I get so frosted by writers who don’t think about copyright and free speech. I’m a bit tired of hearing authors get all hot under the collar about the Chilling Effects site and the fact the many sites refer to the site in their DCMA takedown information.
Authors should be the first to speak up when Fair Use and copyright gets abused. If the current corporate mind set of companies gets carried out to the conclusion they seem to want (no Fair Use, no Fan Fiction, no speech they don’t like) how long do you think it will be before they come after novelists? How long before an author’s ability to write gets compromised.
Read the whole article by Dan Gilmore.
Some comments here suggest it’s time for a remedial column or two on copyright. Whether copyright holders like it or not, they don’t have the absolute right to decide how their published work may be used, and by whom, through eternity. And those who believe we should ban tools that can be used for illicit purposes, not just beneficial ones, should ask themselves what would happen if we applied that standard widely.
Thank you.
[…] Jewel wonders if authors understand copyright, fair use, and free speech. Recommended reading whether you’re an author, or a reviewer who’s dealt with an author […]