Show Notes-Stross, Scalzi and Buckell on Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day
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A special episode of the Time Traveler Show. Recorded on International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day Eve at Penguicon in Michigan (4-22-07). This panel discussion about Creative Commons and Internet Marketing broached the subject of giving your stuff away with three SF author “web scabs”. Charles Stross, John Scalzi, and Tobias Buckell explain why they give away so much of their work. They even play devil’s advocate explaining some arguments against putting your works out there for free.
Tobias Buckell, John Scalzi and Charles Stross
Stross even wore his Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch shirt!
Links:
Wondering what’s up with all Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch stuff. It all started when SF author and SFWA vice-president Howard V. Hendrix wrote the following rant.
I’m also opposed to the increasing presence in our organization of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free. A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or on non-union terms; more broadly, a scab is someone who feathers his own nest and advances his own career by undercutting the efforts of his fellow workers to gain better pay and working conditions for all. Webscabs claim they’re just posting their books for free in an attempt to market and publicize them, but to my mind they’re undercutting those of us who aren’t giving it away for free and are trying to get publishers to pay a better wage for our hard work.
Since more and more of SFWA is built around such electronically mediated networking and connection based venues, and more and more of our membership at least tacitly blesses the webscabs (despite the fact that they are rotting our organization from within) — given my happily retrograde opinions, I felt I was not the president who would provide SFWAns the “net time” they seemed to want at this point in the organization’s development, or who would bless the contraction of our industry toward monopoly, or who would give imprimatur to the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.
After much open-mouthed disbelief by the SF blogging community. Author, Jo Walton, declared that April 23rd would be International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day . Creative people everywhere are releasing works free to be shared and enjoyed.
