Why I’m Giving It Away-How A Bunch of Acronyms Screwed Up Publishing
Why am I changing my book’s price from $4.99 to free? Well, I’m not selling books Amazon’s way, that for sure. Sue me, but I put a lot of time and creative energy into writing it, and I think it’s pretty good. I want it to be read and enjoyed. I don’t have airs. I’m not Jane Austen, but then, who besides Janet Austen is? I am a total unknown and I think free removes some of the barriers that prevent people from giving new writers a chance. But that isn’t the only reason.
Ever heard of something called a digital lock? Neither did I until a few weeks ago and if I had I might have done many things differently. Get ready because you’re about to be stuffed full of acronyms. Copyright law is both local and international. The organization that creates the latter is a specialized agency of the United Nations called the World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO. In 1996 they approved the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WCT, and the WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty, the WPPT. The were created to deal with the internet and a key concept in both of them is anti-circumvention.
Computers are copying machines. The Internet depends on redundancies, so it is at the core of what they do. Copyright exist to prevent unauthorized copying. In order to prevent this in the digital arena, digital locks were created to keep data safe. Anti-circumvention makes it illegal to get around a digital lock. Sounds good, but here’s the problem, so far the law benefits only one entity: the maker of the digital lock. Think of it this way: You rent a storage locker. When you do, you get a key and the owner gets one. Now you both have access to the locker, but not the same responsibilities. You have a key so you can access your stuff as well as remove, add to, or shift your stuff at any time. You can also end your relationship with the owner, take your stuff and go with miniual muss and fuss. The owner has a key for basic maintenance and for any emergencies. With a digital lock, only the owner gets a key. It’s still your stuff inside that’s being “protecting,” but you can’t ever go in to change anything and if he moves or updates his facility or changes the terms of the contract, you’re screwed. Hachette discovered that the hard way, and now so are self-published authors with Amazon’s new policy. It seems to me that the only way to avoid being held hostage is the take back my book and offer it for free. It will be in PDF and ePub formats. If you like it, then there will be a button on my site to leave me a tip. This is all new to me and my technical skills, not to mention my legal knowledge, are sketchy at best, and that means I’m going to have to find help. Wish me luck. I’m going to need all sorts of good vibes to come my way.
Ever heard of something called a digital lock? Neither did I until a few weeks ago and if I had I might have done many things differently. Get ready because you’re about to be stuffed full of acronyms. Copyright law is both local and international. The organization that creates the latter is a specialized agency of the United Nations called the World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO. In 1996 they approved the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WCT, and the WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty, the WPPT. The were created to deal with the internet and a key concept in both of them is anti-circumvention.
Computers are copying machines. The Internet depends on redundancies, so it is at the core of what they do. Copyright exist to prevent unauthorized copying. In order to prevent this in the digital arena, digital locks were created to keep data safe. Anti-circumvention makes it illegal to get around a digital lock. Sounds good, but here’s the problem, so far the law benefits only one entity: the maker of the digital lock. Think of it this way: You rent a storage locker. When you do, you get a key and the owner gets one. Now you both have access to the locker, but not the same responsibilities. You have a key so you can access your stuff as well as remove, add to, or shift your stuff at any time. You can also end your relationship with the owner, take your stuff and go with miniual muss and fuss. The owner has a key for basic maintenance and for any emergencies. With a digital lock, only the owner gets a key. It’s still your stuff inside that’s being “protecting,” but you can’t ever go in to change anything and if he moves or updates his facility or changes the terms of the contract, you’re screwed. Hachette discovered that the hard way, and now so are self-published authors with Amazon’s new policy. It seems to me that the only way to avoid being held hostage is the take back my book and offer it for free. It will be in PDF and ePub formats. If you like it, then there will be a button on my site to leave me a tip. This is all new to me and my technical skills, not to mention my legal knowledge, are sketchy at best, and that means I’m going to have to find help. Wish me luck. I’m going to need all sorts of good vibes to come my way.
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