Resistance Reason #999

I wasn't going to write about this, but someone (you know who you are) suggested that it was a moral imperative, seeing as I was around the last time it happened, and my response basically got me blackballed from polite SF society for life.

About ten years ago I escaped from the Borg after the head drones created the WotC mess (for those who weren't around back then, read the third paragraph here. This was where it all started.) In the end the Borg made a financial deal with WotC on behalf of its membership that was not 100% supported by the membership, and I didn't want any part of it, so I quit. When they received my resignation, one of the board members actually called my house to browbeat and threaten me. It scared me because I was a rookie who didn't know any better, but it also convinced me that I'd made the right decision. Now it seems that the collective is at it again.

I'm not going to say I told you so. Much.

What an author chooses to publish for free on the internet is their decision (I would make sure to get a green light from the publisher for any work under contract so you don't end up in court.) I've published plenty of free stuff myself, I've been bootlegged, and I've had my issues with the Creative Commons crowd as well. Whatever my personal opinions, I'm never going to tell another author what they have to do with their work. Nor would I tolerate any writer or writer organization telling me what to do with mine.

I certainly would never remove their work from the internet without their expressed permission. Hello, this is like definition #1 under dumb in the dictionary.

I know this is a very weird concept, but writer organizations are supposed to support their membership. All the membership, not just the big names and Sacred Cows. I also understand the hysterics over bootlegging; some folks take exception to the virtual rabble despoiling all that net-virginal work. However, to use copyright law as an excuse to indulge in their own form of droit du seigneur is ridiculous and rather obscene.

I'm sure this will all be swept under the rug, the same way it was ten years ago, and the chief offenders punished for daring to stand up to the group. Excuse me for still hoping that it won't be, and that this time someone will be made to answer for their actions.