I came across a new Catalan website that has been documenting a very disturbing trend of Spanish hate speech towards Catalans. The site, Apuntem.cat (which means, We take note), retweets and records the hate speech so that people understand what Catalans have to deal with on a daily basis (and perhaps some of the reasons behind Catalonia's independence movement).
Honestly, I find Apuntem's Twitter stream really difficult to read. The people they retweet are really vile. But I agree with Apuntem's basic premise, that it's important to shine the light on them. Indeed, it seems that many of the posters have deleted their Tweets after Apuntem outed them, for shame or embarrassment, who can say.
Here's a sampling of commentaries from back in March about some kids in a school in a little town called Ripoll who sung the Portuguese song "Ai se eu te pego" in Catalan. You can find the original Spanish versions collected here.
"Infinite contempt upon hearing the kids singing Michel Teló's song... IN CATALAN #CastillianWhereAreYou"
"Disgusting kids... "renew, renew" over and over again, and on top of it all, in Catalan."
"Shameful those 6 year olds who were on channel 4, that at that young age, they're already speaking Catalan."
"They bring out some disgusting kids singing in Catalan... this is Spain for God's sake!"
"Catalans make me sick, children, parents, old people... all of them, hope they die."
"Those kids who came out to sing to Guardiola in Catalan should have been drowned upon birth. There would be less garbage."
"It's like a kick in the mouth hearing those kids sing in Catalan. That's what you get on sports channel 4."
"What a shame that they teach those kids to speak Catalan at such a young age. We're in Spain!"
That was about little kids. When they're talking about Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona's coach for the last four years who just retired and who gave his farewell speech in Catalan, it gets worse. (Original Spanish hate tweets.)
"Pep, hope you get it in the ass, don't speak Catalan, you son of a bitch."
"What a fucking obsession with speaking Catalan, god damnit."
"Go ahead, speak in Catalan, but I'll shit and stomp on your ancestors Guardiola, die.
"Guardiola speaking in Catalan, he should be ashamed!!!! CLOWN! YOU'RE A CLOWN"
"Jail for Guardiola for speaking Catalan in stadium full of Spaniards."
"What a shithead disgusting Catalan!!! Speak in Spanish you fucker. #disgustingcatalans"
"Pep, speak in Spanish, you Catalan shithead."
"Son of a bitch Pep speaking in Catalan... Speak Spanish you asshole"
"What a lack of respect! Speaking in Catalan? And what about the people who don't understand it? That's his humbleness. Fucking Catalonia."
And it goes on and on. And I didn't even translate the ones that suggest bombing the Catalan football stadium. They should be ashamed. And everyone who lets such hate speech go by without reproach shares the blame.
Indeed, it seems that some are ashamed, and take down their tweets. They should never post them to begin with.
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Spanish Publisher Guild Misleads on Ebook Piracy
Nota: Se puede encontrar una traducción al castellano de este artículo en Canal PDA.
Update: The Spanish Publisher Guild corrected their report this morning.
It was not my intention to find errors in the Spanish Publishers' Guild recent report on reading practices in Spain during the #edigital chat this morning (held Tuesdays, 16h CET, 11am EST, 7am PT). But there on the front page was this assertion:
“73% of the ebooks read were downloaded or downloaded for free from the Internet, only 36.9% of those polled said they had payed to download an ebook.”
So, I dug inside and found this, worded very similarly:
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This one says, “One significant datapoint is the way in which digital readers obtain their electronic books (ebooks). 73.1% of the books were downloaded or downloaded for free from the internet; 37.3% got them from family members or friends, via usb, cd or mail; and another 36.9% downloaded them or downloaded them from the Internet by paying for them.”
The first thing I noticed was that 73.1% + 37.3% + 36.9% does not equal 100%. Something's not right.
So I asked the Guild where the numbers came from, and they said the question asked was:
“We asked “How do you obtain the books that you read in your electronic book [sic, perhaps they meant reader?]' From there we got the reported results
In other words, 73% of the ebooks read in Spain were not downloaded for free. That's a completely erroneous and faulty conclusion, stated twice in their report.
Instead, the truth is this: 73.1% of those polled said they had downloaded ebooks for free, 37.3% reported they had gotten ebooks from a family member or friend, and 36.9% had purchased ebooks for download. We don't know if other people polled obtained their books by other means.
As Ignacio Lirio pointed out, there's a big difference:
“73% declare they've eaten chicken <--> Chicken is 73% of the diet of the people”
Frankly, I'm surprised the number is not higher. Who, among ebook readers, has not downloaded a book for free? Gutenberg has 38,000 of them. I've certainly downloaded several myself.
I find this manipulation of data really unconscionable and asked the Guild to correct their report:
“I believe you have the duty to correct the erroneous conclusions reached on the cover of your report”
To date, I have had no response. I also asked for a comment for this article, but none arrived.
And why does the Spanish Publishers Guild want you to think that Spain is teeming with ebook pirates? I honestly don't know. Your thoughts welcome.
Update:
The FGEE fixed their report this morning, with nary a tweet. Nor did they rename the link or the document. I found out from someone who tweeted a French report about this post.
So, now that we can look at the numbers, what do they tell us about the way people in Spain get books, both print and electronic?
First, lets talk about the already familiar numbers: 73% of responders have downloaded books for free from Internet, 37% have gotten them from friends and relatives, and 37% have bought them. Since people obviously get books from various sources, they could check multiple answers, and thus the numbers don't add up to 100%.
And then we see something very interesting: 37% of ebook readers buy electronic books compared with 43% of those polled who said they had bought non-textbook print books. Those numbers are not that different. If we don't assume that 57% of the non print book buyers are thieves, why would we assume that of the non-ebook buyers?
And then look at this. 28.5% of those polled visited a library. (This is very low compared with the US, where the number is about 75%.). When you look at young people between 14 and 24, the number climbs to 60% who go to the library, for free! The poll does not explain how many people borrow books from their friends, but I suspect it's also a sizable amount.
Like Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.”
Update: The Spanish Publisher Guild corrected their report this morning.
It was not my intention to find errors in the Spanish Publishers' Guild recent report on reading practices in Spain during the #edigital chat this morning (held Tuesdays, 16h CET, 11am EST, 7am PT). But there on the front page was this assertion:
“73% of the ebooks read were downloaded or downloaded for free from the Internet, only 36.9% of those polled said they had payed to download an ebook.”So, I dug inside and found this, worded very similarly:
This one says, “One significant datapoint is the way in which digital readers obtain their electronic books (ebooks). 73.1% of the books were downloaded or downloaded for free from the internet; 37.3% got them from family members or friends, via usb, cd or mail; and another 36.9% downloaded them or downloaded them from the Internet by paying for them.”
The first thing I noticed was that 73.1% + 37.3% + 36.9% does not equal 100%. Something's not right.
So I asked the Guild where the numbers came from, and they said the question asked was:
“We asked “How do you obtain the books that you read in your electronic book [sic, perhaps they meant reader?]' From there we got the reported results
In other words, 73% of the ebooks read in Spain were not downloaded for free. That's a completely erroneous and faulty conclusion, stated twice in their report.
Instead, the truth is this: 73.1% of those polled said they had downloaded ebooks for free, 37.3% reported they had gotten ebooks from a family member or friend, and 36.9% had purchased ebooks for download. We don't know if other people polled obtained their books by other means.
As Ignacio Lirio pointed out, there's a big difference:
“73% declare they've eaten chicken <--> Chicken is 73% of the diet of the people”
Frankly, I'm surprised the number is not higher. Who, among ebook readers, has not downloaded a book for free? Gutenberg has 38,000 of them. I've certainly downloaded several myself.
I find this manipulation of data really unconscionable and asked the Guild to correct their report:
“I believe you have the duty to correct the erroneous conclusions reached on the cover of your report”
To date, I have had no response. I also asked for a comment for this article, but none arrived.
And why does the Spanish Publishers Guild want you to think that Spain is teeming with ebook pirates? I honestly don't know. Your thoughts welcome.
Update:
The FGEE fixed their report this morning, with nary a tweet. Nor did they rename the link or the document. I found out from someone who tweeted a French report about this post.
So, now that we can look at the numbers, what do they tell us about the way people in Spain get books, both print and electronic?
First, lets talk about the already familiar numbers: 73% of responders have downloaded books for free from Internet, 37% have gotten them from friends and relatives, and 37% have bought them. Since people obviously get books from various sources, they could check multiple answers, and thus the numbers don't add up to 100%.
And then we see something very interesting: 37% of ebook readers buy electronic books compared with 43% of those polled who said they had bought non-textbook print books. Those numbers are not that different. If we don't assume that 57% of the non print book buyers are thieves, why would we assume that of the non-ebook buyers?
And then look at this. 28.5% of those polled visited a library. (This is very low compared with the US, where the number is about 75%.). When you look at young people between 14 and 24, the number climbs to 60% who go to the library, for free! The poll does not explain how many people borrow books from their friends, but I suspect it's also a sizable amount.
Like Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.”
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Kindle Store and Kindle Direct Publishing open in Spain and Italy
Wow, Amazon has just opened both the Kindle Store and Kindle Direct Publishing in Spain and Italy.
This means that people in those countries can self-publish their ebooks to the Amazon ecosystem and it also means that existing self-publishers on Amazon KDP, including folks in the US, will receive 70% of royalties from sales in Spain and Italy (as well as San Marino, Vatican City, and Andorra). Up until now, only sales to customers in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Guernsey, Germany, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland, and the US received royalties of 70% (sales to customers in other countries only receive 35%)
Amazon has translated most of the self-publishing help files into Spanish and Italian, simply click on the language button at the top of the Kindle Direct Publishing site:
I would recommend going carefully through the legal and tax information. Amazon recommends taking advantage of the tax treaties between countries in order to avoid double-taxation. Such a tax treaty exists at least between Spain and the US, I'm not sure about Italy.
For starters, Amazon says there are 22,000 books in Spanish for Kindle on the Amazon Kindle store. And I just found 1028 Kindle books in Catalan, 68 books in Galician, and 138 in Basque. There are 16,262 in Italian. Amazon says in its documentation that it only allows books in Spanish, French, German, English, Portuguese, and Italian, but that clearly is not the case, at least not for big publishers.
Too bad I can't buy any of them. Looks like you have to have an account on Amazon.es in order to buy them. That's pretty ridiculous, this is the perfect opportunity for a small publisher to reach out to the world. My books published in the US are available on Amazon.es, now I would like to see those Catalan books available on Amazon.com. Please?
This means that people in those countries can self-publish their ebooks to the Amazon ecosystem and it also means that existing self-publishers on Amazon KDP, including folks in the US, will receive 70% of royalties from sales in Spain and Italy (as well as San Marino, Vatican City, and Andorra). Up until now, only sales to customers in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Guernsey, Germany, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland, and the US received royalties of 70% (sales to customers in other countries only receive 35%)
Amazon has translated most of the self-publishing help files into Spanish and Italian, simply click on the language button at the top of the Kindle Direct Publishing site:
I would recommend going carefully through the legal and tax information. Amazon recommends taking advantage of the tax treaties between countries in order to avoid double-taxation. Such a tax treaty exists at least between Spain and the US, I'm not sure about Italy.
For starters, Amazon says there are 22,000 books in Spanish for Kindle on the Amazon Kindle store. And I just found 1028 Kindle books in Catalan, 68 books in Galician, and 138 in Basque. There are 16,262 in Italian. Amazon says in its documentation that it only allows books in Spanish, French, German, English, Portuguese, and Italian, but that clearly is not the case, at least not for big publishers.
Too bad I can't buy any of them. Looks like you have to have an account on Amazon.es in order to buy them. That's pretty ridiculous, this is the perfect opportunity for a small publisher to reach out to the world. My books published in the US are available on Amazon.es, now I would like to see those Catalan books available on Amazon.com. Please?
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