In a dire article in London's Times yesterday, reporter Ben Hoyle opened with the self-evidently ludicrous statement that "book piracy on the Internet will ultimately drive authors to stop writing unless radical methods are devised to compensate them for lost sales." Internet piracy, no matter how pervasive, is not about to bring the worldwide production of literature to a grinding halt, just as rampant music piracy isn't stopping my neighbor's kid from playing his drum kit in the garage every day before dinner. But the piece does raise the real question of whether the best writers will continue to work to their full potential in a world where their main product can be had for free.

Tracy Chevalier, who wrote Girl With a Pearl Earring, chairs the UK's Society of Authors, and she recognizes that the Internet poses a very real danger for traditional publishing. Some of that is due to piracy, some of it is not, but Chevalier recognizes that the best response has to involve finding workable new business models for writers and publishers as the big advance/big blockbuster model changes in reaction to the web's ability to corral niche groups and small but passionate communities. Perhaps writers even need to stop charging for books.

"It is a dam that's cracking," she told The Times. "We are trying to plug the holes with legislation and litigation, but we need to think radically. We have to evolve and create a very different pay system, possibly by making the content available free to all and finding a way to get paid separately."

To read the complete article, click here [1].