iCopyright: Great Tool for Writers

Product: iCopyright
What does it do: Controls the ebb and flow of your copyrighted material.
Who it's useful for: Writers, bloggers, anyone with content they would like to protect.
Cost: FREE.
Effect: Earn a bit of money for allowing people to reshare your content on their website, in their newspaper or newsletter, wherever YOU allow them to place it. iCopyright monitors the places where your content ends up so you always know what's happening with your content.
Who sets the service prices: YOU do.

I am totally in love with the iCopyright plugin for WordPress. I'm incredibly happy that I came across it and that it was so easy to use.

You just load in the plugin, input your settings, then at the bottom you can log into the Conductor -- the machine running iCopyright for you. It's free to use, they mail you a check when your services are licensed, and the man himself promised that they don't give away your personal information (your home address, phone number etc, I asked.) All anyone sees is the name of your blog or site and all monetary transactions take place through the iCopyright bar that gets placed on your page.



People visiting your page can see exactly what usages you're offering for your writings, and if they want to claim Fair Use and take a chunk, they can. They just have to acknowledge the fact that whatever they've taken from your site doesn't belong to them, which makes it kind of hard for them to claim later that they didn't know any better.

If you've ever come across me ranting and raving at the MobileRead Forums, you'll know that there was a whole big discussion about copyright infringement and piracy.

I was absolutely horrified to find out just how much people don't care about the rights of copyright holders. Views went from "it's Fair Use for me to take this entire book and load it on a torrent" to "authors should just be grateful someone wants to read their crap and I don't care if they earn any money as long as I can read what I want." There's even a view that "piracy" isn't real, no crime is being committed, and people should have the right to copy and distribute an ebook far and wide because it's not stealing -- the original ebook is still there, so where's the theft?

I was incredibly upset and still am. All of my hard work and effort to create something people will enjoy reading is something that should be consumed without a single thanks or a single thought. As a content creator, it's my duty in life to keep producing more and more writings and I shouldn't be allowed to make a living from my effort. That is what I got from the things people have said, that the prevailing opinion of a growing group of people is that my content no longer belongs to me the minute I create it and that I should have no say in the ways that it is distributed and I should give up any idea about someday making a living from my writings.

One woman went so far as to say that she didn't care whether a writer was starving and struggling to survive as long as she got to read the book she wanted. It's the writer's place to make her happy and give her what she wants and who cares if she downloaded the book for free from some file sharing site. It's not like the writer was missing out on anything because she wasn't really stealing because the writer of the books she loved didn't deserve compensation.

Writing is it's own reward. And Top Ramen is delicious three meals a day.

Just thinking about it, I can feel my outrage rising along with my gorge. Her insensitivity and greed absolutely disgusted me. She wanted something for nothing and wouldn't accept the idea that maybe she should give something back -- if not money, at least a helpful review, a tweet, a Facebook or G+ share, something.

After all that drama, I did an ego search on myself and found my various pen names featuring largely on a handful of different sites offering my books for free. Fueled by rage and hurt feelings, there wasn't much pause between me seeing my stuff being torrented and my filing the DMCAs.

I was angry, not just at seeing my stuff offered for free, but that people were so blatant they had their sites listed on Google and were earning ad-revenue to steal from me. There was no way I could let that happen, not and be able to look at myself in the mirror.

At the same time, I have spent my whole life at the bottom rung of the financial ladder. I remember being in fifth grade and having my mom tell me that I was too old for lunch. I remember all the secondhand clothes I've worn in my life and still wear. I remember that hurt and lonely feeling when I've watched people enjoy things -- gushing and laughing -- and the realization that I just couldn't afford any of the nice things I wanted, not when I could barely afford food and a place to live.

Something in me drives me to share some things for free, but I want to be the one to choose where my stuff is shown and in what capacity. I love the idea of people reading and enjoying things I've written and I desperately crave feedback, even if that entails just a share on Twitter telling someone to read one of my stories. It makes me incredibly happy.

For my entire life I've dreamed of being a writer, an author of words. I've dreamed of having my name on books and knowing that people are reading the stories I've created. And I don't want a lack of money to stand in the way of that, either the reader's or my own.

iCopyright could be the panacea for that.

I am serializing several novels right now at my blog and at Kimichee. People can come and read them on my sites, they can print out free copies with ads, or pay a convenience fee to remove the ads. People can syndicate my writings on their own websites for $3 per every 1000 views, and that's one of the only services that requires a credit card, everything else can be handled through Paypal.

I'm just waiting for the day that my site is discovered and I receive notice that someone has licensed the resharing of some of my posts on their site, either free with ads or paid without. I'm waiting to receive word that someone has licensed some of my writing for their magazine or newspaper. I'm hoping that maybe a book club will appreciate the chapter-by-chapter way they can print out and read one of my novels before everyone else in the world.

Nearly every single thing about the iCopyright service has struck a cord with me, even the way Clip & Copy works (whenever I publish a new post, Clip & Copy sends the title and first 50 words to thousands of people, which is like free advertising. A lot of those people are large magazines and media companies.) The only thing I wish was different is the GUI. Right now it looks a bit blocky and not completely user friendly, but I'm hopeful that things will change in the future.

Now, if you've run a Google search on the company, you'll have found all the bad press relating to CBC and the AP usage of iCopyright. But that was several years ago and everything people were complaining about had to do with the way CBC and AP used the service. They were the one that set the exorbitant fees. They were the ones that tried to abuse their customers. It's like hating the TV because a network shows crappy programming. Hate the player, not the game.

iCopyright recently received a big chunk of funding change and it looks like their service is just going to get better and better. If not, what exactly have I lost?

People will be able to read and share the things I've written and I can know where my writings have ended up and maybe I'll receive some much needed money to pay for cover art, editing services, and I'll be able to offer more Free Read content due to the kindness and generosity of my readers, my -- dare I say it? -- fans.

iCopyright is a great service for me as a writer, but it's also a great service for anyone that visits my site. People can enjoy and reuse my content at an affordable rate no matter how much money they have. And if more writers and bloggers were using it, I can share their content and spread the word about all the awesome things I've found, and in the course of that, I can even make a bit of money off of resharing other peoples' content.

HABO, people. Help a brother out. Share and share alike. Pay and tip your waiters. Spread the word if someone has an awesome project. Because when it all comes around again, hopefully they'll be cool enough to help you out right back.


I've loaded it at my Harper Kingsley blog: HarperKingsley.net/blog. Go check it out if you're interested, click on the bar, see the options. It's very cool and the people running iCopyright have been super awesome about getting back to me with answers to my questions and concerns.