Author: jaymountney

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SOPA, PIPA… and ACTA

I am very pleased about the mass protest that has stopped SOPA and PIPA for the time being. I am horrified at the way the mass entertainment industry has taken upon itself the role of policing the public outside as well as inside the USA.

They claim to be fighting piracy but I beg to differ. Piracy (which is to be deplored) is the use of someone else’s work without consent for profit, either not sharing that profit with the originator or seriously decreasing the originator’s chances of making a profit.

Sites that provide downloads of films, music, and books without consent,for payment, are piracy and of course should be prevented from operating. However, karaoke sessions, remix vids on YouTube, fanfiction, reviews that quote/illustrate, etc. etc. are not piracy. In fact, they often act as free advertising for the original works.

Some free downloads of films etc. are piracy but others are a desperate attempt to share with the world the work of actors, singers etc. whose films/TV shows/music have been published solely in the USA and are otherwise inaccessible to the rest of us. In a sense it is the American entertainment industry who are the pirates because they steal the creations of artists in all genres, not rewarding them sufficiently and not allowing global disribution of their work.

SOPA and PIPA are not the way to fight internet piracy. They are, it seems, the way to get a large proportion of the world very incensed indeed! Including me. I have signed various petitions, donated to more than one organisation, talked to anyone who would listen and followed the debates, official and unofficial, closely.

I am also concerned at the closing down of Megaupload and the implications of that, and the current attempt to extradite Richard Dwyer from the UK because of actions he took solely in the UK. More reading, petitioning etc.

I am not, at present, in favour of Black March. In its present form I think the idea could hit a number of independent producers/publishers/record companies who in fact supported the protests. Any attempt to make Black March more specific in its targets would, I think, make it unwieldy.

A further matter for concern is ACTA. This is a global treaty, on its way to being signed by about 39 countries. It purports to combat the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods and the copying of patented medicines (for use in the third world – go figure – Oxfam are protesting loudly). Because the treaty wording is broadly and loosely drafted the results will be open to abuse, whatever the current governments say about their intent. There will be the potential to enforce invasions of privacy on a massive scale ‘to prevent piracy’.

Look at this YouTube vid:

Then subscribe to this news feed:

https://www.laquadrature.net/en/after-sopapipa-in-the-us-acta-makes-its-way-to-the-eu-parliament

And if you are in UK sign this petition:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20850

I intend to follow matters assiduously and will be glad to find ways of protesting and publicising the issues. I have contacted campaigning groups, my MP and my MEPs.

I know that this matter is merely shelved in US and not dead at all elsewhere. We need to stay alert.

What do you think? And can you help to spread the word?

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Writers who inspire me

A friend asked, in her blog, who inspired us… She gave examples of people who inspired her, and gave quotations from their speeches or writing.

So here are a few of the people who inspire me. They are all authors, two fantasy writers and a poet.

J.R.R.Tolkien British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 – 1973)

“A dragon is no idle fancy. Even today (despite critics) you may find men not ignorant of tragic legend and history, who have heard of heroes and indeed seen them, who have yet been caught by the fascination of the worm.”

“One writes such a story not out of the leaves of trees still to be observed, nor by means of botany and soil-science; but it grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mould of mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten, descending into the deeps. No doubt there is much selection, as with a gardener: what one throws on one’s personal compost-heap; and my mould is evidently made largely of linguistic matter.” (On the creation of LotR)

“What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator’. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside. …… Every writer making a secondary world wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.”

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of the reader. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

 Guy Gavriel Kay (Canadian fantasy writer !954 – )

“…it also needs to be remarked that sagas and idylls are constructed, that someone has composed their elements, selected and balanced them, bringing whatever art and inclination they have, as a offering.”

Robert Frost (American poet 1874-1963)

In Neglect (published 1915)

“They leave us so to the way we took,
As two in whom they were proved mistaken.
That we sit sometimes in the wayside nook,
With mischievous, vagrant, seraphic look,
And try if we cannot feel forsaken.”

Who inspires your writing? Can you share any of your favourite quotations?
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Cautious introduction

I am a writer.

I have had very little published: odds and ends of poetry in school and parish magazines; some educational texts; an academic review; a few flashfics and book reviews in online zines.

I write in more than one genre: non-fiction (mostly travel and cookery); children’s stories; reviews; poetry; adult fantasy/romance. I have abandoned the academic stuff; more about that in a later post, perhaps. Most of my output has so far only been read by people reading my various blogs. Because I move from genre to genre I use pen names – no sense upsetting, worrying and confusing the readers! My nearest and dearest know who I am, as do the bank and the tax office should they ever need to. Other than that I can’t imagine that my various personas are anyone else’s business and so I run a mile from Facebook and from Google in all its manifestations. They make it impossible to keep pen names in completely separate compartments without a great deal of deception and hard work. A writer’s nightmare!

I have other blogs where I share personal stuff, and the travel and cookery aspects of my work. I use one of them for fanfiction which I also write under another name. I have a website, too, where I keep these things accessible.

Here I will be sharing my thoughts mainly on the adult fiction and perhaps the poetry. Of course, sometimes the genres overlap and perhaps have something to offer each other. In that case I will refer to them, but you need not, on the whole, expect recipes or travelogues. I won’t be sharing the actual stories in full, either, just the experiences, problems and joys of creation.

I have retired from teaching (mostly language and literature) and have been writing fiction quite assiduously for about six years. I now have quite a body of work that needs to be submitted somewhere or other. I don’t suffer from writer’s block but I do suffer from submitter’s block. I know all about the idea that you need luck, to be in the right inbox at the right time, etc. Why should I be that lucky? I have never had much of a gambling streak! You also, I believe, need persistence. Well, I persist with my writing…

I have been following a number of blogs and reading books about self-publishing, particularly e-book publishing. I have just about decided that 2012 is the year when I will try my hand at that. Hard work to make a go of it, yes, but all under my control and not requiring any element of luck After all, if nobody buys my stories it’s hardly the end of the world. I know my friends like them, and I won’t have spent anything other than time.

I will share my journey, including set-backs and learning curves, here.

There! That’s me, and the purpose of this blog. I’m hoping to make friends, give people the benefit of my experiences and learn from their comments en route.