Copyright Violations Work Both Ways on the Internet

As you probably know, and this is already happening in Europe; publishers, music companies, and film companies want to have websites pulled down, ISPs fined and/or shut down if they are found to have copyrighted material on them. As a writer, this sounds like a good idea to me, because I can't tell you how often my articles are stolen, and I find them somewhere on the Internet with someone else's name attached. Yet, I see another problem to all of this, and I'd like to explain it to you.

First, many publishers are angry because they are finding their books reproduced, republished, and even posted on the Internet, and therefore they lose out on the revenue. You certainly can't blame them for being upset, and as I explained as a writer I can't either. However, if they are allowed to fill out a form with some secret Internet committee, and that group can go and pull down a website, they we're going to have huge problems in the future. Anyone that has an Internet forum, blog network, or anything like that cannot possibly police every single person that posts a blog, article, or comment. Do you see that point?

Now then, I'd like to bring a case in point because there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on November 8, 2011. The article was titled; "Spy Thriller: an Instant Classic-Vanishes amid Plagiarism Charges-Publisher Recalls Novel after Passages Discovered Mimicking Bond, James Bond," by Jeffrey A Trachtenberg. Okay so, can you see the problem here? Here is a company that sells books and e-books, and it found out one of its authors had plagiarized a spy novel. Worse, the company sold 8000 copies before anyone noticed. In fact, the article stated;

"Our reviewer didn't pick up anything suspicious, and a reader commenting on an online forum devoted to James Bond noted the similarity in the material. The online forum comment poster was able to identify at least 13 novels from which the material was similar, using Google books search engine."

Well, there you have it. Should that publisher's website be shut down, and taken off-line for copyright violations? Fair is fair, the publishers seem to want to be able to control other people's ISPs and websites, and have the power to turn them off. Are you beginning to see the problems we are going to have in the future with these laws? I surely do, and I fear that it may cause less information to end up online, and allow others to control the flow of information for their own personal gain.

Having control to turn off ISPs and websites based on copyright law could turn into a can of worms and give far too much power to those who would use it corruptly. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

Copyright Violations and International Challenges

Many authors and publishers have been quite alarmed to find their books pirated, and reproduced in other nations and then distributed throughout the world. There have been big cases where stories from very famous authors have been pirated by the container loads. This happens all over the world, and it has been a big issue in China, probably because they produce most of the world's books now.

Imagine a pirating publisher taking all the books on the New York Times bestseller list, and printing tens of thousands of each, putting them into containers and shipping them to the United States for sale in our markets. Also, shipping the same books to many other countries before our publishers get the actual books on the shelves and into those markets. Yes, this is a serious issue.

Indeed, there was a very interesting article the other day in the Los Angeles times titled "China Gives a Shred about Piracy" by Barbara Demick reporting from Beijing China. The article explained that the Chinese government in Beijing had found pirated DVDs, books, and even magazines and they were destroying them. There was even a picture of a large Caterpillar skip loader moving everything into a pile to be burned. Indeed, it seems like a big waste of money to do that, but Beijing figures that it's the best way to send a message to prevent copyright infringement and piracy.

China now has The National Copyright Administration and the leadership in China wants everyone to know around the world that they are trying to stop the problem of copyright violations. This is a very good thing and it's going to make most of their trading partners quite happy, as it has been a very big complaint for a number of years. Indeed, China is also worried about copyright infringements concerning its own material now, as other countries are copying Chinese produced material, and now they understand the economic loss that can occur.

Yes, China is growing up and they are joining the world in getting rid of copyrighted contraband and pirated material. Some critics charge that this is merely a ploy and a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands of cargo containers shipped all over the world of pirated products, and copyrighted material.

Perhaps, there is some truth to both sides of this debate, but just the fact that China is stepping up to the plate to do this, and to make a very public statement shows that things are improving. And that is a good thing. Indeed, hope you'll please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.