I hope I don’t
offend anyone with the following essay. For the most part, I am addressing only
certain people out there. The rest of you, please just bear with me.
Authors don’t
make a lot of money. Some of us make a living, and are lucky and grateful to do
so. But most of the authors who write and publish e-books are ordinary people,
really. We’re not rich.
Do you know how
it is I make my money? It’s not a mystery—it’s actually quite simple. People buy
my books. The more people who pay to download my novels, the more money I get.
Yes, that’s
right. People buy my books, with real money. Oh, yeah, I know they’re only
e-books. Heck, an e-book can be stored on your pc, or on your iPhone, on your
tablet or your e-reader.
And hey, if
they’re on your pc, then you can copy and paste, right? Or upload to a file
sharing group or site, or create a file sharing group or site yourself, using
FaceBook or Dropbox, or any number of nifty tech sights, right?
Wrong. Oh, so
very wrong! In fact it’s more than wrong it is actually criminal. The sharing of
an e-book is theft. Authors say so; publishers say so; and considering
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that was approved by Congress and the
Senate and signed into law by the President of the United States in 1998, the
authorities say so. It is as much an act of theft, when you download a “free”
copy of my book from one of those sites, as it would be if you opened my purse
and took my wallet.
What I am
having difficulty understanding is this: why do otherwise law-abiding people
think it’s ok to steal an author’s intellectual property? Why do you think it’s
acceptable to get free copies of books from these “sharing sites”, instead of
paying for them?
I understand
that these books cost money, and maybe you don’t have a lot of that, either. But
that doesn’t make stealing them, right.
There are a lot
of women who write romance, and erotic romance. Some of these women are single
moms. Some are single women, with no one else to help support them. When you
steal books from an author, you’re taking the milk away that her child needs.
She can’t buy that new pair of sneakers to replace the worn out ones because you
and your friends saw fit to read her books for free rather than paying for them.
You wouldn’t (I
hope) steal candy from a baby—so don’t steal her groceries, either.
Maybe you don’t
care. You want the books, you can’t afford them, so you take the books. Are you
going to go to your local mall, next, and help yourself, without paying, to
whatever is on display that you want? Why not? You’re already a thief. You
already stole books. Why not steal makeup, or a sweater, jewelry, or a couple of
CDs? Just tell the security guards when they apprehend you that, hey, “I wanted
the necklace, I can’t afford it, so I just took it.” See how far that gets you,
cupcake.
Ah, you say.
You wouldn’t do that! That’s against the law!
Yes, it is. And
so, too, is either downloading free e-books from a sharing site, or uploading
them to a sharing site. It doesn’t matter that you upload the book you paid for
so that others may enjoy it free. You are still breaking the law, and beggaring
authors.
Please, stop.
And if you didn’t know this was illegal, well, now you do. So I’ll say to you
agiain, please, stop. And tell your friends to stop, too.
Love,
Morgan
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