So as some of you know, I've made no secrets about it, I've been assisting the copyright holder of Crisis of Conscience remove infringers around the web. Many have in fact been removed with more to come.
If you're antsy you can skip to the question below however I'd appreciate it if you continue reading first!
There are a couple reasons I decided to do this. First of which the copyright holder warrants it. She is a very honest and caring person who was extremely close to Ray & Cynthia Franz. She and Cynthia were about as close to sisters as you can come without arriving via the same womb.
I can attest to the fact that she in no way is setting up for a money grab here. It couldn't be further from the truth. So for all those insisting this is the motivation please appreciate that I would NOT be involved if that were the case. I'm also getting zero out of it nor am I asking for anything in return. Zero zilch.
Bottom line this book mans a ton to many. It is very important. Due to its importance it's longevity and availability are paramount as you might imagine. In order for it to be available it costs money. It's as simple as that. You can't maintain copyright attorneys, cover printing costs, general business costs along with a slew of other ancillary costs without some sort of revenue. You can say what you will be anyone in business will tell you the same.
Additionally, if you want to provide other translations or audio versions of the book those also have hard tangible dollars attached. You also have costs in re-editing where for example dates are involved. If a sentence reads "in the last 12 years" for example it may need to be changed to "in the last 19 years" as it has been since 2008 when COC was last published. Not saying this sentence exists just using this as an example of something that gets re-edited over time within books in general.
The bottom line preventing others from infringing (which is a right of the copyright holder obviously) is an important part of the picture. In order to do the above mentioned extras and maintain the book's availability in perpetuity it is hyper critical that it generates some revenue.
A few weeks ago I had an exchange with Lloyd Evans about promoting illegal bootleg copies of Crisis of Conscience on YouTube. I repeatedly offered to work with him in the future but in the interest of doing the right thing for now I asked that he remove that portion of the video. Subsequently there was a long list of threats from him. Honestly I was in shock as Lloyd comes off so much different in his videos.
After repeated attempts and several threats by him it went no where. It was obvious that Lloyd had this "how dare I ask" attitude even though he was clearly promoting an illegal copy of the book.
Although he ended up giving away a legitimate copy of the book (I have no way knowing if that's actually happened other than his word) so he says, the reality is his video promotes the availability of a bootleg illegal copy of Crisis of Conscience. I've held off on pushing the issue with YouTube but I'm about to engage with them on this issue.
I want to be clear I have no agenda here. I wish Lloyd no ill will even though he threatened me many times. I'm seeking to find out what the masses actually feel on the matter. The infighting that I've seen in my opinion helps no one. It only gives those that have left a bad name and a reason for those in to point the finger. I would like nothing more than for everyone to work together amicably.
Again looking for honest evaluation rather than picking sides.
So the questions are:
Where do you stand? Do you think it is O.K. to promote bootleg copies of Crisis of Conscience? If yes, explain.
Since Ray Franz charged for the book himself so as to maintain and promote the book, is it not O.K. for the new copyright holder in which he entrusted this work to do the same? If no, explain.
Should the correspondence between Lloyd and I be posted publicly?
As a reminder PLEASE keep your comments respectful and within the guidelines of this forum.