So was he. You don't know his name, but it appears under the words "Green Green Grass of Home," one of the great songs of the past century. He also co-wrote what most say is the best country song of all time, "He Stopped Loving Her Today." He wrote Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and another standard, "My Elusive Dreams." And on the funny side, how about, "You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too."
He was born at the right time. He collected royalties all his life, and wasn't quite seeing the effect of piracy that has made it more and more difficult for songwriters to consider that they've built up a pension with hit songs. No, today's middle-aged songwriters, as well as scripwriters and authors, can't count on royalty checks being a great supplement to Social Security. And who is so sure of the future of Social Security, either?
None of this bothers the Millennials, who throw digitized books, movies and music around. Sadly, it doesn't bother Baby Boomers in their 60's and 70's, who have discovered blogs and forums in their old age, and "share" with each other, confident that what they do is NOT "stealing." They'll tell you copyright is "copy wrong," and that it's "silly" that people should get royalties for their work. Oh, it's fine for them to get pensions for 30 years of paving streets or emptying garbage or being a drone at a government job, but if you wrote a book or a hit song, why, you should get a flat fee and be done with it!
And so they rationalize that it's a "kerfuffle" to file takedowns, and that rights owners who dare to do it should be harassed. They have friends in Google, Ebay, Amazon, YouTube (owned by Google) and others, who are under little obligation to remove infringements or see to it that malicious and idiotic "uploaders" cease and desist. Google is much more powerful than Disney and Comcast owns NBC, and the truth is that Internet companies have lobbied to make sure that weak piracy laws stay weak.
Jeff Bezos made sure to put his low-priced Kindle on the opening page of Amazon every day until people bought enough to seriously screw up the publishing world. Now, most any best-seller, and even an obscure textbook can be had as a free download. Or for a few dollars via a bootlegger on eBay. I was surprised to see what I can consider an obscure book, "Horror Stars on Radio," given away in several forums. I wrote that one. I asked my publisher what was being done to remove such piracy and stop RAR files from being tossed around. The reply was, "What's a RAR file?" And, "how does a forum work?" And "what do you do with that link?" But it could just as easily have been what you hear from Scholastic, or the bird-brains at Penguin: "We don't think it's that much of an issue." No, not when they get 90% and the author 10%.
So that brings me to a piece that ran in THE ECONOMIST the other day.
It brings me back to Curly Putman. One of the guys who had hits with his songs was George Jones. Only George could get so much mileage out of a deliciously malicious number like "Radio Lover." I mentioned to Curly Putman that this song had to have been a lot of fun to write. Like Alfred Hitchcock plotting the shower scene in "Psycho," Curly had to have enjoyed the set-up and then the perfect O. Henry twist.
Well, George sang the songs but his voice was giving out. Sometimes he wheezed, and was embarrassed to find himself unable to get through an entire set without a problem. Similarly, Glen Campbell had to explain that Alzheimer's was going to make his farewell tour less than perfect. Meanwhile, less high profile, various performers have worn themselves ragged touring small clubs. Various authors have had to be away from friends and family to lecture wherever they can get a paycheck from any small college or library. People who thought they weren't going to have to be under stress are literally killing themselves, and in many cases competing with the armchair pirates who spend the morning uploading discographies, bibliographies, filmographies, and then checking for "nice comments" or how much money Google or Rapidgator has funneled into their bank accounts as a...yes...ROYALTY for the illegal material.
THE ECONOMIST points out that guys who shouldn't even be on the road, or on the road so much, are facing the reality that piracy is making them risk their lives. The thieves who are swiping both money and fame from the artists, sneer, "Sell t-shirts. Tour. Have a day job. If you are a writer, why, go teach or lecture, because all writers are articulate and people certainly want to show up at a library to hear them as long as its free." Meanwhile the pirates are resting comfortably at home "on the government's teat," and often with an extra pension from THEIR job. They hear "thank you for the discography...the filmography...the complete set of books...thank you for YOUR HARD WORK!"
Trying to educate selfish, stubborn, stupid people doesn't work. If you're a rights owner, take the time to file that DMCA, and if you can, get deputized so you can do it for any other intellectual property owners you know. Make the case as often as possible to the lazy bastards at the RIAA, BPI, writers unions, office of Penguin Random House, etc. that they should not ignore ANY violations and use interns and solicit volunteers. Let your politicians know that a result of piracy is a steady diet of crap "reality" shows, dimwit sci-fi and comic book hero movies, awful books by pudgy idiots like E.L. James and George R.R. Martin, and a lack of in-depth reporting from newspapers and non-fiction authors.
The pirates don't care if George Jones died on the road, or if some author or indie singer-songwriter can't stay at home and must instead be under big stress for chump change. All they know is that THEY are siphoning off some fame and some money, via their long-distance blood-letting of creative people via easy Internet "sharing."
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