I’ve been getting emails warning of a coming “Government Censorship of the Internet” and threats of “Government Blacklisting.” Strong words there.

After reading about the proposed US bill “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act,” I’m afraid I’m about 90 percent for the measure.

Here’s why.

The bill basically blocks US access to sites that are illegally posting books, artwork, and other copyrighted material for free download. In other words, the bill would allow blocking access to material that is illegally posted and breaking US copyright law. It’s the cyber equivalent of closing a store that sells only stolen merchandise.

Of course those running sites that allow the downloading of pirated materials will cry foul. Criminals always whine when they are prevented from making money illegally.

Yes, I do have a dog in this fight.

Piracy has really cut into my income over the last few years. Dingbats scan my books and put post the copies on the net for free download, often claiming they’re doing me a big favor.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the twisted logic, the pro-piracy crowd claims that free downloads of stolen software, books, movies, and so forth helps make an author or other creative person more popular. The theory is that they’ll sell more books, movies, or whatever due to increased exposure.

There’s an occasional story where this seems to have happened. But I’m here to tell you those success stories — if anything more than urban legends — are about as common as hen’s teeth.

With some of my own titles that have been pirated, I have watched firsthand the way it really works. It’s a real simple thing; from the time pirated copies of a book are posted, sales fall. Eventually Pakistan or some other third-world bootlegger prints knock-offs from the pirated copy posted on the Internet, and these print books are sold at slightly lower prices than legit print copies command (these cheaper prices are easy to achieve since editors and writers are out of the pay loop and the poor are exploited to work in the shops).

So those pirated copies that are supposed to help me become more popular and make lots more money actually leave me making very little once a title is pirated.

Does my new-found “popularity” from the pirated book help me?

Given that it takes so long to write a book and that most publishers judge whether or not to hire an author by past sales of previous titles, I’m less apt to get more books in print. The falling sales caused by the piracy, far from helping me, make me less apt to put more into print. My new-found popularity from the pirated books — if it was ever there at all – only hurts my chances of having more books published.

So piracy hurts the sales of the stolen title and also torpedoes any chance of being hired to write more books. And, insult to injury, the publishers who were kind enough to hire me for the book that’s been pirated get kicked in the teeth as well because their sales fall.

Much the same thing is currently starting to happen with my artwork. Some clown captures copies the posted picture and soon artists in a third world nation are being hired for pennies to make knock-off oil paintings of it for sale who knows where.

I hope you remember all this when some kid who likes to post pirated material online claims he’s helping the person who did all the work to create the book, movie, art, or music.

And I hope perhaps you can understand my lack of empathy for those poor companies who claim they might undergo hardships should the bill become law.

Frankly, the protests of the companies making these claims are mostly whine and little truth. All these sites that allow posting pirated books and such need to do is check to see whether the author or publisher are OK with the post. Most of the time that’s pretty obvious: If the poster isn’t connected to the publisher or author, you can be pretty sure it is an illegal post; if it’s someone posting books from three different publishers and pictures of their pet gerbil, you could place a bet it’s a pirated book.

It would take all of thirty seconds to check the email address and see the post is likely a pirated book, wouldn’t it?

It seems that these companies prefer to post stolen work and then claim, like Captain Renault in Casablanca “I’m shocked, shocked to find” people posted pirated material. Sort of like the pawn shop owner who day after day buys TV sets from some teenager only to claim to the police that it never occurred to him that the TV sets might be stolen.

The companies making these rip-offs so easy do little or nothing to police uploads or links to uploads. They make lots of money by offering stolen goods. To my mind, this makes them criminal operations.

So when such companies cry that they won’t be able to operate if the law goes into place, my response is that if that were true, it would serve them right. Why should I feel sorry if a business might be hurt by this new law when that business has all but destroyed the livelihood of creative people and publishers worldwide?

Yes, I hate the thought of the government controlling the net, but when lawless people operate with no regard to the rights of others, basically destroying the worth of intellectual property that people have worked long and hard to produce — for the enjoyment and education of others, no less — then government intervention is the only solution.

And if the bill gets passed, don’t blame the politicians or the publishers who are supporting the legislation. Put the blame where it belongs: With the crooks and thieves who’ve been copying and illegally posting pirated materials, and the businesses that look the other way to allow these postings.

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Duncan Long is an author and illustrator. See his illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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