“The technical brilliance is so dazzling that people can’t see the moral squalor of what they’re doing,” he writes. “It is outrageous that anyone can steal an artist’s work and get away with it. It is theft, as surely as reaching into someone’s pocket and taking their wallet is theft.” His article comes after music industry leaders met British Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street, where the issue of web piracy was discussed. Pullman, writer of the His Dark Materials trilogy, says authors and musicians work in poverty and obscurity for years to bring their work to the level “that gives delight to their audiences and, as soon as they achieve that, the possibility of making a living from it is taken away from them”. He concludes: “The principle is simple, and unaltered by technology, science or magic: if we want to enjoy the work that someone does, we should pay for it.”
What does Pullman find outrageous?
That someone pirating a book would not face consequences That someone stealing a wallet would not be punished That authors and musicians work in poverty for years That his book is one of the most pirated books on the Internet