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Do some authors consider Booklending to be Piracy?
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Charmer (+ Vibes Only)
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Oct 12, 2011 12:07PM
I'm askin this question, bc I lend/borrow books, and I want to know if some of yall have an issue w/ it. This all started w/ a few authors on FB, that are more than pissed about Pirates. Which is understandable. I'd be pissed too, if I put hard work n2 something that I'm passionate about only to have ppl STEAL it.
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I don't know if authors equate lending a paper book to a friend as the same as lending an ecopy to a close friend. In my opinion, I don't see the problem with one on one ebook lending. Which I think that is why Nook and Kindle came up with lending, although I wish you could lend more than once. I totally disagree with mass sharing of ebooks and posting of ebooks on websites for people to download free.
No problem on my end with lending, Shenika. There's a difference between lending and pirating, though. With lending, you can have a copy of the book and share it with a friend (whether in paper form or e-format), during which period you wouldn't have access to it. It's a controlled process, between a limited number of people. Like Danielle, I actually wish we could lend books a few times instead of just once. As an author, if someone lends my book to someone else, that's more exposure for me. Plus I realize some people want to try out an unknown author before they plunk down their hard-earned cash.
Pirating has gotten easier with ebooks. There are sites where readers post books and they're downloaded dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times. Some writers view it as a compliment and say those readers wouldn't buy their work anyway.
It's true that a percentage of those readers wouldn't buy the book anyway, but I don't view it as a compliment. It's an uncontrolled process with an infinite number of people having access to your work.
It's a little insulting because even if someone likes your work enough to share it with others, they still think so little of you and your efforts that they offer it up for free to a large number of people without permission.
Ty, Delaney. I do plunk, my husband's hard earned cash, and sometimes I get carried away buying books, and so that's why I do the lend/borrow. And I've bought a lot of books from Amazon, that I wished I borrowed.
Pirating is stealing and putting books up illegally without the authors' or publisher's permission. When it happens, we don't get paid and people read our books for free and that is not right. I don't so much have a problem with lending as long as someone actually paid for their copy of the book. But I do have a big problem with folks who didn't pay a dime for books then have the nerve to put those same books on a site and distribute them thousands or more times and the we get nothing out of it. They have no right to do that. The books don't belong to them and they should not be sharing them and putting them up for anyone to download. It's stealing and pirating should never be tolerated. Authors should get paid for their work unless they put the story up for free themselves. That's what's wrong with this industry, people expect authors to work for nothing and provide work for nothing. Pirating is illegal and it should be. You shouldn't pirate music, movies or books. It's wrong and people who do it are nothing but thieves who are capitalizing on the hard work of artists. It's just like using a photographer's photo without paying them. Artists deserve respect for their hard work and this stealing has to stop.http://www.stacy-deanne.net
Delaney I too have heard some authors say they find pirating a compliment and that is pathetic. How can you find it a compliment for someone to take something you worked hard for, steal it and make it available for anyone in the world while you (the author) or your publisher doesn't see a single dime of money? Also, how does an author know someone wouldn't pay for their work? Who would want their work STOLEN? I know I wouldn't. And also it doesn't bring exposure to the author. Just because someone reads some stolen books, that doesn't mean they are gonna start buying the author's work. No. People who buy from these illegal sites don't wanna pay for anything so it's not like this translates into money or exposure for the author. Say someone downloads a book from a piracy site and it gets downloaded by a thousand, ten thousand or even one hundred thousand or more people? You never know how many people. You see how much the author was screwed? A million people could've read an author's book from one site alone and the author gets NADA. When I hear authors defending piracy it makes me madder than the ones doing it. That doesn't make sense and it makes those authors look like fools. Why would someone want someone to steal their books and put them up for free? Shaking my head on that one. It's attitudes like that that's the reason why authors are getting their work stolen, because folks are tolerating it.And if they wouldn't buy the book then to hell with them. If they can't see the value in the book enough to spend money then they don't have to read it. But there is NEVER a reason to pirate or to condone it. That's what's frightening about some writers now, they are so desperate for sales they would sell their souls to get them. You gotta keep your dignity and have respect for your work because if you don't then who will?
Pirating books is no better than plagiarizing books. Both are disgusting.
I second what Danielle said! Heck it's not like most authors are sitting around getting rich off of their books. But even if we were no one has the right to steal them. I don't care if it's a new author or Stephen King. Stealing is stealing and there is never a reason to do it.
