The UK Intellectual Property Office Upsets Educational Authors

[Dos_Box]

Now this makes some quite bizzare reading: Top Brit authors turn flamethrowers on barmy IPO ? The Register

 

Britain's best-loved storytellers turned their fire on the People's Revolutionary Council of Newport yesterday – otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Office. The IPO wants to use the power of the state to rob authors of the right to see any royalties from sales into education.

 

Well worth 2 minutes of your time, and very worrying (especially if you are an author!).

[alan-d]

There are too many people being paid silly amounts to think up these ridiculous ideas

 

It means in effect that an author could write a textbook, one copy could be printed and thereafter multiple copies could be made in schools throughout the land for children in those schools to use, with no reward going to the author and therefore not a cat in hell’s chance of that author ever bothering to write again.

[X-13]

McDermid said that one of her readers had scanned all 19 of her books, and then sold them as a bundle on eBay for £4.99, popping up every six weeks. She commented:

 

I'm pretty sure if I went to my local supermarket, stole 19 bottles of wine and sold them outside, I wouldn't be walking free today.

 

 

Copyright infringement != Theft.

 

 

As soon as you claim it is, I don't give a [censored] if people pirate your work.

 

Theft reduces the amount of [thing] available. Copyright infringement makes more.