Russell Smith, a terrific novelist and a smart guy, had a column in the Globe and Mail on Thursday supporting American novelist Jonathan Lethem who recently declared he is “giving away” film options on his recent bestseller. Smith sees this as a creatively anti-copyright stance by writers. [We’d link to Smith’s column, but, ah irony, it’s behind a paywall.]
Mostly it’s a writer and his agent using copyright creatively to promote themselves. Best antidote to this “give it away for the exposure” theory is from another smart Canadian novelist, SF guy Robert J. Sawyer. He too gets asked to give away options to his work. Here’s what he said lately at his website www.sfwriter.com.