Local Author: Online Piracy Needs To Be Stopped

A local author who has written several books about the Mescalero Apache tribe says online piracy needs to be stopped.

Claire R. Farrer is a retired professor who has dedicated her life to learning about and educating people on a little-known culture.

She has written “Living Life’s Circle: Mescalero Apache Cosmovision” and “Thunder Rides a Black Horse: Mescalero Apaches and the Mythic Present.”

“Living Life’s Circle” is about the Mescalero Apache tribe’s ethno-astronomy. It’s a rather niche topic, so Farrer said she was surprised to hear from a student that the book was available on Google.

She said she immediately found her book online and felt violated. Farrer owns the copyright, so she contacted Google about it.

Google told her the publisher gave them permission to post the book, but Farrer sent them a copy of the book’s copyright page. She said Google took down her book within 24 hours.

She said she was satisfied with Google’s response, but she pointed out that more needs to be done to compensate those who toil over their work and art.

Farrer told KRDO NewsChannel 13 that public opinion on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills has not taken into consideration what authors and artists like her are losing out on.

She said she hopes more people will “divorce some of the emotion” from the debate.

Farrer hopes that more websites will be willing to negotiate and compensate authors and artists for their work.

“We need to be partners in this, not antagonists,” said Farrer.