So, Why Can't I Share That eBook?

So, book thief, you want to share that file and you don’t care that it’s illegal? You stand behind your rationalization for breaking the law? Well, take a few minutes and read on.

Why is file sharing illegal? Because in the United States of America the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled it’s illegal, that’s why. When it comes to the law in the good old USA,  SCOTUS is the final word. Period.

The landmark case was MGM Studios v. Grokster (SCOTUS, June 27, 2005). This link is the case in a nutshell for laypersons.

http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/property/property-law-keyed-to-singer/intellectual-property/metro-goldwyn-mayer-studios-inc-mgm-v-grokster-ltd/

I’m not going to bore you with a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo, but I will ask this question: Do you remember when federal authorities were knocking on private citizens’ doors with search warrants, and under the authority of those warrants, removed computers, which then led to prosecutions for copyright infringement because those citizens were downloading music from file sharing sites? No? Well then, you might want to take a look at this landmark case:

http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/copyright/capitol-records-v-thomas-rasset

There have been other cases adjudicated under the Grokster ruling, but I’ll give you a very short summation (if you will) of the bottom line:

It is illegal under copyright law to share (by any means), duplicate, broadcast by any media ELECTRONIC files of copyrighted material without the express permission of the author of said file or the publisher of said file. This includes but is not limited to music, movies, books, articles, software, even blog posts. Yes, I said blog posts.

There is no ambiguity in that statement, nor is there any ambiguity in the cases that have been adjudicated since Grokster.

I’ll make it even simpler for you: Do yourself a favor and read the license agreement you automatically agree to when you purchase a movie, music, ebook, software, etc.

The law does not care about what reasons you may have for sharing that efile. The author of that ebook does not care why you are sharing that file with your Aunt Minnie or your sister, or your neighbor. The publisher does not care why you are sharing that file. None of these parties care what convoluted logic you use to rationalize copying and sharing copyrighted material. The FACT is that it is illegal and you can be prosecuted.

And believe this if you don’t believe anything else: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Let me repeat that just to be sure you got it: IGNORANCE. OF. THE. LAW. IS. NO. EXCUSE. And if you try to claim ignorance, you'll probably (justifiably) be asked what rock you've been living under for the last nine years.

I’ll tell you something else. Just like the music and movie industry, authors and publishers will band together and exercise their rights under the law. Do you really want to try and stand up to that juggernaut? Do you really want to risk becoming an example?

Do you really believe that you can get away with piracy? Do you think because you deleted the file, closed down your group of thieves, used a fake name, or otherwise tried to hide your illegal activity you won’t be caught? Seriously, did you really believe you could hide at all?

If you did, you really do have FOOL tattooed on your forehead.

Oh, well, I’m not the only one, you say. Millions of people do it every single day. Yeah, and if they walked off the edge of a cliff, would you follow them? I didn’t think so.

And then there are the owners of copyrighted material who say we shouldn’t ‘fly off the handle’ and ‘call our Facebook friends thieves’. We should ‘let them share the book’ because if a person reads the stolen file they may go and ‘buy my other books’.

If you are a pirate, you are a thief.

If you are a thief, you are NOT my friend and I'll go batshit on you all over the place. To hell with PR.

An author shouldn’t ‘fly off the handle’ when they find out their book has been stolen because efile piracy is a fact of life and nothing can be done to stop it? Well, Skippy, let me ask you this question: If I come into your house and steal your jewelry, or I steal your car, or your TV, are you going to sit back and call it a ‘fact of life’ because people steal all the time? Or are you going to get up off your naive, sanctimonious ass and call the cops? Yep, I thought so.

And here is the real kicker, folks...Authors should keep quiet about piracy because it will alienate their readers if the author becomes angry and/or confrontational.

Yeah, you read that right. Yes, I do have the screenshots of these comments because I was floored when I read them. 

Sharing your Kindle, Nook, iPod, or other electronic device on which the file was originally downloaded is fine. Sending that file by any other means for any reason is illegal. And just because you may have the author's permission, you aren't in the clear. You'll need the permission of the manufacturer of the device. Good luck with that. 

And don’t even start with the “Well then, why is it okay to lend paperback books?” argument. Yes, it’s okay until you copy that book by any means and distribute it without the author’s or publisher’s permission. Period. End of discussion. Why? Because those are the terms set down by the publisher and printed clearly on either the very first or second page of that book you purchased AND because that is the law, that’s why. Don’t like the law or think it’s unfair? Change it. Think the publisher is being unfair? Well, sit down and write the publisher and tell them so. Otherwise, would you like some cheese with that whine?

Let’s put this in terms everyone understands. See that red octagonal sign on your right that says in big, white letters STOP? See Mr./Ms. Police Officer behind you in the unmarked car as you roll past that sign without coming to a full stop? No? I’ll bet you see those red and blue lights in your rearview mirror, don’t you? And I can just hear you whining now, “But officer...” as the officer writes you a ticket. Do the smart thing and pay the fine because you don't even want to go before the judge in Traffic Court and tell your sob story. Oh, and don't run another STOP sign.

Are you getting it now? Is it becoming clear now? No? You still think it’s okay to steal that file and do what you like with it because you bought it or because your ‘friend’ gave it to you? Well, when your sorry ass is standing in a courtroom and you are sentenced to a fine of $250K for EACH offense (and you have x-number of books on your Kindle you’d just love to share, don’t you?), which means every single efile you pirated, I’ll bet you’ll ‘get it’ then, won’t you?

So, you just keep right on starting your ‘secret’ groups. Keep right on pirating those files. The folks at Grokster and Napster and BitTorrent said and did the same things.

You keep right on doing what you’re doing, you douchecanoe. And while you’re at it, say a prayer that authors don’t get together and decide to make YOU an example.

I can state with 100 percent certainty you’ll ‘get it’ then.

Book Pirates - You Stole More Than Just An Electronic File

I was watching the piracy groups being exposed on Facebook this past week, but I was working on a killer deadline and didn’t have any time to do any housecleaning. I promised myself I would undertake that task this weekend.

Then I got a look at the list of authors who were victims of the thieves and some of the books that had been pirated.

Let me back up a little here and tell you some of the backstory.

The first time I edited a fiction book, sure enough, I heard later that it had been put up on a pirate site. I reported it to the author, and she filed all of the proper paperwork to have it taken down. Sure, that didn’t stop other thieves, and pirating clusters continue to grow like the virulent, fulminating cancer they are.

I remember the feeling of finding that first book on a pirate site – the anger, a sense of betrayal of my friend who was then and is still a client. I edited that book; there was a piece of me in that story. Sure, it wasn’t a big piece, but some of the words in that book were suggested by me and later used by the author. Seeing them in electronic media and knowing for the first time that an author trusted my judgment enough to use words I’d suggested or rework a scene based on my advice? I’m telling you – it’s a high like no other. Why? Because authors are my rock stars, movie stars, heroes and heroines, the top of the heap, kings and queens of the mountain. And let’s not forget the stories they tell. Those stories have gotten me through some pretty dark times in my life, taken my mind out of the horror of some issues I’ve faced in my life and transported me to worlds where I could be, do, and say anything.

To be mentioned in the Acknowledgments, thanked specifically for the work that I did on that story? To have an author include me in a Dedication?

I can’t begin to find the words to describe how these things feel. Oh yeah, I get paid for doing the job, but truthfully, no career I have ever had compares to working with my friends who just happen to be authors.

What’s this got to do with piracy?

I watch, advise, act as a consultant, provide a shoulder, encourage, push, stalk (on request), cheer, find needles in haystacks, plead, cajole and even give the occasional NCIS headsmack while the story is being written. When the story lands on my desk for edits, I reassure, soothe, reassure again (no, the story does NOT suck – it’s pretty damn good), while I pull the story apart and look at it down to the last punctuation mark and word, then put it back together again - please gods, goddesses, book fairies and other writer patron saints and spirits -  better than it was when I first picked it up.

And through it all, I am awed by the author’s creativity in being able to make the characters live in my mind and the worlds they inhabit as real as the one outside my office door.

To be a part of that process is amazing, astounding, humbling, beautiful – a lifelong dream come true.

To see that stolen is heartbreaking. To find out  the thieves are people I know or have interacted with on one level or another is devastating, and the feeling of betrayal is crushing.

I saw the lists, and there were books the Red Quill team and I worked on. It was like being kicked in the gut – on behalf of the authors who are also my friends, on behalf of my team whose hard work went into those stories, and yes, for myself. I felt like we had been robbed.

Knowing how I felt – and I had only been the editor or headed the editing team – I could only imagine how the authors felt.

The author is the mother of that book baby. The editors, cover artists, and formatters are like a child’s teachers and caregivers. All of us, under the mother’s umbrella, have had a hand in getting that baby out into the world. Once out in the world, the street teams and fans carry that baby on its journey. And we all do it for the love of the written word and to take a reader’s mind to a different time and place with people the reader can only dream about.

Pirates – let’s call them what they really are – thieves steal that from all of us. But how is that possible, you ask?

It’s possible because it steals the author’s hard work and the hard work of all those who had a hand in bringing that story to the world. It steals the author’s motivation to continue to write those stories we enjoy. After all, if the bills can’t get paid, families can't be fed, and the author cannot provide a roof over their heads, why do it? Why watch thousands of copies illegally distributed whose royalties could have kept the writer writing basically disappear into thin air?

When all is said and done and the author hangs up their pen, computer, typewriter – whatever media they use to bring a story from their imagination to reality, we all lose.

The thief thinks, “It’s only one copy. What’s one copy?” Yeah, one copy for that thief and the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of other thieves who are thinking the same thing take away from the author and that author’s support staff who helped to put that book into the hands of those thieving, lowlife, waste-of-air, douchebags.

So, here’s a message to those who think “sharing” books is okay. The next time you work your ass off on something you are intensely proud of, I fervently hope that someone comes along and literally and figuratively stomps the result of your efforts to smithereens while you stand and watch. I fervently hope that you come home one day and find everything you treasured stolen or destroyed.

In the meantime, be careful who you invite into your “sharing groups” because we are out there and we know how to use sock accounts and other little tricks to out your sorry asses. And we will out you, shame you, and generally make your lives hell.

Why?

Because Karma is a bitch of the First Order and she’s is kicking ass and taking your names.

Next up: The difference between legal sharing and piracy.