For those of you who don’t know who Neil Gaiman is:
He has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, as well as writing books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. He is best known for his science fiction and fantasy work, including his best-selling graphic novel “The Sandman”. He was awarded the Defender of Liberty Award by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in 1997, where he has since served on the Board for the last eight years. He has been blogging since 2001, as well as fundraising and raising awareness over free speech issues, and fighting (and winning) a landmark legal case on copyright int the US.
Many years ago, someone asked me if I had read The Sandman. I hadn’t even heard of it. After they finished freaking out, they gave me a nice digital copy that had been pirated. Ever since then, I’ve been a Neil Gaiman fan. I now own numerous books written by Neil Gaiman, the most recent being The Graveyard Book.
It isn’t just Neil Gaiman who has benefited from my piracy. I have also downloaded music from Bebel Gilberto and Thea Gilmore. I now own every album they have made. I can’t afford HBO, but I downloaded every episode of Rome. I now own the entire series on DVD. Then there are the things that weren’t originally available in The United States. These include Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, and a proper version of Blade Runner.
For many years, Blade Runner was available only as a horrible director’s cut. I owned it, but rarely watched it because I had also obtained a Laser Disc copy that had been converted to DVD. I vowed to purchase Blade Runner as soon as a proper Region 1 DVD version (Blu-Ray region coding is different) was available. I ended up buying the ultimate collector’s briefcase edition with every version/cut of the movie. However, for about 5 years, I had to watch my pirated copy because I could not obtain it anywhere else.
More authors, filmmakers, and musicians should embrace the idea of piracy a little bit more. I have, personally, spent thousands on supporting things I like because of piracy. Yes, there will be people who will always pirate and never give back, but there are far more who are willing to give to the artists they want to support. The Neil Gaimans of the world will make far more money from piracy than they will ever lose.
