I’ve always been of the opinion that I hadn’t “arrived” as an author until my books got pirated. And I’m, er, “happy” to say that that date arrived on 11 June this year.
Let me share something with you. Epub authors are some of the most approachable people you’ll ever interface with. You can email any epub author in existence and — assuming you’re not being downright vile — be almost guaranteed of some kind of reply. But if there’s one thing that really gets everyone’s knickers in a twist, that turns normally mild-mannered women into ravening she-wolves of doom, it’s book piracy, and there are lots of authors who, when they find such a site, are quick to notify other authors of the violations and craft Take Down Notices to the service in question. (In between scarfing down bloody chunks of meat in order to keep the fires of righteousness burning.)
How I personally feel about pirating is conflicted. Unlike a number of my sister authors, I think it’s unavoidable. It’s like a department store factoring in losses through shoplifting. However, where a department store has thousands of items in its inventory, I only have (at the moment) five. And if people are pirating my books (three on the last site I saw), then that’s 60% of my inventory pilfered. Which is, as they say, significant. At this particular Site I Shall Not Name, the folder of my name (containing a zip file of 3 releases) had been accessed 352 times. Which means, assuming an average royalty of $1.40 per book (give or take), US$1478.40 of royalties that I’ve been stiffed out of (352 times x 3 books x $1.40 royalty per book), although I recognise that people who downloaded the books may not have otherwise bought them. Still, even if only 10% of downloaders would have legitimately bought my books (assuming no pirate copy was available), that’s still $147.84 that I could have used to help defray living expenses and purchase treats for myself and my family.
But, believe it or not, that’s not what bothers me the most. If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll notice that — amid all my blatherings — is one deep deep hate. Hypocrisy. The woman who hosts the Site I Shall Not Name is Andrea Connors of Rhode Island. She’s a 47 year-old stay-at-home-mum who states that the thing she’s always wanted to do is “be able to be financially set so I can do what I want to do”. I wonder if she even recognises the irony of what she wrote. Sweetheart, what do you think the authors you’re ripping off want to do as well? Don’t you think we’d like to be financially set so we can do what we want to do, which is write full-time? Were you being facetious? Or are you really that stupid?
And I love the comments from people who see nothing wrong in downloading pirated goods. “Keep up the good work. You are making lots of people happy. =),” squeals Cat Morrison of the Philippines. “Peace.Love.Good Vibes.” manqeygurlz from Indonesia tells Andrea “Thank you so much. You are very great ^_^ “. As most of these pirates are smart enough to have invitation-only sites, you’ll also see requests for invites from a number of people (*). And the comments are so polite … “thank you so much”, “hugs and thanks in advance”. Secondary irony points go to klmo1964 from Canada who writes, “I also want to say thank you for the lists you have created for them. I know a lot of work went into all of this and it [sic] very very much appreciated.”. Can I tell you something, klmo1964? Much more work went into writing the book than making it available for free. Just fyi.
I’d also like to add the following: in my forays into the germ-infested world of hugs-kisses-and-thanks pirates, I saw books I wanted. Jeez, LOTS of books I wanted. And, boy, was I tempted, so I can understand how that works. But my only download was my own zip file, so I could check what had been stolen. I know people buy books and lend them to their friends. I’ve done that more times than I can count. But, with ebooks, it spreads exponentially, and one book made available in one place can easily multiply into hundreds of clones worldwide. All netting zero royalties for the author.
To those who’d argue that this is a ripe area for DRM (Digital Rights Management), I’d strongly disagree. I saw books that were originally sold in a “secure” format (I know ‘cos I’d bought them myself), freely available for download. Whatever one person can secure, another person can unsecure. No, this is more a psychological issue and there are no easy answers. These pirates obviously spend a lot of time breaking encryption and organising books. They present a service and, in return, get effusive thanks and validation from people all around the world. It’s heady and addictive, and I can understand it (especially for people like stay-at-home-mums who feel socially isolated), even if I can’t condone it.
On the other side of the coin, as I pointed out before, the temptation to get books for free from authors you love is enormous. And, at the privacy of your own computer, the call is seductive. All that stands between you and wrong is your own moral code. It is said that courage is the ability to be brave even in the face of your own abject fear. As a corollary, I would say that morality is the ability to do right even when there’s nobody around to watch. It’s the ultimate test, and one all the people mentioned in this blog have failed.
So, in summary, there are lots of people out there who see no harm in stealing the work of someone else. And they’re damn polite about it. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
(*) Like (and authors might want to also check these names against contest entrants, as we’re well into contest season right now): mpikipoki@gmail.com, bluenin6@hotmail.com, ss55555sa@yahoo.com, aicha07@gmail.com, froztycular_gurl@yahoo.com, lividweed@hotmail.com, agesus02@hotmail.com, krishma.devi@gmail.com, inimellow@gmail.com, si_goraya@yahoo.com, niea_lain09@yahoo.co.id, klmo1964@live.com, Javan55@hotmail.com, cherylsmith7@blueyonder.co.uk (a special call out goes to Cheryl, who “lost the hard drive on my computer and have lost everything”, poor mite, and so was angling to download all those books all over again), roy_archana02@yahoo.co.in, irsal9@gmail.com, juleet@gmail.com, msraj2@rediffmail.com, reveur09@gmail.com, connors21@cox.net, connors_2@msn.com, ninoa@verat.net, 1kayxx@googlemail.com, ann_dz@yahoo.com, scottomc@terra.es, koanita@t-online.hu, lydliem@gmail.com, and wartel5869@hotmail.com
EDITED to add: maggiemayelizabeth@hotmail.com, reinadebastos@gmail.com (a PC Cast fan), anggun.shastri@gmail.com, javan55@gmail.com, merrynmg@gmail.com, ninoa@verat.net, catmorrison11@yahoo.com, ann_dz@yahoo.com, liiliiy@yahoo.com.br, pubao05@yahoo.com, reveur09@gmail.com, anie.rehmani@gmail.com, edu1care@yahoo.com (an Elizabeth Boyle fan), Charliee Monk of the UK who goes by the moniker of midnightrose-xo, sprechendeustch7, laptopben from the UK, michaelonlign, and — my personal favourite — shekhantigres (who is both eclectic and prolific as a sharer of stolen works and also goes by the names api_user_11797_shekhantigres, shekhantigres-sf, etc.).
Well done, folks; take a bow.
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Like you, I know piracy is part of the fabric of e-publishing.
A lot of people were brought up on charges during the Napster controversy when they downloaded beau coup music. I wonder if the feds (at least in the US) will do the same for ebooks?
My sincerest wish is that we can educate the public, but I am a cynic at heart. Methinks they know the score, and don’t care that you or I get hurt as long as they get theirs.
The only thing that stops pirates are stiff fines and jail time. And even that’s not a guarantee.
Cute post, K. Now tell us what you really think. lol. Thank you for listing names. Maybe I’ll do a little pirate hunting on the side.
At least you know where you stand with me, M! LOL And good luck with the hunting.
Thanks also for bringing up Napster. See, I never really understood the logic behind that one, either. I’m more than happy with my annual subscription to emusic and the occasional purchase from Magnatune. I figure that if I pay for the music, then that’s more incentive for the musicians to make more music for me to listen to (you go, Hybrid!). And if I can’t afford to buy music/books/software that day, then I don’t. It actually makes the purchase itself more delicious, to my mind, when I finally *can* afford it.
But, yes, you’re correct. The public know the score and they don’t care. Along with global warming, my belief in karma has taken a severe beating in recent years.
Can’t your publishers take legal action? A loss for you is an even greater loss for them.
The publishers really try to get on top of things like this but the heavy-duty swappers usually have multiple sites running at the same time, via various ISPs. In the end it’s a lot like trying to catch feathers in the wind. And, as I mentioned, they also do it via invite-only sites, which makes the process even more opaque.
At this point in time, the epubs are not as powerful as the RIAA, although whether that’s a good or bad thing is another topic altogether! LOL
It might be wiser to take down the user names and email addresses and distribute them privately. IF I was off the mind to get into the piracy business you would just have provided me with a few places to start.
I know what you’re saying, Eliza, and am in two minds about this as well. But, if someone is committed to getting into the piracy business themselves, then they’ll find a way. And the names seem to be helping some authors who are holding / part of some big giveaways at the moment.
So, for the moment (but I take your point!), I’ll leave them up.
I say leave them up too! I think you have quite the knack for stating yourself. But you ARE wrong about some of the things you said. And I guess if there is only a one answer or another then I am stupid for my remark of being financially set to do as I please. What started off as sharing with people who couldn’t get an ebook of erotica if they wanted to pay DOUBLE PRICE (their countries ban them) went way over and blew up big time. My bad. I DID indeed remove the blogs, the mediafire links, box net, 4share account, etc… the links are all non valid links, where my posts and comments are fluttering around- I did indeed yield to the authors requests. Ya know what *I* find extremely hypocrital? The fact that there were MANY authors sharing books.
Someone- maybe you- said I am linked to 24 folders filled with illegal ebooks- if so is it possible to send ME that list? I also noticed that when I google my name there are liknks for blogs- that no longer exist- Look I don’t feel good or big about what I did and I never shared a book for that either. What is done is done. I cannot change what I shared already.
I removed the blogs, etc… as stated above.
As for the financial comment on my part- it meant becuz I have a daughter who was born Hepatitis C positive, which I shouldn’t even be writing in this blog- as now it might get into google. She is 12 now, doesn’t know about her own disease, yet. I meant that being financially set would allow me the choices I am being denied right now. I don’t care about material things, believe it or don’t. My real meaning behind what I said about finances is to be able to have the choices that are not available to me right now- in regards to health and medical issues, mainly. But that is another point for another time (nobody in the USA should be without medical care and a roof over their heads). This has nothing to do with piracy and you also hit it straight on with the isolated SAHM remark. You have no idea.
Thanks for letting me share. I don’t care about my name being in your blog- and my “bad” but how about removing the emails of those others? It is MY fault- not theirs.
A. Connors
Sorry for spelling/grammar errors-
I just tried clicking on “edit” and I added like 3 more paragraphs, and then Poof- everything disappeared on me. I don’t have the strength to re write- too lazy I guess. I wish you a happy new year. A. C.
@Andrea:
1) I doubt you read my blog very clearly, Andrea, because — if you had — you would have noticed that I never mentioned any quantity of folders you linked to. I was more interested in the people than the books.
2) I live in a country where erotica is certainly frowned upon and banned for the local Muslims, and I have found no problem buying ebooks from internet marketplaces for the going price. In fact, that’s how I get most of my reading fix, so I’m afraid that excuse about paying “DOUBLE PRICE” won’t wash with me, unless you’re speaking about currency exchange rates. In which case, why not just walk into Tiffany’s and shoplift? It’s the same thing.
3) I know Hep C is a debilitating condition. I sincerely wish your daughter all the best for her future.
Having said all that, I find it extremely interesting that you mention there are lots of AUTHORS sharing books. If that’s so, you’re correct. It’s extremely hypocritical. Food for thought.
Book comments aside- TY for the sincere wishes re- my 12 y/o daughter. I think you showed much class.
A.C.