Comments on: Readers have rights, too

By: Tricia Roth

Tricia Roth — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:27:53 +0000

as a publishing outsider and an avid reader it is hard for me to believe that it is against “the rules” to share a book with friends and family-long before social networking etc etc I passed on books to my 5 sisters- it was (and is) a tie that has bound us for over 35 years. When will the publishing industry wake up and realize that this is what has fueled their business model?

By: Glossaria

Glossaria — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:02:58 +0000

I’m a public librarian, so… rock on, to everything you said in this post. I think a *lot* of us are still feeling our way around this digital medium, but I personally hope that “they”– the government or the publishing houses or the retailers– never manage to legislate away our right to share.

By: RKCharron

RKCharron — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:49:22 +0000

Hi Courtney
Thank you for sharing today.
I am still nonplussed at why I am not supposed to send an ebook I bought to my mom or sister via email, messenger, etc. Isn’t that the same as sharing? I know they will buy more by that author if they like the novel.
All the best,
RKCharron
xoxo
PS – I agree with the book industry renaissance.

By: J Perry Stone

J Perry Stone — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:38:37 +0000

Ugh. NOT sure. Seriously. Edit buttons!

By: J Perry Stone

J Perry Stone — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:36:15 +0000

Courtney, I’m sure if Puritanism has anything to do with it, but I will say that it is most unfair you can correct your antecedent … and I can’t correct my “descent”

LYG,
J

By: Crystal-Rain Love

Crystal-Rain Love — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:04:42 +0000

Great post. The big hoopla was because of the article. It made the whole thing come off as some reader who was reading multiple books and sharing with multiple readers without ever purchasing one and bragging about it. Of course the authors saw red. It didn’t help that when you click on TOS it doesn’t mention any of this unless you dig down deep.
I replied to a fellow author’s tweet about this and yes I was upset & said if this woman was blatantly admitting to illegal downloading through “exploiting a loophole” she should be sued.
Ms.Englin sent me a link to her blog and I soon discovered it was basicly a hatchet job by the reporter and of course felt horrible which prompted an immediate apology and an explanation on behalf of all angry authors what it was in this article that set us off.
The reporter should be reprimanded for this. The whole fiasco has me scared to ever talk to one.
Now the authors who were upset are receiving tweets and negative comments from others, too. It’s all a horrible result of a very misleading article. Such a shame.
For the record, I can’t think of one author who would mind a reader getting their book off eBay, from the library or used bookstore or through the 6 allowable downloads on Kindle. The article made it sound like piracy and unless you have a Kindle, you don’t know about the 6 allowable downloads. It definitely wasn’t easy info to find.

By: L. Ellwood

L. Ellwood — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:24:41 +0000

My take: let Mom or Aunt Jane borrow the Kindle, it’s sharing. Upload a PDF to a torrent site and broadcast it on a “sharing” message board for the world to see, it’s piracy. Goes for books, music, movies.

I imagine for an author who receives a nice advance for his/her works, it’s no big deal. Mid-listers and eBook authors who depend on royalties for paying bills and rent are more likely to have an issue.

By: Courtney Milan

Courtney Milan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:17:48 +0000

J, I guess that doesn’t bother me all that much. People often feel that reading romance novels is “wrong” or that anything that’s good must be illegal. It’s our Puritan heritage at work.

I guess I just don’t think that sharing threatens an authors’ paycheck–and she and her friends are reading more than ever now. I’m good with that.

By: J Perry Stone

J Perry Stone — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:50:12 +0000

CM, no spell-check on this thing? Don’t you know me at all?

By: J Perry Stone

J Perry Stone — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:48:08 +0000

Thanks for such a thought-provoking blog, Courtney. I see many of your points, but am still having some difficulty.

These are the lines that bother me: “We haven’t really looked closely at Amazon’s terms of service. But I do suspect we are breaking the rules.”

Even if what a person is doing isn’t legally construed as “wrong,” the fact that she suspects it as such, yet continues doing it, makes me shake my head.

On the other hand, I don’t put it past any journalist to manipulate information according to his or her agenda. I’ll be the first to apologize to you, Shayna, if you’ve been misquoted. You should know, however, that in this climate, making a descent living as an author is a very difficult endeavor. With all the issues of e-piracy threatening authors’ paychecks, I think your biggest problem was coming off so cavalierly. But again, if you’ve been misquoted, there was nothing you could have done.