According to UNESCO, World Book Day is organized to promote reading, publishing and copyright. This last item is quite the hot potato these days with music and ebook downloads. Below I have included a couple of links to debates on this topic to get your brain juices flowing. I would like to open a debate here to know what you think about this issue.
Listening to music, reading a book or watching a moovie. The
ReplyDeleteintelectual pleasure has had a price for ages but nowadays this
type of beliefs seem to be upside down. Maybe is money which
is just changing hands.
In my view, this controversy has been worked out. 'Panis et
circenses'. This is it. So I won't feel guilty whether I download
a pair of tracks from time to time.
I wonder what Dvorák, Teresa de Cepeda or Tom & Jerry would
think about it.
By the way, what's the score today? ;-)
Although the links you attached are related to music, I am going to express my opinion about downloading books illegally, for our next meeting will be about reading.
ReplyDeleteUsually, when we ask people about this matter, we are told that books are very expensive and culture has to be accessible to everyone. But things are not like that. Letting people get away with illegal downloads is not spreading culture, but destroying it.
We have to accept that being a writer is, besides a way to express the own creativity, a way of living, and behind each published book there are many people who have contributed with their job. Publishing is not only publishers’ business, but labour positions for translators, spellcheckers, illustrators, and many more people, so it is necessary that publishing books keeps being a profitable deal so that writers can find publishers who pull for them. Otherwise, and because of the “primum vivere, deinde philosophari”, who is going to spend long hours writing books which will never come to bookshops?.
On the other hand, and although it is true that books are expensive, there are a lot of libraries throughout the world, second hand bookshops, and, moreover, many books available for free on the Net. Therefore, there is no excuse. We have to be aware of culture is something valuable, and buying a book, that can be shared and kept for a long time, is, possibly, a better option than buying so many clothes or useless items, quickly old-fashioned.
It is up to us to decide!