Daily Dose of Common Sense

A friend of mine is an author of some computer software books, and he recently told me about his biggest current headache. He spends three to four hours a week chasing down Web sites that post illegal copies of his books. So, three to four hours a week GONE while trying to protect his intellectual property that some other bozos are giving away for free.

If you haven’t written a book, it’s not easy. It takes many, many days and a lot of mental anguish. I know this particular author spent months away from his day-to-day job, his family, his friends, and his life while writing his two books. And yet, some folks think it’s okay to rip it off and offer free digital downloads of the content. So, each week, my friend writes to the various sites to demand they take his book down. So far, all have complied and there’s been no need to hire Arnold T. Pants, Esquire at Law. But, it’s a shame that any author would need to spend so much time on these intellectual property pirates.

This brings back memories of the Napster days, when a lot of people wanted free music downloads without offering the artists any compensation. I know we’re all greedy bastards at heart, but this is stealing. There are a lot of artists out there that depend on the revenue generated from their hard work. And, even if they don’t need the money, people still deserve to be compensated for their thoughts and ideas. You think Stephen King wants someone giving his books away for free?

So, don’t download books for free. There, I said it.

**Shameless Plug Alert! Here are links to my friend’s books. If you need to learn Flash or ActionScript, he’s here to help!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.