﻿Illegal downloading is a kind of “moral squalor” and theft, as much as reaching in to someone’s pocket and stealing their wallet is theft, says author Philip Pullman. In an article for Index on Censorship, Pullman, who is president of the Society of Authors, makes a robust defence of copyright laws. He is highly critical of internet users who think it is OK to download music or books without paying for them. 
“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.” 
Pullman is writing in the next issue of the campaign group’s magazine in a dialogue with Cathy Casserly, chief executive of Creative Commons, which offers open content licences “that lets creators take copyright into their own hands”. Casserly argues that there is much wrong with copyright, which was created “in an analogue age”. She writes: “By default, copyright closes the door on countless ways that people can share, build upon and remix each other’s work, possibilities that were unimaginable when those laws were established.”