Please read this: http://blog.authorsrights.org.uk/2010/03/19/the-digital-economy-bill-demands-full-democratic-scrutiny/ and look at the rest of the site.
It may same complicated and, certainly, law making seems designed to put people off (which is why such poorly drafted legislation gets through), but it is important.
In a kind of panic, probably prompted by big industry putting the squeeze on Lord Mandelson of Mordor, the government's response to piracy seems to be to dismantle the laws that protect us from pirates. Big business may survive this, but individual creators will not. This Bill will open the flood gates for people to rip off other people's work and the law (already adequate but poorly policed and implemented) will tie everyone up in knots for decades.
If an artist, writer, or musician feels they are unable to control who makes money from their creation, they aren't going to bother. You won't have original works to read, original works to watch on TV or in the cinema, original music to listen to.
Pirates steal because they cannot create. Once they have pushed creative workers out of business, that's it. And the biggest pirate? A company that goes to law to protect its own copyright whilst also going to law to grab everyone else's. Their name begins with a G.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Head down
Busy just at the moment. Museum books on the go. Druid book on back burner. Short story completed (although it will need a bit of work as I tried to do something tricksy with tense and I'll need to think about how well that works). Health a bit dodgy.
On a different note, I was heartened the other day, however, by statements from two people. The first was an actor who said he was always drawn to parts by the writing. If the writing was no good, he wasn't interested because that was the basis of everything else. The other was a film critic who said he could not understand how a film could be nominated for an Oscar TM for best film unless the screenplay was also nominated. The implication being that at the core of any good film is a good script. Hurrah for those two people.
On a different note, I was heartened the other day, however, by statements from two people. The first was an actor who said he was always drawn to parts by the writing. If the writing was no good, he wasn't interested because that was the basis of everything else. The other was a film critic who said he could not understand how a film could be nominated for an Oscar TM for best film unless the screenplay was also nominated. The implication being that at the core of any good film is a good script. Hurrah for those two people.
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