You don't tug on Supermans' cape...Or Steve Perrys' residuals.
Steve Perry posted a very good article on literary piracy HERE. You should read it, like many of his thoughts on the free-use/abuse of internet piracy and realtime cause and effect, it resonates.
I've been holding back about writing this article for quite a while now for several reasons, the top three being:
1: Not everything on my computer is 100% legal. The porn is, sure, but...I might be found guilty of some form of piracy or another, if you dig through my games collection. Or my music.
2: I'm an author. Maybe not Stephen King - or even Steven Perry - but I AM a working professional, and both my literary and video work has been pirated online.
3: I have some experience with one of the earliest forms of literary piracy. And pulled a sizable paycheck for it as well.
I moved out to Seattle in the late 90's, when the internet dot com business was in full swing. Money was being thrown about like a dwarf trapped in a spin cycle, and the most RIDICULOUS ideas were getting funding to the tune of 300 to 700 million. Yeah, you heard me right. Websites most of you have probably never even heard of, let alone seen, have been funded with enough liquid cash to buy Bolivia. Twice.
Anyone out there remember Kozmo.com? I didn't think so. They did what Ebay now owns, combined with Domino's Pizza...but forgot to charge for it.
Okay, howzabout Ontain.com? No? Well, if you've ever used a Subway express card - or a Starbucks gift card - you can thank both me and the dot-bomb formerly known as ONTAIN. Unfortunately, you couldn't thank our development team for creating the electronic version of Frankensteins' creation. Over 500 million went down on that Titanic, and I never even got a severance check.
But the worst...the absolute WORST...was a little ebook download site called "Contentville.com".
True story:
The first job I got working as a network admin when I moved to this drippy, hippy Disneyland, was for contentville.com. Contentville carried an unbelievable backlog smorgasbord of digital literary works that had been painfully scanned in page-by-page by some intern making $5.25 per hour. They advertised onsite to download anything literary at half the price; Term papers, speeches, books, you name it. They became (supposedly unwittingly) the Napster of print.
Here's how it worked: Users logged on and typed whatever literary works they were looking for in the search box. The site would return a list of matching documents that, for a fee, could be downloaded. To get the word out, these fuckwaffles spent over 50 MILLION in advertising.
I did lots of outsourcing to other dot coms as well, back in those days. Clients loved me, users loved me, and we were charging SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY it was unreal. I remember my manager telling me a cost estimate was too low, and to "stick another zero on it". Voila', just like that $2000.00 became $20,000.00. Then $40,000. Then $100,000.00. I once charged 1 million dollars to a client for about 4 month's worth of work of 3 guys.
Thing is, I was making only around $55,000.00 per year at that time, so where all that residual money went to, I don't know. It certainly didn't go into my pockets, and our investors never saw a goddam dime. Which made me feel rather taken advantage of. I mean, when you are living alone in Seattle and eating Ramen noodles from your only pot and washing it down with diet Tab because you can't afford anything else...You start to question the powers that be.
And that leads me to one of the greatest screw-fests I have ever been involved in...And believe me, I've seen a few. When I was first hired by contentville, I wanted stock options. Why? To this very day, I have no clue. I only knew that everyone else was getting them, they paid off (supposedly) for your retirement in the future, and then-fledgling Amazon.Com was offering them like crazy. I wanted in on the action. Response from management was "You will receive stock options after one years' employment with this company."
Thats clear enough, right? So I waited patiently, kept my nose clean and worked my ass off pulling 75 + hour shifts to show my dedication. As my 11th month of employment rolled around, I approached my manager and stated that I'd like to get the ball rolling on those stock options.
"What stock options?" he asked.
"Uhhh...The ones you promised me I would receive after one year when I signed on to this job." I replied.
"Well, you're not getting them yet." That fuckroast had the nerve to say.
"But you promised."
"No I didn't".
"Yes, you fucking DID!"
"What I stated was that you would get them after one year of employment...that could mean one year, two years, ten years..."
Can you believe that bullshit? Sadly, this was the typical attitude I had to deal with back in those days. However, before I could tell my boss what to suck and how long to keep at it, something intervened that was practically a left-handed gift from the Gods; The authors and scholars began to discover their works were for sale online...Without their knowledge or permission. And that, my friends, pissed off authors.
Also, some of the content on the site could be obtained for free from originating sites. For example, Village Voice articles. These articles were available for pay on Contentville.com, or for free on villagevoice.com.
And THAT pissed off the paying customers. Over half of whom immediately dropped us upon hearing the news.
As the lynch mob began to gather in the lobby downstairs, the company tried to patch things up...removed articles like those from Village Voice, attempted to funnel royalties to authors for purchased work...and oh yeah, got on both knees and begged me to stay and help fix the problem.
I told them where to stick it, and walked out within the hour. Maybe that had an influence on things, maybe not, but in October 2001 Contentville.com closed its' doors forever.
I've long since turned in my parrot, but I still have the eye patch...And I will. forever remember those heady days in 1998 when network admins ruled the world, suckers paid for shit they didn't need online, and nobody knew how the hell to make a buck from the internet.
I've been holding back about writing this article for quite a while now for several reasons, the top three being:
1: Not everything on my computer is 100% legal. The porn is, sure, but...I might be found guilty of some form of piracy or another, if you dig through my games collection. Or my music.
2: I'm an author. Maybe not Stephen King - or even Steven Perry - but I AM a working professional, and both my literary and video work has been pirated online.
3: I have some experience with one of the earliest forms of literary piracy. And pulled a sizable paycheck for it as well.
I moved out to Seattle in the late 90's, when the internet dot com business was in full swing. Money was being thrown about like a dwarf trapped in a spin cycle, and the most RIDICULOUS ideas were getting funding to the tune of 300 to 700 million. Yeah, you heard me right. Websites most of you have probably never even heard of, let alone seen, have been funded with enough liquid cash to buy Bolivia. Twice.
Anyone out there remember Kozmo.com? I didn't think so. They did what Ebay now owns, combined with Domino's Pizza...but forgot to charge for it.
Okay, howzabout Ontain.com? No? Well, if you've ever used a Subway express card - or a Starbucks gift card - you can thank both me and the dot-bomb formerly known as ONTAIN. Unfortunately, you couldn't thank our development team for creating the electronic version of Frankensteins' creation. Over 500 million went down on that Titanic, and I never even got a severance check.
But the worst...the absolute WORST...was a little ebook download site called "Contentville.com".
True story:
The first job I got working as a network admin when I moved to this drippy, hippy Disneyland, was for contentville.com. Contentville carried an unbelievable backlog smorgasbord of digital literary works that had been painfully scanned in page-by-page by some intern making $5.25 per hour. They advertised onsite to download anything literary at half the price; Term papers, speeches, books, you name it. They became (supposedly unwittingly) the Napster of print.
Here's how it worked: Users logged on and typed whatever literary works they were looking for in the search box. The site would return a list of matching documents that, for a fee, could be downloaded. To get the word out, these fuckwaffles spent over 50 MILLION in advertising.
I did lots of outsourcing to other dot coms as well, back in those days. Clients loved me, users loved me, and we were charging SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY it was unreal. I remember my manager telling me a cost estimate was too low, and to "stick another zero on it". Voila', just like that $2000.00 became $20,000.00. Then $40,000. Then $100,000.00. I once charged 1 million dollars to a client for about 4 month's worth of work of 3 guys.
Thing is, I was making only around $55,000.00 per year at that time, so where all that residual money went to, I don't know. It certainly didn't go into my pockets, and our investors never saw a goddam dime. Which made me feel rather taken advantage of. I mean, when you are living alone in Seattle and eating Ramen noodles from your only pot and washing it down with diet Tab because you can't afford anything else...You start to question the powers that be.
And that leads me to one of the greatest screw-fests I have ever been involved in...And believe me, I've seen a few. When I was first hired by contentville, I wanted stock options. Why? To this very day, I have no clue. I only knew that everyone else was getting them, they paid off (supposedly) for your retirement in the future, and then-fledgling Amazon.Com was offering them like crazy. I wanted in on the action. Response from management was "You will receive stock options after one years' employment with this company."
Thats clear enough, right? So I waited patiently, kept my nose clean and worked my ass off pulling 75 + hour shifts to show my dedication. As my 11th month of employment rolled around, I approached my manager and stated that I'd like to get the ball rolling on those stock options.
"What stock options?" he asked.
"Uhhh...The ones you promised me I would receive after one year when I signed on to this job." I replied.
"Well, you're not getting them yet." That fuckroast had the nerve to say.
"But you promised."
"No I didn't".
"Yes, you fucking DID!"
"What I stated was that you would get them after one year of employment...that could mean one year, two years, ten years..."
Can you believe that bullshit? Sadly, this was the typical attitude I had to deal with back in those days. However, before I could tell my boss what to suck and how long to keep at it, something intervened that was practically a left-handed gift from the Gods; The authors and scholars began to discover their works were for sale online...Without their knowledge or permission. And that, my friends, pissed off authors.
Also, some of the content on the site could be obtained for free from originating sites. For example, Village Voice articles. These articles were available for pay on Contentville.com, or for free on villagevoice.com.
And THAT pissed off the paying customers. Over half of whom immediately dropped us upon hearing the news.
As the lynch mob began to gather in the lobby downstairs, the company tried to patch things up...removed articles like those from Village Voice, attempted to funnel royalties to authors for purchased work...and oh yeah, got on both knees and begged me to stay and help fix the problem.
I told them where to stick it, and walked out within the hour. Maybe that had an influence on things, maybe not, but in October 2001 Contentville.com closed its' doors forever.
I've long since turned in my parrot, but I still have the eye patch...And I will. forever remember those heady days in 1998 when network admins ruled the world, suckers paid for shit they didn't need online, and nobody knew how the hell to make a buck from the internet.
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