The question was a quick- How do you feel about SOPA?
So my response was this
"As a published author, I am in favor of the stance. Many books/movies are being given away for free on these piracy sites and that is unfair and money out of our pockets. We work just as hard in our career and our hard work is stolen out from under us every day when piracy sites give free downloads of our work."
The next reply was from a man (who shall remain nameless due to his anger and stupidity)
"Screw you, Dawn. This bill does little to combat piracy and more to censor. And I don't know why anyone would want to steal any of your "work," because based on that paragraph above, you can't write worth a damn anyway."
Really now? Anyone who starts off a sentence with "Screw You"- oh yeah, I have tons of respect for.
Another reply came from a lady- once again will remain nameless as I as I have too much class.
"Ok, either miss Prochilo doesn't understand the importance of self-promotion as an author, isn't very proud of her work, or she's bluffing. How disappointing. :-/"
Then another man piped in his 1/2-cents opinion
"Miss Prochilo writes "erotic romance" novels, Rachel. We used to call them smut books or pornography. If I were her, I wouldn't be bragging about the titles I wrote either."
Hours later I saw these comments and had to re-post- I know I shouldn't have but I couldn't help myself.
"No actually Rachel I don't hang out on facebook all day, hence the reason for my delayed reply...and as for writing smut/pornography Doug, get your facts straight and you'll see I have also written for USA TODAY and many reputable publications."
As of right now I have removed myself from that forum and will no longer check in on the replies. Small minded people really irk me and I just don't have the time to be bothered by them and their narrow views and misdirected anger issues.
The people in that forum aren't worthy of you. They should probably read some of your work, might put them in a better mood!
ReplyDeleteThese people are not worth your time. I don't go to these forums or blogs and now I know why.
ReplyDeleteHey Dawne, you are right to a point. I agree that your work should not be given out or downloaded at any time by anyone other than you or your agent(s), but there are other things happening with these bills. I see your point and understand as someone who grew up in a business where advertising was where the money is/was there are definite thing to watch and be leary of, these bills make us sound as if we are heading toward a quasi-dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your writing and your points of view, keep up the good work.
Dianne Goff-Gaffke
Dianne, I know there is more to this bill then the surface of piracy- it is a government controlled issue. The point I was trying to make was to not defame someone for their career. I am happy with my career and my successes but when people who do not know me feel the need to judge me and my career based on their beliefs (whether correct or not) and to what some people have labeled erotic romance authors.
ReplyDeleteWhat these people in this forum do not know, or bothered to investigate, was that I have over 10 years experience as a newspaper staff writer, am a promotions director for a publisher and have many more noted and reputable prolific publications to my name. This man chose to only see what he wanted and to demean me (and my reputation) in this forum.
People who are the first to point a finger are usually the ones with the most to hide.
Since when did it become illegal to express your opinion? Why has the right to stomp on someone for speaking out about something they believe in? Honestly, the rabid attitude, the ignorant attack (since they obviously haven't even read your books), and the nasty, disrespectful stance is beyond belief. How un-American to attack someone when they don't agree with you. Those ignoramuses are boorish, stupid and nasty. Glad you're away from them. Karma will take care of them. Sending hugs to Dawne. Thanks for standing up for us authors. We need all the help we can get.
ReplyDeleteWow. Personal attacks happen when people can not defend the merits of their position. These comments came from people who have no clue.
ReplyDeleteI refused to stoop to their level and degrade their lives and careers- That is not me- I am too professional and classy to do that.
ReplyDeleteBest to just leave those morons and not worry about them. No I don't like these bills but yeah I totally understand your stance. It was easy enough for someone to say that. But they chose the lesser route. Pay them no mind, they are not important. We are *smooches*
ReplyDeleteYou rock and I dare anyone to argue that with any of us that know you.
After doing a lot of reading, I'm against SOPA/PIPA, but I also respect your opinion and think it's more than valid. I don't know why people can't debate these sorts of things without resorting to grammar-school insults. I think your paragraph in support of the legislation was concise and to the point. Classy, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd you shouldn't have had to defend your writing by stating what other "reputable" places you've worked, either. Writing romance and/or erotica is a reputable and lucrative enterprise. There are many issues with any bill congress wants to pass. However, it's sad that we have to watch out for these illegal download sites when we've worked hard to put something into publication. No one wants their work given away or stolen in any field. Small-minded people are the ones who vote for bills without really knowing the issues at stake.
ReplyDeleteWow talk about classless! I haven't read all that much into it yet so I have declined comment on it so far. People who take shots as erotica writers need to grow up.
ReplyDeleteGlad I wasn't in that forum. Great comeback Dawne!
Small minded doesn't even begin to describe those idiots. I am sad to see more and more of these personal attacts when opinions differ and it paints a very pitiful picture of the attackers.
ReplyDeleteI'm 100% against piracy but I'm not for these bills - but I sure as hell respect Dawne's right to her opinion and respect her work in all genres.
I agree with most of the commentators on this thread. While I think SOPA/PIPA is on par with many of the well-meaning but misguided gun control legislation law-abiding citizens now have to cope with and a threat to my ability to promote my work on the Internet, I respect and understand your position and applaud your willingness to express it.
ReplyDeleteWhat the SOPA/PIPA bills need for me to find them acceptable is resonable checks and balances on what the government can and cannot unilaterally do. Until that happens, I am and will remain firmly in opposition to these bills. Piracy hurts everyone, especially the artists, but I simply see too much danger in the current iteration of these bills to lend my support to them.
My personal thoughts aside, it's not right that you should be shouted down in such a rude manner for expressing your opinion, and most certainly not for the work you do in your chosen genre. I have the utmost respect for you and your work, and the great thing about being Americans is, we share the right to agree to RESPECTFULLY disagree. :)
JS- ty for your well thought out comment and like I said in another forum
ReplyDeleteI do support it halfway- this bill includes (like many government bills do) other underlying things- remember how censorship was in the 1980's with the big Tipper Gore scenario with heavy metal rock music- what did that do? Not a damn thing but out warning labels on certain album covers and restrict under 18 people from buying it. It became a black market for downloading and receiving un-paid for items- so where is this new bill going to lead us? Who knows? Controversy and battles galore.
Dawne, I'm told the SOPA bill was written for the most part by lobbyists who throw money at the government to get what they want. I honestly think if it passes it will be used against people, or things these "lobbyists" don't like. I'm against anything like this and don't think it will do much against piracy.
ReplyDeleteAs for the people who chose to bad mouth you and put you down based on your opinion; that's typical Internet now a days. Sad, but true, there are a lot of immature and ignorant people out there who feel the only way to defend their own views is to bad mouth someone who feels differently than they do. Ignore them and smile when you cash your erotic writing checks!
Holy smokes! What a group of judgemental dipshits! Anyways, I'm sorry you had to put up with a group of "pendejos". I respect your views on SOPA, while I think differently and want to see better measures of handling Online Piracy, the way these people came out was like they couldn't think of anything intelligent to say.
ReplyDeleteYou were addressing your views and where the hell did they come off changing the topic? I know you didn't want to respond and people like them can spark anyone's ability to go off on them, but I'm glad you didn't waste any further time on them; it's too easy.
We work hard on the work we do. We are artists, performers, entrepreneurs, and etc. We are paid for our talent and to have it ripped by some thief across the globe is dissatisfying. I support the idea of stopping online piracy, but as a site owner and administrator it could also affect me as well as the next person.
To include, since I accidently hit published. I feel there should be better measures on combatting online piracy.
ReplyDeleteRobert regarding lobbyists- this isn't the only issue they are dealing with but I won't even touch that topic.
ReplyDeleteAccording to many news reports "it's already illegal to post copyrighted material, and sites like Google and YouTube spend considerable time reviewing abuse reports for such. SOPA and PIPA, though, would hold the whole website accountable and pave a path for the whole domain to go dark." So if these sites were tougher on this act of theft and had a special department set aside to do this maybe we wouldn't have the government stepping in to take control over what Freedom of Speech we have left.
My main concern is the theft of copy-written items, whether articles not quoted properly, ebooks being stolen and the lack of moral right from wrong that people abuse. That is the part of the bill I stand behind.
So how much of this is actually geared towards piracy? I am not sure. I can only go by what I read and have researched and reviewed. The underlying loopholes will make life more difficult for people to research other than using google or wikipedia, which will make their cognitive thinking skills emerge instead of being lazy.
On the one hand (my writer hand) I completely 100% agree with you. I don't want my work pirated, I work entirely too hard on each story to see it stolen.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have no faith in any government to draw a proper line between censorship and combating piracy. Yes, it's paranoid, but history seems to prove my point. Who's to say what's to be censored? I think in theory SOPA is a good thought, I just don't think in practice it'll be enacted well.
My 2 cents.
Very true Kristabel- once again we give ownership to the government and we can all see how well they have taken care of our interests in the past
ReplyDelete