Damn Pirates!

Here I was. Playing a little 2/5 No Limit waiting for the 5/10 to open up. The guy next to me says; "I've been reading your book. Really good."

"Thanks," I said. It really is nice to hear from a satisfied reader. "Did you get the iTunes version or did you order the book through Amazon?" I continued, trying to get a sense of which form of the book is most popular.

"Well," he says sheepishly, "I've been reading it on line."

"The Kindle version?" I ask skeptically. Something wasn't right.

"Well," he says after a delay. "Actually I found a copy on line and I've been reading it off my computer."

"A pirated copy of my novel, Poker Slam?" I was truly surprised.

"Yes. But I knew you from this poker room. I decided I wasn't going to read it anymore off this site. I'm going to order the book from Amazon. Or I'll buy a copy from you if you have one on you?"

"No, but I can bring one in next time."

This was quite a shock to me. I thought pirates only went after the rich music artists and their fat cat record label. You figure those guys make so much money anyway, a few traded copies on the Internet couldn't hurt anything. But now I must admit that my view has changed.

It really isn't fair that struggling artists and writers work long and hard on their art at no pay and then when they finally get it published, people just distribute a single copy over and over by way of the Internet. Now I can understand both sides of the issue. If it's there, why not grab it for free. No one is going to catch you. And its so easy. But if we continue down this road, artists will be unable to make a living and create all this great art that we love.

Anyway, I hope you think about the poor uncompensated artist when you consider downloading a pirated copy of a book, movie, song or other art form. We need to keep the artists going. Life without their products is a life much less interesting. If we could only get rid of the damn pirates, then no one would be tempted.