vendredi 3 septembre 2010

Between myself and the author Elena Maria Vidal ...

Update: she has given a perfectly good answer in comments section (<- click)

... on her blog of Tea at Trianon, there was these last few days an online conversation on comments field of her blogpost "L'Autrichienne", about a film from 1990, about the process of Marie Antoinette.

A Polish Lady or Damsel was saying watching a youtube might be a mortal sin of stealing. Comes her answer, which I omit, my own, her acknowledgement of it, my comment.

My dear, taking what you have not paid for is not stealing if it is either a gift or borrowed.

If I get around a bakery at closing hours and ask for unsold left-overs, eating what I am given is not stealing.

And I cannot regard it as fully moral equivalent to stealing to go by train without paying, since the place used is given back when I have done my journey. Besides, St Francis of Assisi is patron of stowaway passengers, since the time he went on board a ship he had not paid for, heading for the Orient.

Now, regarding something on youtube is at worst no worse than stow-away passengers, at best same as taking what is given.

Thank you, Hans. No one pays for anything on YouTube. For that matter, I allow people to read my blog for free....


So do I, but I'd like to get paid if they print it, and I'd like to get printed. Some want to hold the paper, I prefer that format myself when I am not in a hurry to copy and paste a relevant quote or when I have a shelf to leave the book on.

This youtube is free, but from a concert that was paid for, and I'd like same to happen with my sheet music, and to get money for what satisfaction is had not only at home but also commercially from my scores.


Now that Pole said:

... I used to disregard the matter, but I've read in the examination of conscience that infringing copyrights is a mortal sin, if you like I'll try to find the link to this examination, I saw it on Catholic forum. ...


When I wanted to answer that - the blogpost was gone.

Maybe because of what she said about films being uploaded all the time - the blogpost linked to a youtube from that film - and youtube having no opportunity to check all (as if having sufficient staff for that were a problem) or just maybe for another reason.

Because this is the second time a conversation is cut short when I touch this note. Elena Maria, let us be straight: I am not actually charging any reader one cent for reading. If I had a system allowing micro-payments, I would gladly receive fifty cents from this and one euro from that and two dollar from sundry reader all over the world, and I would be better off. Since I do not have that, since sending me money costs, and costs so much that sending me less than ten or twenty euro or dollars at a time is a bad deal, I am offering readers a chance to make money from my work before sending me anything.

Here is the deal for music and here (ici) is the one for printing texts, whether from the main blog or from Creation vs Evolution or from haïku par HGL or any other blog I have not stated someone elses copyright is relevant.

If you think me dishonest, why have you not said so? If you think me honest, why not cooperate with my thing, I have cooperated with yours. By making publicity for your blog Tea at Trianon I have also made publicity for your books, printed as they are by whoever you struck a deal with. My deal is wth the readers, I have given them that license. Each one can chose whatever scale he can afford and whatever suits him best. Including, as would be the case for most but not all not to do anything except read, not to send me one pence. If I am without a cent myself, it is not because of the freedoms given my readers by me, but because someone is blocking the maybe interested ones from profiting. Or, because this being so unusual, they need me to explain it to them. Which brings me to: why delete a post on which I did that?

If you think me for some or other reason not dishonest but still disastrous ... again why is that?

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Bibl. Glacière/Paris
3/IX/2010, Martyrs de Septembre

5 commentaires:

elena maria vidal a dit…

Hans, I just took the post down so that Polish lady would leave me alone. She would not stop harassing me. I appreciate what you were doing and I agree with you. I did not delete you or any of your comments, and will put the post back as soon as I can get rid of her. I do not have the time to deal with her. She would NOT go away. PLEASE understand.

elena maria vidal a dit…

I don't think you are dishonest at all, Hans. We all have different ways of doing things. I put the post back up but I had to delete that Polish lady's comments because she would not go away.

Hans Georg Lundahl a dit…

OK, sorry for misunderstanding you.

But her reaction is a bit of a taste of the European attitudes (suspicious of Internet) I have to deal with.

I was just preparing myself for a debate with her. That is how I found out.

I remember a priest, my then confessor, a O.P.Tert., telling me not to be concerned about copying (as a student) pages from copyrighted works I could not buy and wanted to reference at home.

Hans Georg Lundahl a dit…

PS, US is like on the top list of my readers: international statistics (countries' names in Fr)

Hans Georg Lundahl a dit…

I am reminded of "Mickey Mouse Protection Act"

It seems, having chosen to treat my work as part of public domain, and hoping honest derivative workers (rpinters, musicians) send me some, is an unwelcome reminder there is a moral flaw in the latest legislation ...