[ A letter to the Guardian in response to the final letter on this page. UPDATE: I made a slight change to this, explained here. ]
I assume John Lovelock intends his question — “Why would someone in the creative industries just create content for others to enjoy for free?” — to be rhetorical (Letters, 6 June). If so it demonstrates the blindness common to such industry bodies as his Federation Against Software Theft.
Millions of people are, right now, creating music, art, videos, writing, photography, websites and software with no expectation of making money from them. They do so because they love the activity and enjoy sharing the results with people, whether online or off. As with the work of professionals, some of it won’t be very good and some of it will be breath-taking. Just because these creators don’t expect financial reward, aren’t part of an “industry”, and so don’t require the representation of expensive and blinkered industry bodies doesn’t make them any less valuable.
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