Generally speaking, I'm a
live and let live sort of fellow. If my neighbors vote the straight moonbat ticket, that's their problem. Ditto with the wingnuts. Discounting violent crime and legislation designed to make my life more difficult than it already is, the one thing I have trouble with is copyright infringement. Plagiarism. Hot software. Whatever it is, some poor schmuck (maybe figuratively speaking here) worked hard on this project, and if you can afford to buy it and pirate it instead, you're stealing from him and that bothers me. Because, see, if you'll do it to him, you'll do it to me.
Which brings me to my current dilemma. Keep reading or not as it amuses you to do so.
While browsing around my Facebook account, I stumbled across a would-be best selling author whose opinion of herself and her work is inversely proportional to the quantity and quality of same. She's pushing a prerelease of her latest creation, which is due to hit the market in December of 2017.
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| Rise of the Blood Lust by Ashley Goss |
A sure fire best seller if there ever was one. But don't take
my word for it, go read a sample chapter and decide for yourself. This would concern me a whole lot less than it already does were it not for one thing: The cover. You see, while perusing the new releases rack at my local Family Video, I came across this little diamond in the rough.
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| Lust of the Vampire Girls |
Looks kind of familiar, don't you think? When I returned home I fired up old reliable and pointed my browser at
IMDB, found this incredible hound and downloaded the image without permission. Then I went out to facebook and did the same thing with
Rise of the Blood Lust. I then compared the two. Even with my lousy eyesight, impaired condition, and lack of aesthetics, even
I can see a certain similarity between the two.
One is a rip of the other.
So now comes the question. Do I point this out to the creator of
Lust of the Vampire Girls, or do I just mind my own business. My arguments are that to do nothing is to give tacit approval to the less than industrious Ashley Goss, but on the other hand it isn't likely that Ashley Goss's entry into literature is likely to do much except gather a few one star reviews, so where's the real harm?
What do you guys 'n gals think? Do I blow the whistle or not?
6 comments:
Follow your conscience. I would drop a dime on them in a heartbeat. Their lack of ethics cannot be allowed to stand. Recall the famous quote of Edmund Burke. My definition of evil is anything that which is not right.
You may rue the day when you did nothing when you find yourself as the target. But it should not come to that for it insinuates a selfishness.
Guess it all depends on whether you wanna fight the "everybody does it" battle. My inclination is that AG will shrug and say, "So what? I'm not rich yet like Stephen King. Buy some of my books, and mebbe I'll hire a graphics dpt."
I'm a sales guy. I don't know how many times I have seen good relationships and deals frittered away when a couple egos get mixed up in a pissing match - usually over something stupid. They are the kind of guys that fight and win every battle - and then lose wars. I pick and choose my battles if I can, and avoid those of others if I can too - it's too easy to get drawn in on the wrong side, given what passes for integrity and public decency these days.
But if this were one of my hot buttons - I would send an anonymous letter to the offender and ask them politely to rectify the situation, and imply the threat that their plagiarism will be brought to the attention of the property owners if they don't clean up their act.
I dunno the author and have no interest in such novels myself, but given the quality of writing being done these days ... new authors really, really need to be encouraged - and encouraged to start off on the right foot.
YMMV
No ethics doesn't make us authors look any better. I'd say let the producers/production company know. I'm betting they have no idea their image was 'borrowed' without permission.
Mad jack:
After reading the post, I thought I had formed my opinion, but...
The comments here have got me on the damn fence (I hate when that happens).
If it were me, I might point out the ripoff, but perhaps NOT to the person(s) involved directly.
I'd not bring undue attention to myself...but like I said, that's just me.
Discretion is still the better part of valor...even with videos, I suppose.
Roll safe out there.
I dropped a dime on her.
I know who it is and what she did, and if I say nothing I'm giving her tacit approval. I won't do that.
Secondly, if someone did this to me I'd be mad as hell, and would be on the phone to my attorney (Johnny the Hammer) to see what, if anything, could be done about it.
Finally, it's like Old NFO said: This kind of behavior doesn't help anyone except a moonbat who's too lazy or cheap to come up with her own cover.
Yeah, there's the argument about the amount of harm done, which is incredibly negligible, but that's how gun control started.
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