Friday, June 18, 2010

Wanted Digital Piracy Director



We have seen an increased effort by publishers to track down piracy and now Macmillan U.S. operations whose imprints include Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Henry Holt, Picador, St. Martin’s Press, Tor, Audio Renaissance and Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishers are advertising for a Director, Digital Piracy. The position will help coordinate and manage Macmillan’s anti-piracy initiatives.

For the job interview do you wear a suit, a pirate’s outfit or dress as King Canute? Do you put down Pirate Bay as a reference? Do you name yourself ‘Jonny Depp’?

The major responsibilities are some weird as the first mentioned are not active but passive act as a representative on piracy committees, co-ordinating company responses, tracking litigation and legislation , reviewing changes developing an internal educational program and processes to eliminate abuse. Then secondly comes the tale down notices, action plans for ‘attacking piracy issues’, recommending new anti-piracy initiatives, following-up on ‘tips of pirated works world-wide’ and investigating pirate websites.

Does the job demonstrate how serious publishers are about stopping abuse or merely deal with the need to be seen to service it? It as if the role has got its priorities wrong in listing attendance on committees as being more important than stopping abuse, or maybe it has them right and recognise the genie is out of the bottle and its better to be alongside others than fighting a lone war.

Should they employ a pirate who may know best and who has lived on the other side? Why doesn’t the industry recognise that there are a lot of lost sheep out there and create and fund a central agency that can be used by all large and small?

click to apply

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