Watching: ER, which I'm finding less compelling this season. Recently, I read someone's opinion that most hour-long TV dramas go downhill after four years, and I'm inclined to agree. After four years the character arcs are exhausted and the stories lose their verve. Most of my favorite dramas of the past--Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere come to mind--deteriorated significantly in their latter years. Law & Order may be one of the few exceptions to the rule, due to the revolving-door cast and because the series is plot-driven rather than character-driven.

Bootleg

I broke the law tonight.

I'd intended to catch up on coding and uploading some journal entries today. I also thought I'd work on my current book for the Press. If I had any extra time, I would experiment with a long overdue re-design of this site. Instead I spent nearly all my free time this evening illegally downloading ebooks.

Mind you, I've downloaded books before without violating any copyright law. There are thousands of public domain works available at Project Gutenberg, among other locations, and I have already downloaded dozens of classics. Right now I have Wuthering Heights, Robinson Crusoe, and Riders of the Purple Sage loaded on my Palm IIIx so I'm never without something to read.

Sometimes, though, it would be nice to have etexts of more current works, books that are still under copyright. And tonight I found a site that had some of my favorite novels in bootleg etext form. The Lord of the Rings. All five Hitchhiker's Guide books. Lots of Orson Scott Card. I was in ebook-reader heaven.

I have strong objections to the U.S. copyright law as it currently stands, which, I think, is lifetime of the author plus seventy-five years. Seventy-five! Yes of course, authors should receive the value of their work for as long as they are alive. But after that? In my opinion, copyright should extend only twenty-five years after an author's death. Then, if an author died leaving minor children, those children would still receive royalties throughout their childhood. After twenty-five years, however, the author's books should enter the public domain, for the good of all.

Nevertheless, the law is the law, and in downloading copyrighted materials, I am in violation of it. Did my conscience bother me? Yeah, a little. (Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this, I guess.) Still, I restricted myself to downloading books I already own that I want to have available in electronic form. Do you know how many copies of LOTR I have purchased in my life? Four complete sets, including the deluxe hardcover.

I think after that contribution to Tolkien's estate, I'm entitled to an etext version.

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