Lena Austin
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Archive for the 'E-Pirates' Category
Pirates, Thieves, and Enemies
Author: Lena Austin02 9th, 2010
I can't believe this. Flash Point is already on pirate sites ::sob:: In fact, many of my books are now available for free. "Pirate" is too good a word for scum who steal. Let's call them what they really are-- thieves.
This is not Johnny Depp. These folks aren't nearly as handsome, and they damn sure don't have a good heart. They're still thieves stealing from little old ladies, widows, and the poor. Most ebook authors are not rich, and may are suffering more than most in this economy. Some don't have other means of income and no health insurance. Besides, when does stealing become okay if you only steal from folks you assume (incorrectly) can afford the loss?
This is not Robin Hood, and you're not stealing from the rich to give to the poor. You're just stealing. Plain and simple. It doesn't matter if you're not making a profit from what you have stolen. Theft is still theft. Buying one copy and then redistributing it is still illegal use of an item, like buying a gun and then using it to commit a felony.
How would you like it if someone burst into your home and took the paycheck from your hand? Yep, that's what e-piracy does to the authors who worked, often for weeks, to get a story down on paper. What? You think it only takes a few hours to bang out a story? No, stupid. It takes an average of a week for every 5K-10K words, depending on the author's situation and abilities. Therefore, a novella can be up to FOUR WEEKS of work, and a novel much longer. Yeah, you go work at your job for a month and have someone steal your income. See how you feel then.
Senators, you're losing tax dollars. Quite a few, since you tax individual authors like independent businesses, not at individual rates. We pay more than our "fair share" and that's only a small portion of what we could earn if we weren't losing so much to e-pirates who hide behind ISP's in foreign countries.
Someone tell me why I write and publish again? Why should I sweat, swear, and cry over telling these stories when someone is just going to steal my work and give it away for free?
Government won't help, and publishers can't help me, so I have to make the bad decision. I will no longer be giving away my ebooks in any form, nor will I be able to afford to purchase gift certificates on a regular basis because of the reduction in my income.
In fact, I've lost so much income to the theft of my books that I'm now working part-time again, cutting further into my ability to write. Don't try to blame the economy. My DH got a job in September and has been working ever since. We're still behind on our mortgage, but we're catching up slowly. That "catch up" can't happen without my income. We have a budget dependent on everyone making a certain figure. When my royalties are 1/3 of their usual, I have to make up that deficit, and so I went out and got a "real" job. Blame it on the thieves who dare to give themselves the romantic name of pirates and think they're being Robin Hood instead of what they really are-- thieves.
Sharper than a serpent's tooth is the fact that it's probably someone who dares to call herself or himself my fan and friend and smile to my face. Someone who thinks I'm good enough to read, but not good enough to pay fair and square for my books. Some friend. Some fan. With friends like you, who needs enemies? At least my enemies have the courage to be honest and hate me openly. I'd rather have an honest enemy than a false friend.
Lena Austin
http://www.LenaAustin.com
Writing blog: http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com
Recipe and Pagan blog: http://third-infinity.blogspot.com
Low Carb Diet blog: http://fatfrogdiary.blogspot.com
This is not Johnny Depp. These folks aren't nearly as handsome, and they damn sure don't have a good heart. They're still thieves stealing from little old ladies, widows, and the poor. Most ebook authors are not rich, and may are suffering more than most in this economy. Some don't have other means of income and no health insurance. Besides, when does stealing become okay if you only steal from folks you assume (incorrectly) can afford the loss?
This is not Robin Hood, and you're not stealing from the rich to give to the poor. You're just stealing. Plain and simple. It doesn't matter if you're not making a profit from what you have stolen. Theft is still theft. Buying one copy and then redistributing it is still illegal use of an item, like buying a gun and then using it to commit a felony.
How would you like it if someone burst into your home and took the paycheck from your hand? Yep, that's what e-piracy does to the authors who worked, often for weeks, to get a story down on paper. What? You think it only takes a few hours to bang out a story? No, stupid. It takes an average of a week for every 5K-10K words, depending on the author's situation and abilities. Therefore, a novella can be up to FOUR WEEKS of work, and a novel much longer. Yeah, you go work at your job for a month and have someone steal your income. See how you feel then.
Senators, you're losing tax dollars. Quite a few, since you tax individual authors like independent businesses, not at individual rates. We pay more than our "fair share" and that's only a small portion of what we could earn if we weren't losing so much to e-pirates who hide behind ISP's in foreign countries.
Someone tell me why I write and publish again? Why should I sweat, swear, and cry over telling these stories when someone is just going to steal my work and give it away for free?
Government won't help, and publishers can't help me, so I have to make the bad decision. I will no longer be giving away my ebooks in any form, nor will I be able to afford to purchase gift certificates on a regular basis because of the reduction in my income.
In fact, I've lost so much income to the theft of my books that I'm now working part-time again, cutting further into my ability to write. Don't try to blame the economy. My DH got a job in September and has been working ever since. We're still behind on our mortgage, but we're catching up slowly. That "catch up" can't happen without my income. We have a budget dependent on everyone making a certain figure. When my royalties are 1/3 of their usual, I have to make up that deficit, and so I went out and got a "real" job. Blame it on the thieves who dare to give themselves the romantic name of pirates and think they're being Robin Hood instead of what they really are-- thieves.
Sharper than a serpent's tooth is the fact that it's probably someone who dares to call herself or himself my fan and friend and smile to my face. Someone who thinks I'm good enough to read, but not good enough to pay fair and square for my books. Some friend. Some fan. With friends like you, who needs enemies? At least my enemies have the courage to be honest and hate me openly. I'd rather have an honest enemy than a false friend.
Lena Austin
http://www.LenaAustin.com
Writing blog: http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com
Recipe and Pagan blog: http://third-infinity.blogspot.com
Low Carb Diet blog: http://fatfrogdiary.blogspot.com
read comments (0)E-Piracy Reprise
Author: Lena Austin11 21st, 2009
Today I just learned I have lost close to $1000 in royalties thanks to pirates in the past two weeks. That's my mortgage payment on our house. My husband was out of work for six months, until recently. We swallowed our pride, borrowed, held garage sales, and wept futile tears until a miracle occurred and my aging husband was able to find a job. Now we're struggling to catch up against mounting late fees and penalties. That $1000 would have given us a much-needed break, but thanks to e-pirates who claim to be my fans, I'm worrying and wringing my hands as the end of the month approaches.
Sharon Marie Bidwell wrote this back in July. I can't say it any better. The highlights are my own emphasis.
To the person who left me a comment...
…saying they may look like spam but assuring me their comment wasn’t, your site looks like…well, spam. You say you’re not a publisher and yet you’re making money selling free ebooks? This is an oxymoron. If you are selling books they’re not ‘free’. Secondly, you say you’re not a writer so where are you getting these books from? Are you selling other people’s free ebooks? If you’re doing so without their permission you are in violation of copyright law. If you are buying ebooks and selling them on, you are in violation of copyright law. On both counts, I advise you to read the statement that runs in my side bar. If you are doing something else, which I don’t understand, my apologies, but no, I’m not going to download your report file from a site that says very little. For all I know it could be a virus. I’d advise everyone else not to do so either. This isn’t personal. I’m just being sensibly cautious. Sorry.
Look, copyright law on ebooks is simple. You cannot copy, distribute, resell or loan an ebook. Saying that, most of us wouldn’t object if we heard you’ve made yourself a back-up copy purely for your own personal use. We live in a wonderful age of technology but technology fails us from time to time. We hear you’re selling our work and we’ll come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks. Writers and publishers are getting better at locating piracy sites and law enforcement is finally taking it seriously.
The most common question we hear is “If I can resell or loan a printed book, why can’t I as a reader resell or loan ebooks?” To be honest, even the reselling or lending of some printed books is a grey area. However, it tends to be overlooked because of several reasons.
Most people hate the idea of printed books being destroyed. If you’re finished with them and cannot pass them on in some way they are only good for recycling.
When a printed book is passed on, someone may find an author they like and start buying new books by that author on a regular basis. It’s sort of free-advertising and yes, one could argue this would apply to ebooks but there’s a major difference and reason why this doesn’t work so read on.
Many second-hand books are sold for charity purposes.
You are giving up your physical edition of the book and will no longer own it.
Point 4 is the major one. When you give, sell, or loan a printed book you give away the item you purchased. Even when loaning it, you risk not getting it back. You are not making a ‘physical copy’ of that book to pass it on.
When you pass an ebook on (and some people do this in innocence not piracy but they are still in the wrong) the reader tends to ‘keep’ their version and simply send the file on, thereby making a ‘copy’. I can assure you that this is just as illegal in printed works.
Imagine you took one of Stephen King’s novels, dissected it, scanned it in, printed it up either by POD (good luck — they would spot what you are doing in a flash), or via the printer at home, and tried to give it away, sell it, or hand to a friend. Should SK find out do you think he wouldn’t sue your arse off? Oh yes, he would!
The point is you are not allowed to make a ‘copy’ of any written work be it printed or electronic. You may (usually) print off an electronic book with the purpose of reading it in that form should you not wish to read on screen, but that printed form is subject to the same laws. You may not sell it, or pass it on. If you wish to pass on an ebook the only viable way to do this is buy an extra copy, and what’s so wrong with that? We all have people to buy presents for.
Oh…and to those who think they can file share their ebook library, has nothing I’ve stated sunk in? Besides, you are NOT a library and did you know that even if you were there is such a thing as the ‘public lending right’? This means that an author can, if they wish, claim a small payment every time a library lends one of their books. So next time you choose to file share, don’t be surprised should you receive a letter from the authors asking for an audit of the number of ‘loans’ and demanding payment from you!
You are not a publisher and the author has not signed a contract with you. You do not have the right to sell.
You are not an official state library. You do not have the right to loan (and let’s be honest — loan in electronic format means copy and give away).
You are not friends with thousands of strangers online that you simply ‘must’ lend your books to (and we’ve already established that you are not lending but copying) and authors and publishers will not turn their back on you ‘giving’ their work away.
I’m not speaking to those who are deliberately committing an act of piracy. They know they are breaking the law, damaging authors and the publishing industry, and they just don’t care. The most we can do is assure them that while there will always be crooks there will always be those willing to fight them. I’m speaking mainly to those that do this in innocence, not understanding that they are doing anything wrong. You claim to love us as writers. You claim to love our work. We do work — hard — at this. Most of us have day jobs, families, lives just like you. We have to find time to write on top of all that. We often forsake sleep. Many don’t make as much money as you think and even if we did, haven’t we ‘earned’ it? You love our characters, our worlds, our stories. You claim to love our work and even to love us. Why do something fundamentally harmful to someone or something you love?
Did you know there are pirate copies of the “I Do” anthology out there? A book I took part in for charity. The thought that people can be so low as to steal from charity has made some of us authors want to puke. If you’re doing this in innocence or not, rest assured, we’re very upset with you.
Lena again__ I personally know three authors who have been forced to stop writing BECAUSE of e-pirates. The authors could not sell enough works legitimately through royalty-paying services to justify remaining writers. One now works as a waitress because it's the only job she could find and she still earns more in one night than she did in any given month as a published author.
I would love to find some super-geek who'd write me a worm that I could upload into Astatalk.com and all the other e-pirate sites. When I see notes in the Comments sections under my books that ask not only for my entire book list but also for information on how not to get busted, I know these folks aren't innocently sharing. They know they're committing a crime and they don't care. They deserve to have a worm destroy their system, steal their identities and all the money in their bank accounts, then pass it on to the poor authors and artists they've ruined.
Merry Friggin' Christmas.
Sharon Marie Bidwell wrote this back in July. I can't say it any better. The highlights are my own emphasis.
To the person who left me a comment...
…saying they may look like spam but assuring me their comment wasn’t, your site looks like…well, spam. You say you’re not a publisher and yet you’re making money selling free ebooks? This is an oxymoron. If you are selling books they’re not ‘free’. Secondly, you say you’re not a writer so where are you getting these books from? Are you selling other people’s free ebooks? If you’re doing so without their permission you are in violation of copyright law. If you are buying ebooks and selling them on, you are in violation of copyright law. On both counts, I advise you to read the statement that runs in my side bar. If you are doing something else, which I don’t understand, my apologies, but no, I’m not going to download your report file from a site that says very little. For all I know it could be a virus. I’d advise everyone else not to do so either. This isn’t personal. I’m just being sensibly cautious. Sorry.
Look, copyright law on ebooks is simple. You cannot copy, distribute, resell or loan an ebook. Saying that, most of us wouldn’t object if we heard you’ve made yourself a back-up copy purely for your own personal use. We live in a wonderful age of technology but technology fails us from time to time. We hear you’re selling our work and we’ll come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks. Writers and publishers are getting better at locating piracy sites and law enforcement is finally taking it seriously.
The most common question we hear is “If I can resell or loan a printed book, why can’t I as a reader resell or loan ebooks?” To be honest, even the reselling or lending of some printed books is a grey area. However, it tends to be overlooked because of several reasons.
Most people hate the idea of printed books being destroyed. If you’re finished with them and cannot pass them on in some way they are only good for recycling.
When a printed book is passed on, someone may find an author they like and start buying new books by that author on a regular basis. It’s sort of free-advertising and yes, one could argue this would apply to ebooks but there’s a major difference and reason why this doesn’t work so read on.
Many second-hand books are sold for charity purposes.
You are giving up your physical edition of the book and will no longer own it.
Point 4 is the major one. When you give, sell, or loan a printed book you give away the item you purchased. Even when loaning it, you risk not getting it back. You are not making a ‘physical copy’ of that book to pass it on.
When you pass an ebook on (and some people do this in innocence not piracy but they are still in the wrong) the reader tends to ‘keep’ their version and simply send the file on, thereby making a ‘copy’. I can assure you that this is just as illegal in printed works.
Imagine you took one of Stephen King’s novels, dissected it, scanned it in, printed it up either by POD (good luck — they would spot what you are doing in a flash), or via the printer at home, and tried to give it away, sell it, or hand to a friend. Should SK find out do you think he wouldn’t sue your arse off? Oh yes, he would!
The point is you are not allowed to make a ‘copy’ of any written work be it printed or electronic. You may (usually) print off an electronic book with the purpose of reading it in that form should you not wish to read on screen, but that printed form is subject to the same laws. You may not sell it, or pass it on. If you wish to pass on an ebook the only viable way to do this is buy an extra copy, and what’s so wrong with that? We all have people to buy presents for.
Oh…and to those who think they can file share their ebook library, has nothing I’ve stated sunk in? Besides, you are NOT a library and did you know that even if you were there is such a thing as the ‘public lending right’? This means that an author can, if they wish, claim a small payment every time a library lends one of their books. So next time you choose to file share, don’t be surprised should you receive a letter from the authors asking for an audit of the number of ‘loans’ and demanding payment from you!
You are not a publisher and the author has not signed a contract with you. You do not have the right to sell.
You are not an official state library. You do not have the right to loan (and let’s be honest — loan in electronic format means copy and give away).
You are not friends with thousands of strangers online that you simply ‘must’ lend your books to (and we’ve already established that you are not lending but copying) and authors and publishers will not turn their back on you ‘giving’ their work away.
I’m not speaking to those who are deliberately committing an act of piracy. They know they are breaking the law, damaging authors and the publishing industry, and they just don’t care. The most we can do is assure them that while there will always be crooks there will always be those willing to fight them. I’m speaking mainly to those that do this in innocence, not understanding that they are doing anything wrong. You claim to love us as writers. You claim to love our work. We do work — hard — at this. Most of us have day jobs, families, lives just like you. We have to find time to write on top of all that. We often forsake sleep. Many don’t make as much money as you think and even if we did, haven’t we ‘earned’ it? You love our characters, our worlds, our stories. You claim to love our work and even to love us. Why do something fundamentally harmful to someone or something you love?
Did you know there are pirate copies of the “I Do” anthology out there? A book I took part in for charity. The thought that people can be so low as to steal from charity has made some of us authors want to puke. If you’re doing this in innocence or not, rest assured, we’re very upset with you.
Lena again__ I personally know three authors who have been forced to stop writing BECAUSE of e-pirates. The authors could not sell enough works legitimately through royalty-paying services to justify remaining writers. One now works as a waitress because it's the only job she could find and she still earns more in one night than she did in any given month as a published author.
I would love to find some super-geek who'd write me a worm that I could upload into Astatalk.com and all the other e-pirate sites. When I see notes in the Comments sections under my books that ask not only for my entire book list but also for information on how not to get busted, I know these folks aren't innocently sharing. They know they're committing a crime and they don't care. They deserve to have a worm destroy their system, steal their identities and all the money in their bank accounts, then pass it on to the poor authors and artists they've ruined.
Merry Friggin' Christmas.