Another article of interest that’s been posted and caught my attention. So I, of course, felt the compulsion to share.
Zoe Winters, self-published paranormal romance writer (there seems to be SO many of these around now!), made a post on 6/7 entitled, “The Thing that REALLY Pisses Me Off”, where she addresses the growing issue of eBook piracy. And let me tell you, she totally hits the nail on the head. Her thoughts are my thoughts put into words that I can’t manage, because I get so annoyed when I attempt to write about it. I encourage you to read the post in its entirety, but here’s a taste of what you’ll find inside:
We are entering a world of increasing entitlement where more and more people either think what they steal doesn’t matter and won’t affect the artist or they just fucking don’t care. Because they feel entitled to free entertainment and they don’t care what happens to the person who made it, nor do they care about the hard work that went into creating it. … This idea that “piracy doesn’t really hurt anyone but instead benefits everyone” is beyond asinine. And even if the people who say this were right, that doesn’t mean you have the right to take shit from other people that doesn’t belong to you just because you want to. If someone says: “This is mine and I don’t want you to take it without paying” then taking it is WRONG. How hard is that? Are you so morally bankrupt you can’t figure that out?
And this is definitely my favorite part of the entire post and totally deserves the boldfacing:
If you steal from an artist, you are not their fan. You can call yourself whatever you want, but with some very rare exceptions those artists will look on you and your kind with disgust and contempt. And someday your action may result in that artist you stole from no longer producing work for you to steal. … Bottom line… if you like the work of an artist, you should pay for it. Whether it’s music, movie, or book. Because just taking it is equivalent to spitting in their face. Funny how nobody likes being spit on.
I encourage everyone to take a stand against piracy, if only for the sakes of those you claim to enjoy and be fans of. They have to make a living too.