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Posted: |
Nov 18, 2010 - 8:11 AM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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For those who think that piracy is basically a victimless crime:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/129741-the-qrealq-victims-of-online-piracy?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ce4d898c6128839%2C0
Despite assurances that the many sites pirating my work were doing me a favor with their “free advertising” I never saw a single incoming link from them, saw no increase in traffic, and made virtually no money.
Frequent original content (often pirated the day I post it,) increased my traffic, not pirate “advertising”. Pirates draw traffic from my site, and cost me millions of hits annually, which cuts my advertising revenue.
Readers assume they are only nickel and diming rich corporations with their bit torrent naughtiness, but I am a middle class artist and farmer for whom a few thousand dollars a year in lost income means I can’t afford health insurance.
Each of these pirate sites is a de facto publisher, yet they have no responsibility toward my work. They ignore takedown notices. Few creators can afford to sue.
Convicted felon Gregory Hart, who ran the site htmlcomics.com, threatened me with legal action when I asked him to remove my work from his site. After wrangling for a year, a coalition of major publishers and the FBI took him down.
To add insult to injury, angry readers turned on creators and publishers for enforcing their legal rights against a felon. This is the reality faced by artists in every creative pursuit all over America.
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Posted: |
Nov 19, 2010 - 12:11 AM
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By: |
riotengine
(Member)
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For those who think that piracy is basically a victimless crime:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/129741-the-qrealq-victims-of-online-piracy?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ce4d898c6128839%2C0
Frequent original content (often pirated the day I post it,) increased my traffic, not pirate “advertising”. Pirates draw traffic from my site, and cost me millions of hits annually, which cuts my advertising revenue.
Readers assume they are only nickel and diming rich corporations with their bit torrent naughtiness, but I am a middle class artist and farmer for whom a few thousand dollars a year in lost income means I can’t afford health insurance.
Each of these pirate sites is a de facto publisher, yet they have no responsibility toward my work. They ignore takedown notices. Few creators can afford to sue.
To add insult to injury, angry readers turned on creators and publishers for enforcing their legal rights against a felon. This is the reality faced by artists in every creative pursuit all over America.
Thanks for posting that. I meant to do it myself, but you beat me to it.
This is a wonderfully written piece by Colleen Doran that perfectly lays out how much piracy can hurt the artist. I've seen some of the pages for her upcoming (in 2012) Vertigo graphic novel, Coming To Amerikay, and it's breathtakingly gorgeous work.
Greg Espinoza
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