Comment by specproc

Comment by specproc 4 days ago

12 replies

View on Hacker News

He drew hard on his cigarette. Annoyance flickered across his face, like an artefact in the poorly-compressed bootleg movies he sold to his fellow low-lifes at The Pig and Drum.

Some Corpo-type, no doubt. Can't help seeing something good scroll across their feed tube without calling Legal.

He'd worked with a few in the past. Not bad all-in-all, at least they paid on time. That said, he could think of few he'd drink with.

He toyed with the idea of leaving a bitchy comment. Probably get downvoted to oblivion.

The dogs in the yard barked at a passing vehicle.

Irritated by the animal noise and the corpo whining, he thrashed something out. Pulling another cigarette from his pack, he hit "reply".

Michelangelo11 4 days ago

> Some Corpo-type, no doubt.

The opposite. Consider Harlan Ellison's views on piracy: "If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump."

Reply View 6 replies
  • aidenn0 3 days ago

    Harlan Ellison was an asshole though.

    Reply View 5 replies
    • Michelangelo11 3 days ago

      I wouldn't describe him that way but, at any rate, his point is right: pirating books is taking money out of authors' pockets. Corporations (publishers?) aren't hit hardest and don't care the most about it.

      You may prefer the same point expressed in less colorful language by Ursula K. LeGuin, from the same article as Ellison's quote: “I thought, who do these people think they are? Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?” https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12dig...

      Now, as we found out in the meantime from Rudy Rucker's comment, this anthology isn't pirated after all. If you put up your work for free, there's no piracy.

      Reply View 4 replies
      • aidenn0 3 days ago

        I have no issue with Ellison's colorful language, but the point expressed by LeGuin is quite different. Copyright violation is not theft. It's not even a criminal charge in the US unless done for profit! You know what also deprives authors of royalties? Borrowing books from public libraries, buying used books, and loaning books to friends. So does playing video games instead of reading a book! The fact that an action yields less money to an author does not in-and-of-itself make it theft, or even immoral.

        Copyright was chartered to encourage authors to contribute to a large public domain of works. Lobbying (by wealthy corporations) perverted this purpose. Sure it's a nice fringe benefit that some authors were made more comfortable by this. That doesn't stop many authors from taking a "I wrote it, it's mine" attitude as if a monopoly on the use of works you authored is a natural right.

        LeGuin has taken a nuanced view on this, with the apparent understanding that copyright is a framework under which she was promised certain things, and the piracy is a violation of that promise.

        Reply View 2 replies
      • Yeul 2 days ago

        But they do get away with it! And that's the whole point of cyberpunk.

        Reply View 0 replies
debo_ 3 days ago

You perfectly articulated how I felt about this thread.

Reply View 0 replies