Spoilers, Authorial intention and Copyrights

[pegkerr]

I've been thinking about this stuff all week, since the spoilers started coming out. I'd done a lot of thinking about this in advance, since I got spoiled on the last book, and I was determined not to get spoiled on this one.

There are several issues here which need to be separated: spoilers and copyright violation. I haven't commented much on this directly, because I didn't want to start mudslinging, but behind the scenes, I've experienced the abrupt ending of a friendship with a long-time reader on my friends list over these issues.

I had expected trolls to come out with spoilers, and I'd taken steps to protect myself. I'd already worked through the emotional stuff on this when I got spoiled on the last book. ("Those meanies! How dare they!") Yes, yes, we've all heard about this. I'd expected all this, and it all played out pretty much as I anticipated. On the other hand . . .

Call me naive (I know that minnehaha B. will), but I really did not anticipate that the entire book would be leaked and people would be reading it--and posting scans of it--onto the internet days before the official release date. Someone on my friends list posted a link to the scan. I protested to her, and she replied, entirely reasonably from her point of view, that she was putting it behind a cut-tag so no one would get spoiled who didn't want to be, and she didn't think that she was doing anything wrong. As long as she protects people from being spoiled, what possible objection could I have to her getting a jump on the book? I could hardly believe that she would say this to me, a holder of copyrights myself.

I couldn't make her understand my objection at all. We went back and forth a bit, neither of us budging, and she finally said that she was sorry that our friendship would end over this, and she would delete the entry because it upset me so much.

Which was a total lie. The entry is still there. She has just locked it so that I can't see it, but I am absolutely sure that others can. (When I tried to reply to her again, I get the message "You are not authorized to view this protected entry" rather than "No such entry exists.")

So here's my objection again: I am a published writer. I hold copyrights which say that I have the right to decide to do what I wish with work that I have created. If someone else other than the author assists in disseminating a copyrighted work in electronic form, a work in a form to which he or she has no legal right, in advance of the publication date, against the clearly expressed wishes of the author and in violation of that author's legal copyright that is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I know that I'm naive, perhaps, for wanting to have the experience that Rowling intended: that all over the world, we would be reading the story for the first time and experiencing it as a surprise together. Maybe it's because, since I'm an author, I give extra weight to authorial intention. I thought Rowling's intention was so extremely cool: the world coming together for one magical night, discovering the ending for this marvelous story, and nobody spoiling it for anyone else. That would be a remarkable world event, something never seen before. And we had waited so many years for this night to come! So yeah, I feel a little bitter toward those who are reading the story ahead of when Rowling intended, that they are cheating somehow. [Edited to add: And I do know that it includes some here on my friends list. I'm disappointed in you, but I won't defriend you over it. I'll just point out that you failed to choose what was right over what was easy.)

But I don't feel nearly as bitter toward them as I do toward the people who blew the book open ahead of time. The spoiler trolls are scum, but the others who made it possible to publish spoilers by disseminating the scan are contemptible, too.

They have no right.

Comments

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

They've also announced they intend to sue the place that reputedly shipped the book early.

If my observations are correct, they won't get anywhere by suing the people that shipped the book early.

If you look at the picture of the book, there are two very telling details. First, there's a plastic cover over the book jacket. Second, on the bottom left corner of the book there is a piece of striated tape holding the plastic-covered book jacket onto the book. There's only one place I know of that would have a book shipped to them with a plastic cover and striated tape on it: a library.

So if I'm right, the place that shipped the book early was either Baker & Taylor, Ingram, or Book Wholesalers, Inc. (BWI). Thing is, Ingram, B&T, and BWI were supposed to ship early. If they didn't there'd be no way libraries could process their books and have them ready for their patrons by midnight on Saturday. Scholastic wouldn't get anywhere suing these particular distributors because they did exactly what they were supposed to do. Who they could sue would be the library that let their copies out of security long enough for someone to photograph the whole thing. Libraries had to sign an agreement with their distributor(s) that said the books would be locked up, and that only the director and one other person would even touch the books, and that no one would read them while cataloging. I don't know about Ingram and BWI, but the libraries I work with who use B&T had to have that agreement in sometime around March 10. The library that let the book out could be sued by Scholastic AND B&T/Ingram/BWI.

Or I could be totally wrong.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

You may well be right about where the photographed book came from -- I didn't look at it myself. But the suing of the early shipper is a separate situation from the photographs of the book on the web: a bookseller (I don't remember who) shipped out copies of the book to people who had ordered it several days early -- which violates the agreement Scholarship made everyone sign. So Scholastic is after them purely for shipping early -- has nothing to do the 'scanned' book.

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Ack, my bad. Yes, they should and will go after Deep Discount. Morons (DD, not Scholastic). Did they not see the huge red letters on the box that said, "Do not open until July 21?"

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I've worked in both libraries and bookstores. Some bookstores put mylar covers on all their hardcovers, or all worth over X, or whatever they decide. Having a mylar cover does NOT mean it was from a library. Besides, some libraries have books shipped uncovered, and put on mylar covers as part of processing, to make spine labeling easier.

So it could be either a bookstore or library person who leaked. Or both; it seems like it might have been multiple.

I am pissed about this myself. I don't want spoilers, and I certainly think heads should roll for putting it online. Even once it's released, that is clear violation of copyright.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Well, for that matter, many of my hardcovers have mylar jacket covers on them; I buy them at Dreamhaven and put them on as needed. Now and then a new book comes already covered.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

>Thing is, Ingram, B&T, and BWI were supposed to ship early. If they didn't there'd be no way libraries could process their books and have them ready for their patrons by midnight on Saturday.

Yup. I'm not sure where exactly my father's library got the book from, but they've had their copies for _weeks_ for exactly the reason you state. (I figured they'd get them early, but I was surprised by how early.)

(My father sent an email to the entire staff telling them not to bug the tech services folks about it. What the tech services folks did once they had the book in hand, I do not know.)

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oops. Jumped the gun on that comment and didn't realize who I was replying to. Sorry 'bout the saying things you already knew.