The problem begins when we Christians spend more time trying to sell 'decisions' and tracking them like sales quotas than living as Jesus lived, and paying attention to the twin directives we were left with; the love our neighbors as ourselves, and to create disciples.

Note that last word. It is something accomplished one-on-one through love and sensible living, a mentorship of something that works, not a political landgrab.

As a centrist pragmatic Christian, I feel more ostracized and outcast by many fellow fundamentalist Christians than I do out in the 'world', and that's wrong.

Some of us have been trying to do what we believe is right despite being abandoned by the major denominations. It's comforting to see there are a remnant of practical, centrist, pragmatic believers out there trying to make a difference one by one.

Thanks for posting this link.

Michael Capobianco has published a statement about where SFWA is today with regard to authors creative rights.
http://sfwa.org/news/2007/creativerights.htm

The thing that jumps out to me is this:

We’re at a tipping point. Who will own and profit from the content that drives the brave new digital world to come? Will it be corporations like Google, which is already showing its hand, making agreements with publishers and libraries that deny authors the right to choose? Will it be scribd.com and its ilk?

I don't believe the Google initiative is bad. I think obscurity is worse than visibility, and I don't see what Google is doing as piracy.

I'm not sure how to take the sneer aimed at Scribd. No need to get snippy because your veep went and made a high profile mess that messed up your Labor Day weekend.

John Scalzi is still backing Capobianco, for now:
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/2007/09/michael_capobianco_on_creative.html

In case you're wondering, I think it's a quite reasonable statement, and I think Mr. Capobianco's done a good job navigating through this blow-up, and the various political messes it's scared up inside and outside of SFWA.

Re: #233 At the risk of being once again disemvoweled, can I please ask for specifics as to why anyone thinks Dr. Pournelle's post about what happened is inaccurate?

I won't give you a tit-for-tat rebuttal, but I will share my personal opinion.

For me, it was the underlying attitude. Both authors saw events that needed to be rectified from their perspective, situations that affected their ability to make a living. Fair enough. But it is the way that they framed their arguments that differed.

Cory's argument:

Included in the takedown were: a junior high teacher's bibliography of works that will excite children about reading sf, the back-catalog of a magazine called Ray Gun Revival, books by other authors who have never authorized SFWA to act on their behalf, such as Bruce Sterling, and my own Creative Commons-licensed novel, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom."

The list of works to be removed was sent by "epiracy@sfwa.org" on August 17, described as works by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg that had been uploaded without permission and were infringing on copyright. In a followup email on August 23, SFWA Vice President Andrew Burt noted that the August 17 list wasn't "idle musing, but a DMCA notice."

That struck me as factual and accurate inasmuch as I am aware. Contrast that with Jerry's post from later the same day:

Corey Doctorow lets go from a great height at people who make a living writing.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/30/science-fiction-writ-1.html

It doesn't surprise me much. Doctorow doesn't much care for intellectual property; that may or may not be affected by the value of his intellectual properties. Mine are worth enough that I can eke out a baseline living from residuals of works I wrote some year ago. Perhaps Doctorow is a lot more successful than I am in getting people to subscribe to his new works; or perhaps he doesn't need so much to live on as I do at my age.

Either way, he doesn't have a lot of sympathy for writers, but then one does not expect him to.

It goes on, but you see the contrast? Cory laid out the problem and addressed it with links, logic, and reason. Pournelle came firing for Cory, in person, from the first statement, not even having the courtesy to fact-check the correct spelling of Cory's name.

Cory's post was a case against an ill-advised and possibly fraudulent power play run amok. Jerry's post was a personal diatribe against a person, and the people agreeing with that person.

If you don't share the same view and are willing to debate the issues, fine, let the cream rise to the surface. However, what I read from Jerry on Friday was, shall we say, 'curdled'.

That's from the Friday post. The more recent one seems more tempered, and I give credit for that. I even see the possible beginnings of some consensus. I'm trying to focus on that and not some of the more histronic elements that I trust I don't need to revisit here.

#230 - In the spirit of the US Open, I believe that is game, set, and match!

#225 - Now, thanks to the furor, the e-Piracy group at SFWA has been disbanded, and their authors are now on their own to track down their content and file DMCA take downs. But heck, many of you seem to hate the DMCA and copyright anyway, and think that authors should just somehow be able to magically make money sharing their creations for free.

Yeah. Uh, did you get that memo?

Michael Capobianco's post clearly states three actions, not just the one that fits your venting spleen:

1) Suspend / disband current ePiracy Committe.
2) Form temporary exploratory committee to take the pulse of SFWA members on copyright, authors rights, and the posture to take for legal action going forward
3) Take the lessons learned and form a new, permanent committee to act on the above.

It's about taking one outdated mechanism and thoughtfully updating it to reflect current realities--and, one hopes, future-proof things a bit in the process. That's not at all like saying they're taking one aging mechanism and replacing it with a placard on how to squeeze blood from a turnip.

The measure has garnered wide support across the spectrum, and is the first really positive thing to happen all weekend. Let's cut SFWA--and the legitimate users of Scribd--some slack and see what develops before jumping to any further conclusions.

I think that's something even the 'Jews, Catholics, and Masons within the VC community' can support.

#220 - Miltonthales - Have you contacted Scribd? They have been very forthright with me.

Johne Cook
Overlord, Ray Gun Revival magazine

SFWA president Michael Capobianco posted posted an announcement on the SFWA Livejournal blog. They suspended and disbanded the current ePiracy committee, and are starting over. SFWA is also forming a new committee to take a fresh look at SFWA's position on electronic rights issues going forward, and John Scalzi has made himself available for that new committee.

I was critical of Mr. Capobianco for doing 'too little, too late.' This is a strong, positive step, and I apologize.

Also, in a strange bedfellows kind of way, both Will Shetterly and Andrew Burt applaud the news. I think we have just witnessed a rare outbreak of sanity! Time to break out the Neo / Keanu 'whoa'!

#163 - The first rule of SFWA is that you never talk about SFWA. ;)

#151: As one of the small press operators caught in the overzealous SFWA algorithm at Scribd, I can vouch for Jason's statements.

Jason and Jared at Scribd have personally bent over backward to try to fulfill the spirit of the law while remaining forthcoming and helpful to those of us caught in the middle of the situation.

I highly recommend the service and vouch for the leadership.

#121 - How is Scribd making money off this? They're a free service, ala Flickr.

#103 - Exactly right. I dealt with Jason, in charge of Community Development, and he responded to me and then bumped my concern straight to Jared, the Scribd President. The Scribd guys were very cooperative, very responsive, and a real pleasure to work with.

I first started posting about this on Tuesday. In the interim, Boing Boing added the ability to leave Comments. I can't tell you how pleased I am at the timing!