Pirates and LendInk and Lies, Oh, My!!

The Dreaded Scourge of the Internet

Pirates and piracy periodically dominate the headlines, as the government attempts to pass new laws supposedly to protect the consumer, as the RIAA takes a teenager with clueless parents to court over alleged file sharing for outrageously large amounts of money, or most recently as a bunch of idiots decide a legitimate business is secretly a pirate site.

Last week, someone in the publishing industry noticed a website called LendInk.com.  This little business venture hooked up people willing to lend out their e-books with people who wanted to borrow e-books.  Started by a disabled vet, Dale Porter, LendInk only handled the initial exchange, sending both parties to the appropriate vendor - either Amazon or Barnes and Noble - to do the actual lending of the e-book.

It seems that the notion that a person can lend an e-book to another person, in a manner similar to the public library lending a book to a patron, is too radical, too new, and too close to piracy for a lot of authors out there.  What began as a misunderstanding on one person's part turned into several cease and desist notices to the website host and several lawsuits threats.  By August 8th, the website disappeared from the cloud.

Now, of course, comes the backlash from the rest of the world.  Indie authors who support LendInk cry foul at those who brought the website down, since people who borrow books tend to buy the ones that they like.  Readers wanting to try out new authors and authors trying to attract new readers - both groups lost out here.

But as people focus on this event, I think we need to step back and take a good look at Internet piracy.

First, let's use some common sense.  Some people will steal creative works (regardless of form factor), no matter what.  No law will stop them, nor will threat of prosecution.  It's a fact of life.  But the vast majority of people will pay money for creative works, be it books, movies, music, or art.

There is a catch though, and the catch for electronic purchases includes the following conditions:

• The item needs a reasonable price point.
• The buyer has the right to move the purchase from one digital device to another without hassle.
• The buyer can lend or give the item to a friend without jumping through hoops.
• The distributor needs to treat the buyer with respect, and not assume the person is a thief (see the image below).

There's a story among game developers about a man who purposefully did not stop pirates from getting free copies of his games.  Why?  Because the pirates wrote reviews and discussed the games that they liked online, generating more than enough revenue for the man to balance out what was lost to the pirates.

Neil Gaiman released his book, American Gods, online for free back in 2008 with no DRM.  All of his print book sales went up.  All. Of. Them.

In 2009, Wil Wheaton published a DRM-free pdf of his book, Sunken Treasure, on Amazon for $5.  Not only did sales of this electronic book explode, but the print version also began to sell again, as well as some of his other books.

There are more stories out there of people who reject DRM and trust people to be nice and who made money doing so; there is even a grassroots movement called Defective by Design that aims to rid the world of DRM.

So why are we so worried about pirates and piracy that a group of misanthropes shut down a legitimate business because of a supposed piratical threat?  Especially since pirates actually help sales and therefore the bottom line?

Wil Wheaton, My Hero

I recently finished rereading the book "Steal Like An Artist" by Austin Kleon.  I love this book because of the simplicity of his ideas, the thoughtful nature of the chapters, and his wonderful, practical suggestions.  One of his suggestions is to write public fan letters to people who you admire, who inspire you, who you think are just extremely cool.

My first public fan letter is to Wil Wheaton, geek, writer, nerd, gamer, musician, blogger, and I think he acts. ;-)

Dear Wil Wheaton,

I have been watching you and your life since either the movie "Stand by Me" or the show "Star Trek: Next Generation" - it's been so long now that the exact dates get blurry.  I know that you hear this all the time, but you are my inspiration.

I too am a geek, a nerd lost in the wilds of suburbia, surrounded by soccer moms and mom entrepreneurs.  I have a few, treasured geek friends, people who understand when I gush over the discovery of life created with arsenic instead of phosphorus (That's not completely accurate but this is a fan letter and not a scientific treatise).  People who love Jonathan Coulton, who sing "Skull Crusher Mountain" with me in public doing three part harmony.

But I would never have continued on writing or blogging if not for you.  I read your blog, the cause of me never looking at closet doors the same way again. I read your books, and I watch interviews with you.  I love how you are so honest and open, how you talk about the struggles of trying to create and wanting to be better.  You posted an image that speaks of the gap between when someone starts creating and when someone starts creating well.  I look at that image regularly, and think of you and how hard you try.

I find inspiration in you, Wil.  I find the ability to continue even when I'm sure I just wrote the worst drivel in the history of drivel writing.  Because I know I am just in The Gap, and it will get better.

I also find material in what has happened in your life.  I have a small draft for my blog almost ready to publish, in which I discuss the problem of Internet piracy and how the big producers have it wrong.  I refer to your exploration in the world of online books, releasing a PDF of "Sunken Treasure" and having sales for the print edition take off as people decide they want a hard copy of your work.

In fact, I think I will follow in your footsteps, and release my first novel as a PDF on Amazon.  Maybe it will work, maybe not.  But because of you, I will try.

Thank you for being Wesley Crusher.  I had a crush on you back then, and I instantly forgave you for the crappy writing.  Thank you for making Star Trek friendlier for your own age group.  Thank you for going on to write such amazing books.  Thank you for continuing to act - I try to watch anything and everything that you are in because I know I will be entertained.  Thank you for being friends with Paul and Storm, and joining them onstage occasionally.  (You'll note the conjunction in the previous sentence.)

Thank you for sharing your dogs, your amazing wife, your sons, and your thoughts with the world.  It would be a bit lonelier without you.

Sincerely,
A Geeky Fan

(E)Motions - A Video Game Playground!!!

Last week, I took a risk and had a video game party to celebrate the end of the school year.  The risk was that I paid money to a unknown place called (E)Motions, located in Doraville, that supposedly provided a decent video game experience. Let's be honest, it's a bit of a drive from East Cobb.  But since we have nothing here like that, I took a chance.

Thank goodness I took that risk!!  (E)Motions completely and utterly rocks!! My kids and their friends had a fantastic time there, playing various video games, eating pizza, and cheering each other on.  Even the other Moms and I had a good time, sitting around and chatting.

(E)Motions is located on the second floor of a brand new shopping center. As soon as we arrived,  Armando greeted us and immediately went to work showing the kids around the store and getting everyone started on the game of their choice.  The adults got a quick tour, including bathrooms clean up to eat from the floor.

This place has it all, with over 200 video games to choose from on the Xbox, Xbox Kinect, Playstation 3, or Wii.  I did not request any particular game, but they handle game requests if you or your kid desires a particular game.  And for every console, not only does (E)Motion have regular game controller, but also the specialty game controllers that most people do not buy.  

I cannot say enough how much fun all of the kids had.  Everyone wanted to go back there, and several kids are now planning birthday parties there.  At $50 an hour to use the venue, a two-hour party only costs $100, which is a bargain these days.  

Now, if only they would open a store in East Cobb... But for now, I don't mind going to Doraville.  It only took me about 25-30 minutes to get there.  The storefront is located directly off I-285, easily located, so even that is not as much of a hassle as you might expect.