professional writers. Whether in articles in the newspaper, a book we are reading for pleasure, a blog about our favorite hobby or the copy on a website where we do our online banking, authors enrich and inform our daily lives. Writers write to entertain and to educate, to express and to articulate ideas. Professional writers also write to keep a roof over their head; they earn a living as freelancers and novelists, writing articles and even copy for the web. The Internet has opened new doors, allowing writers to publish instantaneously on a blog, taking magazines and even books online, and making self-publishing a reality. It allows writers to connect with readers in entirely new ways, and connects colleagues for collaborations across the country. But for all these innovations, it has also opened new doors for their work to be stolen and misappropriated.
Writers, like all who work in creative fields, know too well the threat that digital theft poses to their livelihoods. Chances are better than good that you, or a colleague of yours, has seen your work appear online without your permission, or seen someone else profit from distributing your work without authorization. You know that “free” – even if it is illegal – is hard to compete with. Websites that traffic in unlicensed, infringing content steal not only writers’ work, but also their relationship with their customers. They insinuate themselves into the rapport that could have been formed between the author and her readers via the author’s own website. To further add insult to injury, these infringing sites are then profiting from the work they stole, either by charging for the content or through ad revenues derived from their sites. This is damaging not only to the financial well being of writers, but also to the well being of their craft. Instead of spending the time and energy they could have used writing, authors are forced to spend it tracking down illegal activity.
For these and many other reasons, the Copyright Alliance created a new website, Artists Against Digital Theft. The site provides all creators a platform to speak up about their experiences battling digital theft. Kim Bahnsen, an author from Iowa, shared that she has seen her print runs decrease and her advances get smaller as the result of book piracy, making her ability to earn a living as a writer increasingly difficult. As she says, “Piracy adversely affects me because people who download free copies of my books don't turn around and buy them later, or buy my next release. That is the most egregious untruth told by the pirates.”
On the site, you can share your story and contact Congress, letting them know that you support their efforts to curb this ever-growing problem of digital theft. Among those efforts is the recent introduction in the U.S. Senate of the bipartisan PROTECT IP Act, a bill that would give law enforcement the tools it needs to target operators of rogue sites that are dedicated to for-profit trafficking in counterfeit goods and unlicensed copyrighted works.
Why did we do this? Artists need to know that there are aggressive voices on the other side who believe artists’ rights should take a back seat to the interests of those who seek to obtain their work for free. Creators need a forum to ensure that these voices do not go unchallenged. The works you write should be afforded the same respect afforded to products created by other small businesses and entrepreneurs in your community.
Unchallenged, the future of digital theft paints a bleak picture for creativity. Brenna Lyons, a Massachusetts-based writer explains, “What we have now, without legislation powerful enough to protect us and with the safe harbor laws working against us, is a system where everyone can make good money on the work of a creator but the creator herself. At what point did we lose sight of the fact that intellectual property--the right to say who can reproduce and distribute our works... even sell our works--is the sole property of the creator? Without that, creators stop sharing their creations. What a lackluster world that would be.”
Sandra Aistars is the Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance, a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization of artists, producers and distributors from across the copyright spectrum. Prior to joining the Alliance, Sandra served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Time Warner Inc., where she coordinated the company’s intellectual property strategies. She has provided pro bono legal counsel throughout her career to numerous independent artists and creators including singer-songwriters and non-profit arts organizations.
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