Chapter 11: Sharing Books

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Overview

I have seen men hazard their fortunes, go on long journeys halfway around the world, forge friendships, even lie, cheat and steal, all for the gain of a book.

-A.S.W. Rosenbach

The world of rampant copyright violation and file sharing has angered the music industry and now threatens to encroach upon the publishing industry as well, with a practice dubbed bookwarez. Like recording artists, book authors often differ in their views about releasing their books on the Internet's file sharing circuit. When a publisher accepted science fiction author Cory Doctorow's first novel, Doctorow decided to use the Internet to boost publicity for his book. After receiving permission from his publisher, Doctorow created a website (http://www. craphound.com) to give away the book in e-book form while simultaneously trying to sell it through bookstores.

"You can download it," Doctorow wrote, "put it on a P2P net, put it on your site, email it to a friend, and, if you're addicted to dead trees, you can even print it . . . this site is a place where you can download the whole goddamned book, completely gratis." Visitors downloaded more than a hundred thousand copies of his novel within a few months, and word-of-mouth publicity led to a sellout of the printed copy, as well. Delighted, Doctorow took the same approach with his second novel.

Longtime science fiction author Harlan Ellison, by contrast, took the opposite-approach. A press release on his website (http://www.harlanellison.com) states:

INDIVIDUALS SEEM TO THINK THAT THEY CAN ALLOW THE DISSEMINATION OF WRITERS' WORK ON THE INTERNET WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, AND WITHOUT PAYMENT, UNDER THE BANNER OF "FAIR USE" OR THE IDIOT SLOGAN "INFORMATION MUST BE FREE."

A WRITER'S WORK IS NOT INFORMATION: IT IS OUR CREATIVE PROPERTY, OUR LIVELIHOOD AND OUR FAMILIES' ANNUITY. WHY SHOULD ANY ARTIST, OF ANY KIND, CONTINUE CREATING NEW WORK, EKING OUT AN EXISTENCE IN PURSUIT OF A CAREER, FOLLOWING THE MUSE, WHEN LITTLE INTERNET THIEVES, RODENTS WITHOUT ETHIC OR UNDERSTANDING, STEAL AND STEAL AND STEAL, CONVENIENCING THEMSELVES AND "SCREW THE AUTHOR"? WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT IS THE DEATH OF THE PROFESSIONAL WRITER!

To help avoid "the death of the professional writer," Ellison went to court after finding his work posted on alt.binaries.e-book newsgroups. AOL didn't remove the work from its newsgroup servers when Ellison's attorney emailed them a removal order, so Ellison filed suit ( Ellison v. AOL, Inc., No. 02-55797) in April 2000. To continue his fight as the suit continues its journey through several court appeals, Ellison has requested donations to his "Kick Internet Piracy" campaign (http://www.harlanellison.com/kick). Feel like donating? Send your check, payable to the Law Office of M. Christine Valada, to this address:

Kick Internet Piracy

Post Office Box 55935

Sherman Oaks, CA 91413

Ellison's big-guns approach might actually be successful in stopping the posting of his work. Since filing suit, his works rarely turn up on e-book newsgroups or file sharing networks. Of course, Ellison told the Wall Street Journal he's spent more than $300,000 during the legal struggle, most of it his own money. There's no word, though, on whether his legal battle has increased his in-store sales.

To learn more about book piracy (aka ePiracy), visit the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America site (http://www.sfwa.org/epiracy/faq.htm).

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