As a producer of small-press comics for a niche market, I often run into the problem of the Community Itself.
In my particular case, the problem of the no-money-having, living-at-home parasites of the teenage AND adult persuasion pirating copies of my comic from scans made from friends and then PUTTING IT UP FOR GRABS on their servers.
That in itself isn't even the annoying part. The craziness is that when I ask them to please remove my copyrighted work from their sites, I get the HUGEST bitching and attacking because-- now get this-- THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO IT. After all, the community MADE me, don'tcha know, and without them I'd be nothing, so I should be thankful for the PRIVILEGE of being ripped off by them because, as they know, I make enough money as it is on my overpriced shit.
The same shit they pirate because they love it. Because they made me who I am today.
Welcome to Crazyworld, to pirate a phrase.
Another chapter of crazy: According to copyright law, I have to do my due diligence in pursuing these transgressors.
But here's the thing. That can be interpreted to mean I should take legal action if they refuse to cooperate-- and that gets expensive. And for the most part, these are either MINORS or McJob-having nobodies. So I would, in fact, be spending more money prosecuting just ONE of them than I would be making from the sales of the whole comic (niche market, remember?)
Master Mah has this sage advice: "Shrug it off. Because at the end of the day, you can always create more. If it's costing you more than it's worth, just move on to something new."
And he's right. But that doesn't mean that these smartass little pirate BOILS on my ass don't still BURN.
Posted by Agent M at April 22, 2004 11:39 AMNaturally there are subtleties to the "shrug it off" approach. You should, at the least, send a cease and desist order and visibly defend your rights. You don't have to actually accomplish anything with this action. You're still considered to have defended your rights even if it's done poorly. Remember this is the business world, where mediocrity is not merely accepted, it is often celebrated.
You could also take the karmic perspective. Maybe this particular property is not the cornerstone of your future, but merely an educational building block?
There is also the consideration that the perpetrators in question convinced themselves they weren't doing wrong and can't understand your position? There are still people who think altering something by a magical percentage protects them from plagiarism charges, or that possession in any form equals reproduction rights in all forms. Before you get your ire up too high, try to think of times when your presumptions may have convinced you that you were not doing wrong to someone else.
It's easy to write off our adversaries as seething ignorant gutter-snipes, but we were all self-centered children at some point. The question is, "are we past that and willing to move on? Can we forgive others who trespass against us as we've trespassed against others?"
That being said, you should kick their ass then shrug it off. Remember that even as they are an instrument in your education, you are likewise an instrument in theirs. Teach them a good lesson. ;-)
CH
Posted by: CH on April 22, 2004 05:19 PMI like what the previous commenter had to say ;)
Must say I was pretty disapointed in those jerks when I read about the copywrite infrignment a few months back. They're just jerks, that's all there is to it. If you lose money/interest in the comics, you can move on, but these people are bugs. They'll eventually bite some bigger animal and get smooshed.
Posted by: Peter "D. Dog" on June 14, 2004 11:23 PM