Sunday, June 24, 2012

Creative Commons


Today I have a thought-provoking guest post from a talented writer named James Hutchings.  I gave James every opportunity to shamelessly plug his short story collection, The New Death and others , but he chose instead to write about copyrights, intellectual property, and simple ways for all of us to be a bit less anal-retentive.

You'll be hearing more about James in a week or so when I post a story of his, The End.  I encourage you to check out The New Death, which is insightful, highly original, and quite entertaining.  In the meantime, here's a very accessible primer on a topic important to all of us as readers and writers.  Take it away, James:


Many writers, whether published or just starting out, are very nervous that someone else will steal their work, whether that be another writer using their ideas in their own stories, or someone making pirated copies of their books. When I put out a collection of my writing, I specifically gave permission for anyone at all to copy my ideas, or even to cut and paste whole stories. I also contacted the Pirate Party, a worldwide network that wants to lessen copyright, and told them that I was giving anyone permission to put my ebook on file-sharing sites. In this post I hope to show why I went against common wisdom.

Creative Commons

I used a free service called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is useful for people who want to give the general public permission to use their work, but with restrictions. In my case I didn't mind people using my work for non-profit purposes, such as posting on a blog, but I didn't want to allow anyone to make money off it. Similarly I wanted anyone who used it to give me credit. I could have just listed these things myself. However I'm not a lawyer, and perhaps I would have worded it wrong so that someone could twist what I said to do more than I meant. Also I could have been unclear about what I was allowing and what I wasn't allowing. Sure, someone could email me and ask, but the whole purpose of having a written statement is so that people don't have to ask.

Creative Commons has a series of different licenses, which give permission to do different things. They're all legally 'tight', and they're all summarized in plain language. So all you have to do is go to their site and answer a series of questions, to get to the license that does what you want. In my case I used the Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Why?

That's what I did. But why? Common sense would suggest that I'm giving something away for free that I could be selling. However I believe that, in the long run, I'll be better off. The main reason is that I've seen how many people are, like me, trying to get their writing out there. Go to Smashwords and have a look at the latest ebooks. Then refresh the page ten minutes later, and you'll probably see a whole new lot. The problem that new writers face isn't that people want to steal your work; it's getting anyone to show an interest in your work at all. If someone passes on a pirated copy of my work, it might get to someone who's prepared to buy it - and that someone would probably have never heard of me otherwise. Even if they don't want to pay for what they read, I might come out with something else in the future, and perhaps paying 99c for it will be easier than hunting it down on a file-sharing site.

Science fiction writer Andrew Burt tells the story of someone who disliked his book, and to get back at him decided to put a copy on a file-sharing site. The effect was that he got a small 'spike' in sales immediately afterwards.

I also have some less selfish motives. Many people would assume that the purpose of copyright is to protect authors and creators. Leaving aside the fact that someone else often ends up with the rights (how many Disney shareholders created any of the Disney characters? How many shareholders in Microsoft have ever written a line of code?), that doesn't seem to have been the intention in the past. The US Constitution says that Congress has the power "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Note that protecting 'intellectual property' isn't mentioned. The authors of the Constitution seemed to see the point as getting ideas out there where people can use them: almost the exact opposite of keeping them 'safe' and 'protected'.

The original idea of copyright seems to have been a sort of deal: you have an idea, and we want you to get it out into the world where it will do some good. To encourage you to do that, we'll give you a monopoly on its use for a limited time. After that, anybody can use it (it will enter the 'public domain').

A lot of people don't know that copyright used to give a lot less protection than it does now, especially in the United States. In the US, it used to be that works were copyrighted for a maximum of 56 years. Today copyright in the US can last for over 100 years. In fact Congress keeps extending the time. In practice, they're acting as if they never want ideas to go into the public domain.

This is great for the owners of 'intellectual property'. But it's hard to see how this "promotes the Progress of Science and useful Arts," or how forever is a "limited time." In a sense it's a theft from the public. Anyone who publishes work has accepted the deal that the law offers, of a limited monopoly in return for making their idea known. Congress has been giving them more and more extensions on that monopoly, but doesn't require them to do anything to earn it.

It probably doesn't matter that much that Disney still owns Mickey Mouse, or that Lord of the Rings is still under copyright. But remember that these laws don't just apply to the arts. Similar laws apply to science as well. So a life-saving invention could be going unused, because its owner wants too much money for it, or because it's tied up in court while two companies fight about who owns it.

Conclusion

I'm far from an expert on either the law or the publishing industry. However I hope that I've given you, especially those of you who might be thinking about publishing some writing, a different take on the whole issue of whether authors should worry about their ideas being stolen. At least I hope I've shown you that there's a different way of thinking about it, and that that way doesn't require you to just give up on making money; in fact that it might be more profitable as well as better for society.


James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets. His ebook collection The New Death and others is now available from Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. He blogs daily at Teleleli.


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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Free Fantasy, Two Days Only

It's the first annual summer solstice fantasy promotion, 21 fantasy authors and 27 fantasy books that will be free on June 20-21 2012. Check out the entire list here: http://www.amazon.com/lm/R36X0G9CJOLBZH/

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pants on Fire

Today I have a guest post from Grant Stone, the author of Everything Zing – the Imagine Nation’s ultimate saga.  Take it away, Grant:

Growing up we all remember a schoolmate, neighborhood pal, or perhaps even a parent of teacher exclaiming, “Liar liar – pants on fire!” Because lying is a bad thing, right? Because liars are dreadful people, certainly not the sort of individuals we’d ever want to grow up and become. And probably because liar and fire rhyme so nicely together.

Over the past decade, my life has been consumed in a quest to create the most entertaining saga possible. Like all authors my goal was to create a fascinating and enchanting plotline composed of characters my readers would find both intriguing and relatable. My mission seemed reasonable, even commendable, as society upholds the art of creative writing, and I believe I have succeeded as Everything Zing is receiving positive reviews. However, I must face a fact – my britches are burning!

None of my characters are real; none are even based on actual people. None of the events actually took place, even though exact dates are used. From cover to cover my novel is a complete fabrication and fiction at her finest… 100% pure lies.

Think back to your favorite stories – the most beloved tales, the ones you know in your mind couldn’t really exist, and yet in your heart wish and almost believe could somehow be true. According to this argument, those writers are also the world’s greatest liars, and therefore, their trousers must certainly be in flames.

But escaping the truth of reality is the reason we dive into a novel – to lose ourselves in another world for a while – so we can return with a new perspective and a bit more clarity about the life we currently live. We trust writers to do precisely that – to create galaxies and kingdoms and “once upon a times” that mesmerize us – even though we know they’re lying to us. Our favorite fantasies are indeed only fantasies, but it sure is fun to pretend, especially when a novel delivers an element of truth and revelation, even a simple reminder that good is still good and bad is still bad.

Certainly there are times when the truth is stranger than fiction, and there are definitely occasions when the kindest act is not to tell the truth (that dress does look hideous and does make you look obese). Can you imagine a world where every truth that swept across our minds became public knowledge? Thanks to films like Liar Liar and The Invention of Lying we have an entertaining glimpse at such a scenario. I think we’d all agree that we’re better off without complete truth.

Lastly, let’s not forget that writing and reading is entertainment and fun, so don’t take this discussion too seriously. After all, this essay is about a writer poking fun at himself, his craft, and his goal to become one of the world’s greatest writers – which as we all now know equals greatest liars. In fact, there may be no truth to this entire piece. Perhaps the lie is in the lie… and there really is an Imagine Nation with a Capital City called Zing. Perhaps this narrative has simply been another work of fantastic fiction.

Grant Stone is the author of Everything Zing – the Imagine Nation’s ultimate saga.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Free Fantasy Deluge

It's the first annual summer solstice fantasy promotion, coming in one week for two days only.  A group of 21 fantasy authors and 27 fantasy books that will be free on June 20-21 2012.  Check out the entire list here:


http://www.amazon.com/lm/R36X0G9CJOLBZH/

Friday, June 1, 2012

eFiction Science Fiction Issue

eFiction Magazine's June issue is dedicated to science fiction.  Pick it up for $3.99 or subscribe for two bucks a month.  The lead story, The Angry Astronaut by Kevin C. Norris, is currently posted free on the eFiction website - http://www.efictionmag.com/