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What's the point?
16 years ago
General
I don't normally post things in my journal outside of my own work. This is one time I'm going to do so. While this entry talks about the fandom, I do intend this as applied outside the fandom too.
In this current time if someone wants something media related, they can probably get it. The internet has made the world smaller and much easier to find what you're looking for. However a computer is just a tool for this. It only knows what its programmed to do. If can be used for many things but for this entry I'm talking about piracy.
People pirate for different reasons. The truth of the matter is it's wrong and I think most of us know that so I'm not going to go into much details there. But I feel this is becoming way out of hand. Its nearly expected that all media be free. I've seen people begging for MP3s that were $1 or $3 for the entire CD. I've seen countless "-insert artist here- art cd/port, anyone got it?! Share!!"
So its come down to this. What's the point? Why bother making anything else? From my point of view, the only way to make money from ones work is to do direct work for others. Not to plug my own work into this, but some things that are made do cost a good deal of money to make. Some things require more than one person. When it's all said and done, a one of a kind custom item usually is not cheap. I've seen many complain about this but they have their reasons. This could be a topic all of its own, however I want to focus back to digital media in general.
I've heard people say downloading something from a company isn't a big deal especially if/because its overpriced. A company isn't a real person so they don't feel bad. Yet same individual also downloaded a number of currently selling art cds. I made a art cd years ago and it was pirated too. I went in thinking it was going to happen and I was proven right. While I no longer sell the cd, I can't help but to have a bad taste in my mouth that I had to go in with the mind set that its going to be pirated. It crossed my mind to release another art cd as most my work (currently) never sees the light of day. However I said "What's the point?" and nixed the idea.
I still see great artists doing work of all kinds. I like that, I want to see more of it. People should be proud of their hard work. Places like FA are a good way to find talented people and for them to find fans. My greatest fear though is that one day more and more people will be saying "What's the point?".
In this current time if someone wants something media related, they can probably get it. The internet has made the world smaller and much easier to find what you're looking for. However a computer is just a tool for this. It only knows what its programmed to do. If can be used for many things but for this entry I'm talking about piracy.
People pirate for different reasons. The truth of the matter is it's wrong and I think most of us know that so I'm not going to go into much details there. But I feel this is becoming way out of hand. Its nearly expected that all media be free. I've seen people begging for MP3s that were $1 or $3 for the entire CD. I've seen countless "-insert artist here- art cd/port, anyone got it?! Share!!"
So its come down to this. What's the point? Why bother making anything else? From my point of view, the only way to make money from ones work is to do direct work for others. Not to plug my own work into this, but some things that are made do cost a good deal of money to make. Some things require more than one person. When it's all said and done, a one of a kind custom item usually is not cheap. I've seen many complain about this but they have their reasons. This could be a topic all of its own, however I want to focus back to digital media in general.
I've heard people say downloading something from a company isn't a big deal especially if/because its overpriced. A company isn't a real person so they don't feel bad. Yet same individual also downloaded a number of currently selling art cds. I made a art cd years ago and it was pirated too. I went in thinking it was going to happen and I was proven right. While I no longer sell the cd, I can't help but to have a bad taste in my mouth that I had to go in with the mind set that its going to be pirated. It crossed my mind to release another art cd as most my work (currently) never sees the light of day. However I said "What's the point?" and nixed the idea.
I still see great artists doing work of all kinds. I like that, I want to see more of it. People should be proud of their hard work. Places like FA are a good way to find talented people and for them to find fans. My greatest fear though is that one day more and more people will be saying "What's the point?".
If you don't fight for control of the content you create, it falls into the public domain very quickly.
I've even become a fan of several bands like Abney Park and Hammerfall (with the intention of buying their albums) because of "pirated" material.
I agree with you on the point that piracy is a fact of reality we have to accept, and artists shouldn't let it deter them from still trying to offer their work for sale to the better people who >will< support them despite piracy (at least that's the point I believe you're making). But I will always strongly disagree that "accepting" the reality of piracy as fact means people should not still strongly speak against it, discourage it, fight it whenever possible, and generally act to keep it from being regarded as "no big deal." It is a Bad Thing, and it is wrong for people to do. That needs to remain the prominent presented opinion, even as we help people understand that there's little that can be done about it. I also strongly disagree with the vast majority of sentiments that try to downplay the direct loss it poses to content creators, >especially< small self-funded individual creators in a (relatively) tiny niche/fringe interest group like Furry. I believe quite strongly that a good portion, maybe not all or even most, but still a prominent portion of people who pirate furry art >would< pay for it if they weren't being presented with a free option to get it anyway.
It's hard to blame the people who just download, since almost nobody on the net is entirely innocent of that. When presented with a free option, most people can't afford to pay for it anyways when they already have it, and that money could go to something they >can't< get for free. But the people who >make< that free option available, the pirates who distribute this stuff to begin with and put it out there, those are the ones absolutely and fully deserving of blame and to be labeled as the villain in the matter.
Not really arguing with your overall point, I just strongly disagree with that particular detail, and downplaying of piracy's impact in general. o3o
Piracy is wrong, and I'd personally love to punch the people who make shit available to everyone for free. I have yet to meet an individual who is living on their own, working, supporting themselves, understanding what it means to put time and energy into something as a means of income and then have that taken from you, who supports piracy in the sense of making someone else's work freely available to others. Even more rare is the person with any significant talent of their own supporting piracy.
But it doesn't mean there's no point.
Obviously, if you need to make a minimum point of income to be >able< to produce art as something to sell and support yourself on, and piracy keeps you from being able to hit that mark, then yeah, you're not able to do it whether you want to or not.
Piracy steals a lot of intangibles. Most importantly, it steals the "reason to buy" for your customers from you. It steals the benefit of digital media having lower cost to produce and thus lower end price, because you have to charge more from the fewer people actually paying just to hit the same point. It steals the ease of connecting with your fanbase by providing your content outside of where you are present TO connect with people enjoying your work. It steals the ease of purchase from paying customers, because any method of hindering piracy results in a complication or hoop for paying customers to have to jump through.
But whether or not it steals the point of trying at all depends on what the point is for the artist. And it does suck that if the point is "I would like to be free to at least attempt to live off of my own talent and ability" then yeah, it steals that too as often as not.
But if you're doing it just for enjoyment, or for extra cash, then there's still a point to it.
Offering your material to the public, pirated or not, gets you known. Then better known you are, the more you sell in the future.