PIRATES
I'm not talking about the "Arrgh" type of pirates, with the eyepatch, or even the swash-buckling Johnny Depp type of pirate, but rather Book Pirates. Yesterday I learned my e-book, Elfin Blood, had been uploaded to a pirate site. Do the copyright laws not matter to anyone anymore? Does a sense of justice and morality even exist these days? Us writers work hard pouring our souls and lots of time into our books only to have them stolen and passed around for free by folks who think the law doesn’t apply to them, or by folks who just don’t give a damn about others, or the law, or how stealing someone’s creation makes them feel naked and violated. I can’t decide which of these apply, maybe all, either way it ticks me off!
Grrrrrr….
I did a search on pirates and as an argument FOR piracy one person wrote that they’d purchased the book, therefore it was theirs to do with as they pleased and it was no different than sharing their print book with a friend. My response….@#$%&!...with a little bit of kicking mental furniture around. That’s plain and simple BS! A print book would be passed around to maybe a handful of pals, but uploading an e-book to the net is sharing it with the entire freaking world! I’m not condoning the passing of print books, but how can this so-called logic be justified? In my mind, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. It just doesn’t compute. A handful of friends or the entire world? Which would you prefer? I mean hello pirates just because you can do it, doesn't mean it's legal. It's no more legal than keeping money that was accidently deposited into your checking account. With this attitude no wonder some print authors refuse to allow their books to be published as e-books.
To all of you that think you have the right to upload an e-book after you purchase it, check out the first page or two of that book. I bet on one of those first few pages, they all say something like what is on page 2 of Elfin Blood:
“This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any existing means without written permission from the publisher.”
Clearly uploading a book to a pirate site is copyright infringement. That means it is against the law and those guilty of the crime can face legal punishment! That means the owners of the site and the uploader are both guilty of the crime.
What's frustrating for me, if someone stole an artist's artwork, the law would be gunning for the thief. But pirate an e-book and even many in the industry shrug and say, 'That's just a necessary evil of this industry.' *SCREAMS* That doesn't make it okay, that doesn't mean something shouldn't be done about it and that is not an attitude I can embrace.
So, my wish for you pirate sites and all you immoral uploaders…I hope you pour your heart and soul into something, I hope you spend hours creating something…and then I hope it is stolen from you and passed around for free just as you have done to others, so that you can experience the horror of that violation too. I hope you learn that karma is a bitch and justice does eventually come to pass.
And with that, I’ll shut up…for now. Have a good weekend everyone.
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