Stephen King enjoys enormous and deserved success as an explorer of the dark side of human nature. The author’s newest venture may not be blood-curdling horror, but it may well tell us something about ourselves we suspect is there but prefer to ignore.
Mr. King’s plan, still taking shape, is to sell a story, “The Plant,” on the Web for $1 a read. Here’s the twist — you read the story first; paying the dollar is purely on the honor system. For some, that tiny debt will beat upon the conscience like Poe’s heart under the floorboards. For others, the drumming will be easy to ignore.
Mr. King is betting on the conscience. The reasons for his optimism are these: After his story “Riding the Bullet” was published online about a month ago, a reader who downloaded it from an unauthorized Web site felt so guilty she mailed the author the $2.50 fee; in a poll taken via his own Web site on the read-now, pay-later idea, nearly 72 percent of respondents said he could trust readers to pay.
The flaws in Mr. King’s rosy premise are obvious. Visitors to his Web site, and thus voters in the poll, are likely to be devoted fans who wish him the best and who assume others do as well. If one reader of a pirated version of “Riding the Bullet” was consumed by guilt, thousands of others who logged on to that unauthorized site were not.
Still, it’s a noble experiment. While it may not prove anything, it brings to the fore an issue society must face if it wants to be able to look at itself in the mirror: What is it about the Internet that turns honest people into theives?
People who wouldn’t dream of pocketing a paperback or stuffing a CD under their jacket just because a clerk is not looking will gleefully rip off any writer or musician whose pirated work gets posted. People who would go hungry before they’d stiff the local farmer at his self-serve produce stand will illegally copy software and boast about it. It’s only Microsoft. It’s only Sony. It’s only Stephen King. Apparently, there’s a point at which a company or individual becomes so successful anything not nailed down is up for grabs. It will be interesting to find out just where that point lies.
The Internet industry defends piracy by saying that as technology advances, it is the sole responsibility of the creators of intellectual property to protect it, and good luck keeping the protections a step ahead of the advancing technology. If thugs kick down your door, it’s your fault for not having a stronger door. Get a stronger door, and they’re back with a battering ram. Then a bazooka. With this smug dismissal of law and ethics, no wonder prudent invstors are looking increasingly askance at the Internet industry.
Of course, in the same way there wouldn’t be drug dealers without drug users or prostitutes without johns, there wouldn’t be pirate Web sites without surfers eager for a cut of the booty. Mankind has been given the gift of an intellect able to create this marvelous tool of power and knowledge. Will it be used for good or for petty theft? Not a bad idea for a story. Rather Faustian. All rights reserved.
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