Information Mustn't Be Free: Pirate Party Member Insists on Copyright for Book

[sysop]

Encouraging free sharing of files on the Internet, including copyrighted material, is an official platform of Germany's Pirate Party. This week, however, a senior member of the party has been policing illegal downloads of a book she published through a subsidiary of Random House. Will the party continue to promote its "information must be free" line?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...856468,00.html

[SarahB3]

I wrote this as feedback, but I received an automated response that suggested this forum would be more a more appropriate place to take up my critique.

I regret to inform you that you may have been misinformed when writing your article in regards to the Pirate Party Politician (link).

Your article has in-turn, misinformed many of your readers in the matter that a member of the Pirate Party is issuing take down notices for copyright infringement of her book. This is in fact not true at all. Julia Schramm is not the copyright holder of her book, but rather, it is the international subsidiary of Random House that she chose as her publisher that holds the copyright. Let me reiterate, her publisher, not Julia Schramm herself, is issuing the take down notices.

Julia Schramm will have full copyright ownership of her book in 10 years, after which, and as she said in the article in German that you linked to yourself, she will release the book free to the public.

I plead that you rectify the mistake by publishing an update to your article. I give you the full benefit of the doubt by your reputation that you merely may not have had a correct translation of the article, or that you quoted, or misunderstood the German, but the responsible thing to do now is to correct the mistake. As a writer, blogger, and admiration by many readers, I hope you hold yourself to that responsibility.

Thank you,

Sarah B.