When people pirate e-books, they think "I'm not hurting anyone". When in essence you are hurting the Author whose ideas, time and effort went into it. I'm out of work right now because of a neck injury. It wasn't really something I wanted to go public with on my blog, but since the people who are pirating my books also have a google blog, I thought it appropriate to blog this.
I have no income now other than my royalties and this IS hurting me. I have counted on my royalty check to pay my bills which, due to some pirating, I am not able to pay this month. Now I'm faced with feed my kids or pay my house payment. I am NOT rich.
What would you do if someone mugged you after just having cashed your check? What if someone hacked your bank account? Would you consider that a crime? Well, pirating e-books, music and movies is like doing the same thing. Sharing once does it hurt the author probably not. A web site set up to sell or share such things over and over again is STEALING thousands of dollars from the author, actor or musician. These things can and are traced by law enforcement. Don't think you're annonymous because you are on the internet. IP addresses can be traced. Fake IP addresses can be traced. Everyone leaves a footprint. How do you think they catch the kiddie porn sickos?
