did you guys SEE this?

[TygrBright]

21. Speaking as a content producer, I can tell you that the bulk of the "theft" doesn't impact ME...

...it impacts the people who bought the rights to my content from me for peanuts, jacked them into a dozen different bastardized containers and formats, charge wildly inflated prices for them, and then fail to pay me bupkis for the sales because the pitiful "advance on sales" hasn't been made back yet, by their accounting. Which I never get to actually see.

And then when I politely ask for those rights back, after ten years without a single sale, so that I can repackage them myself and put them on a website where I hope they might draw traffic and boost other forms of revenue, I'm told that I can't do so, because one of the formats is still extant in Malaysia or somewhere, and they'd have to charge me vast sums to reclaim those rights to my own work.

So, frankly? Go pirate them, people. They deserved better than they got from the Profit Machine owned by Our Beloved Media Oligarchs.

People who produce creative output want to make a living, sure. But I could have made as much or more by putting those works on a website and politely asking people who respect the work of a living content producer to donate a buck or two to download them.

And, frankly, most people who produce creative output have day jobs when we need them. Making a living from our stories, songs, illustrations, photos, whatever, is important, but so is TOUCHING AN AUDIENCE, and getting touched back. When you sell your children to the Media Oligarchs, you have to be Very Lucky AND Very Good to be among the top one-tenth of one percent who actually acquire an audience who knows who you are and values you.

This isn't about "stealing from artists." It's about the Media Oligarchs suddenly realizing they are obsolete, and wringing their hands and keening about the value of their stock options.

bitterly,
Bright