[JM_Hardy]

These are good points. In the Sixth World, the law tends not to favor the individual, and if it happens to, the corps are generally not obligated to pay attention to it.

Jason H.

So Public Domain must be really big in SR because it favers the whole society rather than an individual copyright holder. 

*sigh*

Jason H.

[CanRay]

In the end, the law is whatever the Corporate Court says it is.  Don't like it, Ms. Country?  Kiss your economy good-bye.

So, most likely, I'd see them ruling that Public Domain would begin 99-Years after the dissolution of the Estate of the Creator.  Then gets around that by having a Corporation become the controller of the Estate.  As a Corporation is, essentially, an "Immortal Legal Person", you'd never have to worry about a lack of heirs dissolving an estate.

Good PR (See, we're not really getting rid of "Public Domain"!), and they get whatever they want for as long as they want.

[Grinder]

6) No one is saying you don't have the right to sell or publish your work. People in the Sixth World have the same right to do that as people do now. But you'll notice that a lot of people still go with a publisher instead of self-publishing, because it can be good to have the infrastructure of a publisher at your disposal, and going with a publisher is a good way to get traffic to your work. That's why Rodregaz did what she did, and Horizon didn't like it.

That message didn't get along in the section of Attitude we're talking about.

[Tycho]

6) No one is saying you don't have the right to sell or publish your work. People in the Sixth World have the same right to do that as people do now. But you'll notice that a lot of people still go with a publisher instead of self-publishing, because it can be good to have the infrastructure of a publisher at your disposal, and going with a publisher is a good way to get traffic to your work. That's why Rodregaz did what she did, and Horizon didn't like it.

That message didn't get along in the section of Attitude we're talking about.

Exactly, as reader of this paragraph the fist thing I learn is, that an "independent publisher" is obviously an illegal venue. Rodregaz had no reason to go illegal, she could just go to an independent publisher who works entirely legal. So the conclusion must be: There are no legal independent publishers, which means nobody is allowed to sell there work without support of a Megacorp.
Same in the Music Chapter, Indy Music is obviously illegal, if the successful indy-bands take steps like hacking and psychotropic Viruses to advertise there work instead of youtube, local gigs and help of an Indy label.

As a reader of this chapter i perceive the status quo in 2073 as: Only Megacorps are allowed to publish creative work. Everbody else is illegal, so that independent is equivalent to illegal.

cya
Tycho

[JM_Hardy]

Quoting from Attitude, p. 110:

"Well, Rodregaz went independent. She found a publisher who had a profitable line of stolen ebooks that they use to fund their own publications.  They started packaging her book in with bundles of older, similar books. So the savvy book reader looking for an old copy of Tolstoy or Kerouac would be pleasantly surprised to find they got a bonus copy of something they may well like, and they’d take a look at it.  Through these illegal avenues, Rodregaz built a fan base and eventually started outselling some of her legitimate competitors."

Now, I agree that maybe not every step in Rodregaz's thought process is spelled out, but the basics are there. The publisher traffics in stolen e-books as a way to bring attention to the other books they are publishing. By working with this publisher, Rodregaz got attention for her work, even though it meant her books were part of packages that, for the most part, were pirated media. It says she started outselling some of her legitimate competitors without saying that all of those competitors are corporate-based. It doesn't specifically say why she chose this avenue, but the fact that it generated better sales for us gives us a pretty good hint.

Jason H.

[Grinder]

The publisher traffics in stolen e-books as a way to bring attention to the other books they are publishing.

Seems to be a pretty stupid move, but YMMV.

[CanRay]

The publisher traffics in stolen e-books as a way to bring attention to the other books they are publishing.

Seems to be a pretty stupid move, but YMMV.

All publicity is good publicity.  Look at video games when the Watch Dog Groups scream bloody murder about the, well, bloody murder.  Or consensual sex (Which is warned about right on the bloody box the game comes in!).

Funny enough, they complain more about the consensual sex between adults than the bloody murder.

[FastJack]

The publisher traffics in stolen e-books as a way to bring attention to the other books they are publishing.

Seems to be a pretty stupid move, but YMMV.

All publicity is good publicity.  Look at video games when the Watch Dog Groups scream bloody murder about the, well, bloody murder.  Or consensual sex (Which is warned about right on the bloody box the game comes in!).

Funny enough, they complain more about the consensual sex between adults than the bloody murder.

Welcome to America.

[Tycho]

and my question remains: Why did Rodregaz not use a legal publisher? She has no reason to go illegal.

cya
Tycho

[CanRay]

and my question remains: Why did Rodregaz not use a legal publisher? She has no reason to go illegal.

cya
Tycho

Maybe none would touch her?  Horizon could easily set up a "Blacklist".

I remember there used to be major issues with that in Hollywood in the 1950s over blacklisted writers, actors, producers...

[Tycho]

sure, because she is one of the 10000 persons a day that got a computer generated decline letter?

Horizon clearly did not even know she published anything until she got popular.

cya
Tycho

[JM_Hardy]

and my question remains: Why did Rodregaz not use a legal publisher? She has no reason to go illegal.

cya
Tycho

Let's look at excerpts from two previous posts:

By working with this publisher, Rodregaz got attention for her work

In a vast marketplace, where anyone can instantly distribute their work, the challenge becomes getting your work noticed. In Attitude, Rodregaz chose to get her work noticed by packaging it with unlicensed versions of works that had been in the public domain, but were taken out of it.

Jason H.

[Tycho]

So someone described as

the greatest literary mind of this generation and possibly the next.

needs an illegal publisher to get attention and still:

you’ve never heard of her.

It is not astonishing, as a illegal publisher is not able to advertise through legal channels and so on. So if getting noticed was the goal, choosing illegal is not a smart move.

but you didn't answer my questions: What reason brought Rodregaz to choose a illegal publisher over a legal one? Getting noticed as an author is clearly possible without going illegal, if not even easier that way. Since the quality of her work is uncontested, she would have a great career in front of her, regardless what Horizon would have liked.

[JM_Hardy]

I think you have an overly optimistic view of the publishing world. The quality of a work is no guarantee of finding a publisher or an audience. And getting notice for an unknown author is actually quite difficult.

Jason H.

[FastJack]

So someone described as

the greatest literary mind of this generation and possibly the next.

needs an illegal publisher to get attention and still:

you’ve never heard of her.

It is not astonishing, as a illegal publisher is not able to advertise through legal channels and so on. So if getting noticed was the goal, choosing illegal is not a smart move.

but you didn't answer my questions: What reason brought Rodregaz to choose a illegal publisher over a legal one? Getting noticed as an author is clearly possible without going illegal, if not even easier that way. Since the quality of her work is uncontested, she would have a great career in front of her, regardless what Horizon would have liked.

She received the computer-generated rejection letter along with a letter from an anonymous employee at Horizon's literary department saying the computer analyzed her book and spat back that no one would buy it. From that, let's assume she received similar rejection letters from other publishing houses (but not a letter like Anonymous'), she sees a pattern and decides to publish with the pirates instead.