Nerdology 101: Pirating

Hiya! Welcome back to Nerdology 101. I’m Indie Author Maria Levato, author of The Fate of Angels and Demons, anime lover, kinky weirdo, and more. This week I wanted to take some time to discuss pirating. In recent days, there’s been a lot of commotion about the new Avatar the Last Airbender movie, The Legend of Aang, being leaked. I’m not here to make anyone who watched the leaked movie feel bad, but to educate consumers on the impacts of leaking and pirating from the POV of the artist.

What is Pirating?

Pirating, in this context, refers to the distribution or consumption of media through unauthorized channels.

What does Pirating Look Like?

Pirating takes many forms. No matter what medium—television, books, etc.—pirating exists across it all. In literature, we most often see it discussed through the lens of advanced reader copies (ARCs) being leaked or resold or LLM’s scraping pirated books that were distributed on the internet for training. In TV, it more often looks like what we see here. A movie or TV show is posted online without the authorization of the studio that produced it.

Most consumers, when they consume pirated materials, aren’t intending to cause harm. They merely want to read or watch something they enjoy. From the consumers end, this isn’t going to do any real harm to the extremely wealthy studio or publisher that produced the media they’re consuming. That is true to some extent. It’s highly unlikely Warner Brothers or Simon and Schuster go out of business on account of pirating. Media giants like the ones I used in this example aren’t the only ones impacted, though. Behind the production of any type of media, there’s usually a team of creatives who depend on the royalties for their livelihoods. Those creatives are who I’m here to talk about.

What Impact Does Pirating Have on the Artists?

First, I’d like to make clear that when I say artist here, I’m using it as an all-encompassing term. Musicians, animators, writers, and any other type of art of can produce is included in this. Piracy impacts us all.

Artists are usually paid via a system called royalties. Royalties are the percentage of the price that go to the artist. This can look a variety of ways. I can’t speak for all artists, but for authors, this is kind of what it looks like:

1. Bookstores place wholesale orders either directly with us or through a mass distribution platform like Ingram. Our royalties are a percentage of that order.

2. We consign books with a bookstore (shifts the upfront cost of ordering and shipping the books to us) and they pay us a percentage of the retail price when it sales.

3. We order books ourselves at a wholesale/author price and sell them at a mark up (retail price) and the difference is our profit (this is the model my special edition of The Fate of Angels and Demons works on).

4. Our books are distributed to online platforms (Everand, Kindle, Hoopla, Libby, etc.), and we are paid for reads (page reads, borrows, this can look different based on platform).

Other kinds of artists may not have these exact models, but something similar-ish.

The problem this creates for the artist is that, if a piece of media is distributed in a way that isn’t able to be tracked, we never get royalties. Even if, for example, someone bought an ebook from us and we made royalties from that, then they posted it online after the fact for others to read, we’d still not be getting royalties for all those other reads. This isn’t the same as letting a friend or family member borrow a physical book or your kindle/nook to read something. With the internet, we’re talking about hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of consumers consuming material we made without being paid for it. Sometimes, pirated versions are consumed more than the legally distributed versions and we’re literally making nothing off the hardwork we put into creating it.

There are even some circumstances so extreme that artists have stopped producing new work on account of it. We see a plethora of examples in the world of indie authors, but we also see it in larger forms of media. Anime, in particular, comes to mind for me. As read in this article, Japan as a whole has lost billions in revenue because of the large scale piracy of anime. While this sucks for their economy, it sucks even more for the artists, writers, and animators who work hard to create these anime. A number of shows have been discontinued because piracy made it so they could no longer afford to produce them. So, not only does piracy harm the aritsts livelihood, it harms consumers of the media because it makes it impossible to produce more of. If you want that next book, next season, next song, whatever it may be, the best way to get it is to make sure it’s worth it to the artist to make.

Wait, so this effects me too?

Yup! It’s not just the artist. It’s you too. How many times do you hear fandoms raving something along the lines of “We want ____ spin-off.”

For Naruto fans, it’s a Minato or Itachi spin-off show.

For ATLA fans, it was an gaang as adults show.

For different fandoms, it looks different, but pretty much every fandom has one.

In ATLA (as an example), they had finally given us what we were asking for. A studio was listening to it’s fans, which we beg them to do constantly. But then someone leaked the movie, which isn’t the fault of the fans, but mass consumption of it that hurts the studios bottomline and the artists livelihood, will discourage this studio and others from listening to their fandoms again because it sets the precedent for future leaks on this sort of large scale that they can’t be sure their fandom will condem.

Luckily, I have seen in, in the case of ATLA, more than a few creators say they support the artists and won’t be watching the leaked movie. Hopefully, ethical influencers have been able to influence enough people away from watching the leaked movie that this doesn’t turn into a giant loss for the studio and artists who worked on it.

What if I already consumed pirated material before I knew the impacts?

Your intent, like most consumers, probably wasn’t malicious. Please don’t feel bad. Instead, focus on doing better. There are a few simple steps you can take going forward.

1. Stop consuming pirated material immediately and fully.

2. Report pirating sites to the copyright owners or their agents. Most authors, publishers, etc. have some sort of method to contact them available. For me, it’s the contact form on this website. You can find it on this page. Some other ways to report it are through publisher websites, through the agent an author has listed, or through a studios website. Once they’re made aware, they can submit a DMCA, as explained here.

3. Buy it. Yes, I know you already watched/read/listened to it, but if you can afford to, buy it so the artists get paid.

4. If you can afford it buy it, borrow it from a legitimate free source. I’ll provide a few in the next section.

5. Review it. If you’ve accidentally consumed pirated material, reviewing it might help legitimate versions get more attention. Goodreads and retailer websites are great places to leave book reviews. While reviewing absolutely does not justify continued piracy, if you genuinely didn’t know how harmful was an consumed it before reading this, reviewing it would definitely help offset some of those damages. Artists depend a lot on reviews, particularly for visibility. The more reviews something has, the more the algorithms will recommend it to other readers who might enjoy it. This is particularly impactful if the material came from a small, up and coming, or indie artist of some kind since they’re already likely to be struggling to get a substantial amount of reviews.

Okay, now what are these legitimate platforms where I can consume media for free while still supporting the artists?

1. Libraries! Libraries! Libraries! They don’t just have books. Go to your local library.

2. Overdrive and associated platforms. Overdrive is a distribution platform. They own Libby, Kanopy, and other platforms. All you need is a library card! It’s a great place to find media that is free to you. They have an assortment of media types too. Music, TV, movies, and of course books (ebook and audiobook).

3. Hoopla. Much like Overdrive’s platforms, Hoopla is a digital service that runs through public libraries. They offer just as many different types of media, but all on one platform!

4. Openstax. While both Overdrive and Hoopla offer plenty of educational media, as well as media meant for entertainment, Openstax is a great place to find free, properly liscenced textbooks. Perfect for AP/college students looking for some extra study, or homeschoolers.

5. Khan Academy. Looking for educational material for the K-12 levels? Khan Academy is free!

6. Library of Congress. The LOC has a whole catagory of “Free to Use” media. These are things in the public domain. There is no longer a copyright holder for them, so you can consume it, or create something new from this media without worry. Most of the things in here are older, but old isn’t always bad.

Conclusion

So, now ya know! I hope this post taught you something about royalties, piracy, or free resources you can use to consume media. I’ll see you back for the next segment of Nerdology 101 next Friday. Until then, have a nerdy week!