A Pirate By Any Other Name

Is a thief. I'm talking about e-pirates, people who illegally upload things like movies, music and books to file sharing sites to that other people can download them without paying.

The dirty bottom line is piracy is stealing. No matter what country it happens in. No matter who does it. I've heard arguments for it like the particular book isn't available in the country of the person who wants to read it. My answer? Then you don't get to read the book. Don't ask me questions like "Would I steal to feed my family?" and "Would I steal to provide them life-saving medicine?" to try to show me that everyone's willing to steal. Those questions don't really compare to "Would I steal for a few hours enjoyment?" do they? It's not the same thing. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Authors are often told that piracy isn't lost sales or that people who download one book illegally often go out and buy the whole backlist when they discover a new author. Really? Authors have stopped writing series because piracy has gotten so bad. I know at least two that I could name. Who knows how many more didn't get another contract because of lost sales and dwindling sales numbers? And it doesn't matter if you're print published or epublished, you'll be pirated just the same. Ask JK Rowling - the Harry Potter books have never been released in eform and yet her books are some of the most heavily pirated.

I'm a small fish in a very large pond when it comes to being pirated, but I know authors who've seen hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads on their books.

Ebooks aren't the death of publishing. The epirate is. What do you think should be done about epiracy?

Breakin The Law in YA Novels

I just finished reading Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, a brilliant YA novel that has these wonderful, compelling characters and a dark, magnetic storyline. I was so hooked. Have you read this novel? If not, go run to the bookstore and get it right now. Then, come back here. I'll wait. haha

Anyway, in Sweethearts, there was an element of stealing, which played into the heroine's persona, her view on life, her struggles, etc.

Even though I've read a lot of YA, I haven't run across stealing, or other crimes being broken, in books a lot. The biggest one I see is drinking--in Amanda Marrone's Uninvited, alcoholism is a rampant problem. And in Jennifer Echols' Going Too Far, there's lots of lawbreaking, which is pretty much the purpose of the story. LOL. But then again, it's not like my friends and I got the old "five-finger discount" or went to wild drinking parties when we were in high school, so I wasn't exactly looking for it. I was very much a goody-two-shoes and would never have dreamed of shoplifting or getting drunk.

In fact, the only memory I have of stealing was when I was, like, 5 years old--I think I'd stolen a pencil, or a small piece of candy or something. My mom saw what I did and marched me back in the store to give it back and apologize to the clerk. I was mortified when I realized what I'd done was wrong and that I was in big trouble.

Have you read any YA books that have stealing (or some other crime) as part of the plot? Does it bother you to read about teens committing crimes, or do you consider that to be part of the realism of YA? When you were a teen, did you ever, um, "liberate" anything? haha.

Very Bad People

We all know there are very bad people out there in the world, but how often are we REALLY faced with it? I mean, I see stupid people all the time, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad. haha

Yesterday, I realized I had truly encountered a very bad person. See, I was balancing my checkbook by reviewing my statement online when I saw a bill for over $700 sent to paypal a couple of days ago.

Well, seeing as how I was in San Francisco at the time and would therefore NOT have done this, I was instantly suspicious. Sure enough, I logged into Paypal and saw that some butthole had hacked into my Paypal and used it (and thus, MY checking account) to buy a product off ebay.

I felt sick to my stomach. Violated. I mean, over $700 gone out of my account. Thankfully, I have some reserves I can tap into until that $$ is credited back to my checking account, but what if I hadn't? I have bills to pay, kids to feed...and even if I didn't, that's MY hard-earned money!

To the scumbag who stole my money: I am ashamed of you. You are a terrible person, and I know that karma comes back around, big time. When you hurt people like this, you can't get away with it for long. I've also taken every bit of strength and focus within me to put the biggest curse on you possible, so when bad things happen to you, you have me to thank. haha.

Will this scare me off using Paypal in the future? Honestly, I don't know. My instant reaction was to close my account. I still may do so, but I'm going to seriously evaluate my options. I hate having to operate out of fear like this, and I don't want to be rash.

To everyone reading this entry, make sure to change the passwords for your paypal/online accounts frequently (in fact, I think there's some sort of key option you can buy for extra security with paypal--I may be looking into it). Also, check your banking account frequently to ensure all charges are actually valid.

Please, protect yourself against very bad people!