Copyright Laws

Rob Klein bi442 at lafn.org
Sat Oct 21 19:36:16 CEST 2000


Being a writer/artist contributor to Disney Comics, and hoping to sell
graphic representations of my own stories with my own characters some day,
I must agree completely with Stefan Dios.  The internet revolution is a
good thing for disseminating information.  However, it must not be used to
provide free copies of facsimiles of finished products to the would-be
customers of those products.  If the product is written stories and related
illustrations printed on paper, the internet can provide a free facsimile
of the product for sale to anyone on the internet who has a printer.  There
are two general groups of  comic book purchasers: (1) those who buy to just
to read and enjoy the stories, and (2) those who "collect" the series (want
to physically posess the actual book).  Mass distribution of complete
stories (or completely rproduced comic books) over the Internet would ruin
sales from BOTH types of purchasers.  In the future, ever more people will
connect to the internet and the costs of computer graphics equipment will
be getting evermore affordable to the average person.  Downloaders will be
able to obtain free copies of each page of a comic book (with opportunity
to put it on better paper with better colour quality); and they could bind
it into any format they would like.  Under this scenario, very few hard
core fans will want to buy the original comic book from the "authorised
publisher".  When this happens, no publishing firms will buy the rights to
publish anything.  The creators who work for those publishers would lose a
high percentage of their employment opportunities.  They would be forced to
self - publish and compete with many others to try to earn a living.  Self
- publishing will exist; but only if safeguards are instituted to ensure
that the creator/publisher can receive monetary compensation for receipt of
his material from the people that want to read and/or posess copies of it. 


If there is no way to ensure that, the only writer/artists that will create
anything to be shown to the public will be those who have a different
source of income to live on.  Such a scenario would be a terrible loss to
society.  Those who advocate diseminating all art for free to anyone
interested should think twice.  Would I risk putting all my time and effort
into creating graphic stories to sell if I knew that anyone could reproduce
them and distribute them for no cost to anyone who wants them?  No!  I have
no other source of income that allows me the free time to be such a
philanthropist.

This problem relates to the basic reasons societal rules and laws exist: to
create a way people can live together in a system that works.  When we have
an orderly system that works (to some extent fairly) as we do in the
"Western World" we should not try to overthrow that order by deciding to
break whichever laws we consider "unjust or bad".  It is true that most of
the nations represented by DCML are not "true democracies"; but are at
least (in most cases) representative governments.  If enough people in
those countries unite to make their wishes known, they can make changes
within the system.  When individuals on a large scale break laws because
the don't agree with them, chaos, or at least large scale turbulance
occurs.

It is up to the people using the internet to use it reasonably and respect
the "spirit" of current national and international rules and laws.  You can
choose to disregard them.  But if enough people do, the very product you
enjoy to receive for free, will become extinct.

The bottom line in anything that regards human society is that "The Golden
Rule" should be applied.  Always think of all the people who might be
affected by an action, and imagine yourself in all of their places.  Then,
consider the consequences of your action.   

Here's an idea!  Get every Disney Comic fan you know together and all write
this note to every Disney Comics publisher worldwide:  "We will not buy any
more Disney Comics until you pay royalties to your contracted or employed
creators!" "Do not worry about your additional costs, as if you pay the
royalties, we promise to bring you new customers by telling everyone we
know about your comics, and showing them to many potential new fans!"

Oops!  I forgot!  It won't help for us to get royalties, as the publishers
will all be bankrupt due to internet uploading!

Rob Klein 






  














More information about the DCML mailing list