Every day, I try to start my day (and yours) with a positive message. I constantly remind myself that good energy is so much more healthy than bad and so it’s even more disheartening to me when I find myself drowning in the murkiness of negativity.
I ended my social media whirlwind at 1 in the morning with tapping in these last words into my cell: “I HATE THIS.”
Instead of writing a novel, I was caught up in the crap that comes along with finding yet another person has a pirated copy of my novel (and a shit ton of others from my peers) up for grabs on her blog site.
Instead of having an “atomous bombus” solution to eradicating the thief from social media, everyone scattered and took sides. Don’t post the link. Out the thief. We are all crazy. Now the wench has more likes on her page. Don’t show how to get my book for free. This site needs to be taken down immediately!
So somebody (but not me) do something!!
I chose a path. Out the THIEF. EDUCATE the public that in fact HERE IS ANOTHER SHINING EXAMPLE OF THIEVERY IN THE BOOK COMMUNITY, while some of my author friends said “why did you do that?”
Okay, how else do we get the thief shut down and off of social media?
How do we let our readers and our awesome bloggers know the full affect of how ebook piracy is a real, tangible thing?
Well – maybe those people who pirate my novels would never have purchased them in the first place. I can just lay down now and give up and let the rats pick at my body and pull my last dollar from my pocket. After all, it was only a years-worth of research, of interviews, of tears, of having your husband tell you to your face that you’re neglecting your family because of writing that book to be up for grabs. No biggie.
I searched the thief’s website and found her picture and profile happily shining at the bottom of the page and so I decided to OUT THE THIEF as well. HERE IS THE FACE OF SOMEONE STEALING DIGITAL CONTENT AND SHARING IT WITH THE WORLD. IT’S REAL, FOLKS. HERE SHE IS!
Within moments, well-meaning friends sought to protect me. “Aren’t you worried you’ll get into trouble posting her picture as she’s a minor?”
Whoa – She stole from me (and you) and yet I have to be worried about getting into trouble? The girl is in India. I’ve been to India several times. It’s a long-ass flight. Why, as the victim, should I be worried?
You know, back in the day if you committed a crime you were publicly hung in the town square, and your crime and punishment served as an example and a warning to the rest of the villagers. Didn’t thieves have their fingers or hands cut off?
Nope – now we have to worry. We have to scatter instead of banding together with a viable solution to stop the illegal activity. I’m waiting for someone to call me a bully because I posted the thief’s identity.
So what do we do, folks? Nothing? Something? Scatter and worry? Should we all just say screw it and let book piracy continue because, hey, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway, so let’s just ignore it?
Yeah, let’s ignore it.
Yeah, it’s just a few hundred thousand illegal downloads.
Maybe the pirate site will be corrupt and the people who illegally download books will get the Kindle version of herpes?
Yeah, Kindle herpes with a nasty case of itching. Hopefully some computer whiz will create a virus for this kind of bull instead of embedding their worms into shared email jokes. Would be nice of their screens froze or if an anti-piracy hammer fell from the sky and smashed their device. 
As for me, I want a PUBLIC LYNCHING.
YOU STEAL, YOU DIE A HUMILIATING DEATH IN THIS COMMUNITY.
YOU PLAGIARIZE, YOU DIE A HUMILIATING DEATH IN AUTHORDOM.
YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT, YOU’RE WRONG AND HERE ARE THE HISTORICAL FILES TO SHOW ALL OF THE PUBLIC LYNCHINGS THAT CAME BEFORE YOU.
E-Book prices are the topic of many other wars going on right now between publishers, book sellers, authors, readers. Most self published titles are under 6 dollars. Traditionally published titles have more overhead and therefore ebook prices are a bit higher. There are a bazillion titles for free already from authors just wanting you to give their work a chance. There are fellow authors dropping down to the .99 pennies price (which is another topic that draws sides like the splitting of the Red Sea). My point is, there are things I want in life that I can’t afford. Just because I can’t afford them doesn’t mean I have the right to STEAL them.
Come on, world. What the hell are we doing?
If you obtain something that has a price associated to it and you didn’t pay for it, you are STEALING. Unfortunately, there is no punishment for the crime. No hauling her ass away to jail for 500 acts of Internet theft. No fines imposed on those who can be traced to downloading the files. No penalties. Just piles of victims who are not allowed to cry or demand retribution. We have no action or recourse and in turn fear calling attention to it. It makes me sick.
Or is all of this just an opinion I’m not supposed to share or take a stand on?
I want to see someone arrested.
I want to know the NAMES of the criminals.
I want to see authors banding together to educate the community that this stuff happens and IT WON’T BE TOLERATED instead of looking around at everyone, just hoping that someone else will do something about it.