Friday Poll ~ Protecting Creative Ideas

As always, first come the results of last week’s Poll—What Do You Write On?

Image courtesy of Chris Baker ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/immrchris

Coming out clearly on top was “Computer”.

Second place was led by “Back and Forth – Computer/Paper”

Second place also included these “Other” votes:

“depends on my mood, dude”

“whatever’s handy in the moment”

“mostly computer, sometimes paper”

Third place had a tie between “Paper Only” and “Paper First, Then Computer”.

So…

This week’s poll is to register your thoughts and feelings about Protecting Creative Ideas.

There are only a few definite responses to select so I’m counting on your using the “Other” choice for your specific responses…

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Free Books, Pirated Books, & Our Digital Age…

Many writers freak out when considering their ideas or whole books will be stolen.

Many readers steal and share stolen books.

Should a writer be worried?

First, consider Jane Friedman’s article, Are You Worried Your Ideas or Work Will Be Stolen?, where she says, amongst other potent ideas:

“It is not possible under current U.S. law to copyright or protect an idea.”

“Sure, someone can steal your idea, but they can’t possibly execute it or interpret it in the same way you can.”

“Piracy is more likely to hurt authors who are famous, rather than the unknown authors.”

Naturally, you should read the whole article if you have concerns about your writing…

So, for the moment, let’s not worry that our ideas will be stolen. Let’s worry that someone will pirate them and make money we should be getting.

Joe Konrath, in his article, Piracy… Again, says:

“…I’m being pirated. Google pointed to 8880 different sites where my work is being illegally shared.”

“Copyright is unenforceable in a digital world. Period.”

“People want to share files.”

“There is ZERO reliable evidence that file-sharing hurts sales.”

So…

Two people who really know their stuff say not to worry.

Then there’s Cory Doctorow who glories in giving his books away. Check out the links in my past post, Free = Sales ~ Give It Away & Sell More…

Do you think you could give your writing away even if it was for sale?

Do you know any authors who do this?

Does it seem completely counterproductive?

Did you read Cory’s ideas at that link in my past post??
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Ebook Piracy ~ Not A Bad Thing??

I don’t usually start a post with a challenge so I’ll call this a plea instead :-)

I’m going to reference two other blog posts that seem to show ebook piracy isn’t something to be overly concerned about. I’d love comments from folks who have data that might show the opposite…

The first post is from Tony at eBookAnoid—Ebook Piracy Can Actually Increase Sales of Ebooks.

Here’s a snippet from his post: “…it is worth considering whether the rise of the pirate sites is actually all bad for the sales of ebooks…. And it seems that perhaps the picture is not as black and white as is generally thought. In a post on the CBC website, this is gone into at some depth, and it would appear that instead of decreasing legal sales of ebooks, the appearance of any particular ebook on a pirate website can  actually increase the legal sales of that particular ebook – in other words, the illegal copies seem to act as a sort of advertisement for the legal ones…”

He ends the post with a marvelous suggestion…

The second blog post is from Joe Konrath, an author who’s become known for being a maverick at book promotion yet certainly tried the traditional route–12 years with nearly five hundred rejections for nine unpublished novels.

In his post, Steal This Ebook, after giving a rundown of the contents of the ebook he wants folks to steal and listing a number of ways to download it for free, he says: “…I encourage pirates to post this everywhere. Go ahead and proliferate the internet with JACK DANIELS STORIES. You can explain that I’m encouraging it, or you can just take it and not say a word. I’d appreciate it if you post in the comments section where you’re uploaded it, which you can do anonymously. Or you don’t have to. If anyone sees this ebook on file sharing sites, I also ask that you please post a link to it in the comments. The more places I can see this being shared, the better I can compare ebooks sold to ebooks shared.”

He has a link at the bottom to show how many free downloads happen and, as of this post, there are only 2,477. The blog post was published on May 30th…

I couldn’t find a follow-up post so, if you know of one, let me know.

OK, now. Comments about why we should  be worried about ebook piracy??
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