You're Stealing. Stop It.

Jeff Cohen

There are a multitude of disturbing trends in today's society. One of them is running for president, but that's not the point here. The bottom line is, it's virtually impossible, no matter what one's point of view might be, to watch the news, read the news or download the damn news without being upset (often horrified) about what you see.

And the political or global issues are not the only sources of outrage and anxiety, not by a long shot. There are some wonderful things about the current version of the modern age, and I'd list them here but right at the moment I'm having a hard time remembering what they are. Trust me, I know they exist. I'll think of them tomorrow.

What concerns me at the moment that won't upset people whose ideologies are not in line with my own? The decline of simple rules of grammar, punctuation, usage and syntax, to begin with. I teach people at the college level who can't tell the difference between you're and your. I see posts and documents indicating that even those who have completed advanced degrees don't bother to use apostrophes properly. You'd be amazed how many people think the sentence, "Lots of woman do the same thing" is perfectly acceptable.

And then there is the odd sense of entitlement among those--and I do not limit this to millennials and young people, as I have seen done--who believe that entertainment is a right. These are individuals with working brains who don't see the problem in downloading music off "free" sites, who will buy bootleg copies of movies before they are released to DVD, who steal a cable TV signal and believe they are somehow completing a victory over "the system."

Well, I'm "the system." Nice to meet you.

There are any number of online sites that right now, today, will let you read books that I spent months writing and to which I own the copyrights and they will not charge you for those books because they themselves did not pay for them. The site might charge visitors a fee as a "subscription," but trust me, when they send you the file with my name (or my other name) on it and you read the book, I am receiving a grand total of nothing for it.

The idea that somehow this is a victimless crime, that no one is losing out when you "beat the system" by getting free entertainment, is crap. I hear the argument all the time that there's no harm in a bootleg download of a movie because "Tom Cruise already has enough money." Maybe so, but guess what--the key grip doesn't. The Foley artist needs a salary, and if revenues go down, she won't get any. The guy who cleans the recording studio isn't getting paid when the artist can no longer afford to book the place because nobody is paying for the art.

I have close friends and relatives who see no harm in finding "free" entertainment. They seem to feel they're being clever, winning a victory over a corrupt system. I see them stealing. Period. 

Right now, I am contracted to write four separate mystery series which some of you read and hopefully enjoy. If sales don't hit the right numbers--and no, I have no clue what those numbers might be because the publishing industry changes its standards about every 20 minutes--I will no longer be releasing any books at all. Because I need to make a living and pay the bills. This is true of every author, every singer, every filmmaker, every producer, every actor, every screenwriter and all the people who serve the industries they inhabit. 

If you're taking copyrighted content from a source that doesn't compensate the creators of that content, you're stealing. Pure and simple. You're not being a Robin Hood outlaw. You're robbing from everybody and keeping everything. At most the only concerns you're keeping alive are the ones that steal from artists. 

I object.

Comments

[Alice Duncan]

Me, too. Theft is theft.

[Larry Chavis]

Absolutely correct--theft is theft.

[Anne Louise Bannon]

Sadly, since most people only see the super-rich superstars, they don't connect real people to the work they're stealing. So very frustrating.

[Patty]

Very well stated. From the person who won't enter contests for free books of most new authors because they need my sale to survive. I can afford my entertainment and so I purchase almost all my books. Yes, I occasionally enter a contest but it is getting more rare for me to do so, and your post topic is one of the reasons why!

[Donald A. Coffin]

Yep. Copyright exists for a reason. (I might think that the existing copyright laws extend copyright for too many years, but that's a different discussion.) I pay for what I read/watch/listen to. It only seems right. (And by the way, if you are a student in one of my classes, don't go posting surreptitious videos of my lectures on YouTube, either.)

[carl brookins]

The real Robin the Hood was a thief. I couldn't agree more, Jeff. I see those sites and I unleash cease and desist emails. I know, they have little or no effect, but I have a list and some day.....

[Graham Powell]

I come from a software background, and back in the 80s it was pretty easy to copy that floppy and hijack whatever you wanted. But I pretty quickly decided that wasn't what I wanted to do, so I buy all my music, get my ebooks from Amazon, and register all my shareware.

[Susan Oleksiw]

Well said. I don't like books being made permanently free by their authors on various websites, so they can brag about how many readers they have or books they've "sold."

There is another unpleasant side to this. At some talks and panels, I've seen members of the audience walk off with a book without paying. They seem to think our books are party favors, to take if they want.

[Lynne Patrick]

Oh dear, Jeff, now I feel guilty. Don't get me wrong, I don't steal content, wouldn't even think of it; but I do sometimes buy books from the supermarket, where they're half the cover price. Only books by really successful authors - but the reason I feel guilty is that though I figure those authors can probably afford a cut in royalty, I hadn't thought of the clerk in the distribution department and the guy who sweeps the floor at the printers and so on and so on. Thank you for stabbing my conscience. I'll try to do better in future.

[Jeff Cohen]

Don’t feel bad, Lynne. I don’t have an issue with people buy stuff from any outlet because everybody gets paid, even if it’s not quite as much. We prefer you pay something approximating full price, but you’re not stealing from anybody.

[Lynne Patrick]

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Thanks, Jeff. I feel a little better now. I’ve always paid full price for
your books, and would never do anything else for an author who I know didn’t
sell in six figures.

[Gail Nickerson]

I don't enter contests for free books. I can afford to pay Amazon and I hope the authors get something.

[Elizabeth Zelvin]

The part I find people don't understand no matter how many times you explain it to them is that no, I REALLY can't write the next novel if too few people buy the last novel. Nobody will agent it. Nobody will publish it. Nobody will review it. Nobody will buy it. "Why don't you self-publish it?' Well, nobody will review it. Nobody will buy it. It costs MONEY to promote a book. Money I don't have if nobody will buy it. Promotion I can't even get if nobody will review it. "Oh, do write the next novel." Have YOU bought my last novel? And the one before? "Oh, I don't buy novels. Oh, I don't read novels. Oh, I don't read e-books. Oh, I only read hardcovers. Can I find your 2008 novel at Costco? At the airport?" How do YOU make a living? And do you live in your parents' basement? Aw, Jeff, now you've got me all riled up again. ;)

[Shalanna Collins]

Problem is that no one is teaching the younglings that theft is wrong. The vibe for many years has been, "Whatever you can get away with is great!" So they steal and copy and plagiarize and sneak. They are not apparently held to any standards. The music industry is in shards because of this. The only way musicians make any sort of a living is by touring. They may like touring, but seriously, seventy-year-olds having to go city-to-city every night for months on end? This cannot be healthy for them. You don't make any money on albums/CDs/iTunes tracks now. Soon books will be the same way, and we'll see a reduction in GOOD books. You know, the sort you really want to read. The bad ones that are one-offs and done by people who are the equivalent of a Kardashian singing will still be out there, but the artists will not have the means to support themselves while writing and polishing a really lasting classic.

And that's sad.