The Copyright Adventures of Colleen and Congress

The illustrious Colleen Doran has made a mark on Washington and her stance on the need to bring in hardline anti-piracy laws. In her usual concise articulate way she has presented a compelling picture of what happens to a creator when their work is digitised without permission by online pirates. Indeed, as you will read, copyright infringement of this calibre is not a victimless crime.

I spent the last two years working on a graphic novel called Gone to Amerikay, written by Derek McCulloch for DC Comics/Vertigo. It will have taken me 3,000 hours to draw it and months of research. Others have contributed long hours, hard work and creativity to this process. But due to shrinking financing caused by falling sales in the division, these people are no longer employed.

The minute this book is available, someone will take one copy and within 24 hours, that book will be available for free to anyone around the world who wants to read it. 3,000 hours of my life down the rabbit hole, with the frightening possibility that without a solid return on this investment, there will be no more major investments in future work.

We read the piece when it first published online and when it had around eight comments; today it's up to 115! WOW! Here's the full article "The 'real' victims of online piracy". To use a Molly Meldrum catch phrase, "do yourself a favour" and go and read it!