12.06.14 | Lisa Campbell - The Bookseller
Crime author Val McDermid has directly appealed to the government and police for e-book pirates to be “brought down and closed down”.Speaking at the International IP Enforcement Summit in London today (11th June), the bestselling Scottish writer called for more law enforcement on copyright infringers, but also more education for those who commit the crime.
She referenced one pirate who repeatedly put up PDF versions of 19 of her books, selling a collection of them all for just £5, despite being served with cease and desist notices from her publisher and taking them down in each instance.
“If I want to give it up for free, that is my right, but it is about respecting the work,” McDermid said. “I cannot control the relationship with the reader; once it goes from my hands into their hands, I have no control after that. But I can control the form. I can control that what you get is what I want you to get, not what some third party wants you to get. Without control there is no integrity in a piece of work. If you remove the copyright then you remove the integrity of what I have created.”
McDermid said she entirely rejected any suggestion that copyright was a form of censorship. “I am not closing down any libraries,” she said, in a dig at the government. "That is not what I am trying to say here. I worked at this, I made this. I made it and without that the thing in your hand wouldn’t exist. Without that financial support I cannot do that – no one can. Copyright is what gives me the right to make these decisions.”
She added: “If I do not pay my plumber, he can take away my bath. I cannot do that. Once you have read my book, it is in your head, I can’t take it back.”
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