Very few things make the backs of my eyes hurt but piracy of books, music, or whatever is one of them. I don't get upset at the thought of someone stealing because anyone can understand that. What keeps me head desking until my forehead bleeds like a pro-wrestler at Starcade is how someone can say this isn't theft.
It is.
Sorry you have to wrap your brain into corners so you don't have to think of yourself that way but downloading music or books illegally is stealing.
I've done it in the past and just about anyone in the modern world has in one way or another violated someone’s copyright at least in some way.
But it is stealing.
You have a book you didn't pay for is the same as if you walked into B&N and slipped it into your jacket. Oh, and don't tell me "This is the way of the modern world." No shit, not blind here, just wishing others could open their own eyes with a bit of truth. Remember I'm not even attacking the act of downloading, I'm just biting my fingers over the fact that people refuse to acknowledge that it’s theft.
And the next response is usually that it only hurts big companies or big name money talent. Really? See, I'm a nobody who has published one PDF novel and couple of poetry collections and a few days ago I had someone point me to a website where someone was making money off my book(at a markup)as if it was their own work. The person who pointed me to the site only found out because the person didn't even change the name of the book or anything within the file itself. I'm nobody and I get ripped off and every fucking sale does mean something to me.
But also not just to me. The plan was to use the money from the sales my first book to hire an artist to do the cover for my second book. So that’s two steps of theft. You took money out of my pocket and that from an artist I would have hired at professional wages to do a cover for my next book. The plan now is to do a photo cover for the book and I hate photo covers with a passion.
But illegal downloading doesn’t hurt anyone?
I contacted the person by the contact information on their website and after a few e-mail exchanges that went from the person first saying they did write the book, to them then saying “What are you going to do about it, your nobody”, to them finally admitting it, and get this Asking if I want to write a book with them???? After my last email to this person or persons I went by the site to find it gone but this person had already made money on my writing, My crappy writing, and if the information on their site could be believed they sold over 200 copies of my book. I haven’t sold that many!!!!
I contacted the company hosting their website also. I don’t know if I handled this the right way but my anger is justified. You can say my writing sucks, you can say I’m nobody, you can say it didn’t cost my thousands, but you can’t for a minutes say this isn’t stealing…well, you can, but you’re a dumbass if that’s your line of thinking.
But Hell, what the fuck do we expect when Google is doing the same thing and no government agents are showing up at their headquarters to take them to a jail cell….
But Hell, what the fuck do we expect when people can’t even grow a backbone enough to say, yes, yes, this is stealing, I'm not paying for the materials, it’s theft, I'm downloading them illegally.
P.S. …. When something really B.S. loaded hits my life at first I want to write something full of hate, spit, evil, and waste but end up writing something totally different. Probably more proof of the insanity of being a writer.
IT IS
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