I ran across this interview the other day and decided to post a link. It’s titled, CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK PIRATE, from themillions.com web site, and I think people on both sides of the book pirate issue might be interested in reading it.

Once again, the person in this interview makes some interesting points. Some of which revolve around a “moral” issue, not a legal issue. Especially when he makes this comment:

In truth, I think it is clear that morally, the act of pirating a product is, in fact, the moral equivalent of stealing… although that nagging question of what the person who has been stolen from is missing still lingers. Realistically and financially, however, I feel the impact of e-piracy is overrated, at least in terms of ebooks.

To me, personally, speaking as a reader and not a writer, it’s more than a moral issue. It’s a legal issue. Frankly, I believe in the law and I follow the law, whether it be speeding down the highway or downloading an illegal file. For me, there are no gray areas when it comes to the law. The law is the law, I have respect for the law, and I don’t care about the moral ramifications one way or the other. Evidently, though, a lot of people don’t agree with me.

I also found this comment interesting, when the pirate was asked whether or not he worries about getting into trouble for scanning and downloading books:

I’ve debated doing some newer authors and books, but I would need to protect myself better and resolve the moral dilemma of actually causing noticeable financial harm to the author whose work I love enough to spend so much time working on getting a nice e-copy if I were to do so.

Here we go again with the moral dilemma. I’m glad this person at least considers the fact that he is taking money out of the pockets of some very poor people, because new authors rarely have enough money to pay their rent. And when a book they’ve written is pirated every single penny taken from them causes noticeable financial harm. I know some authors who become physically and emotionally sick over it. Actually, the statement, “noticeable financial harm” sounds rather glib to me. Who is this guy to judge what constitutes noticeable financial harm to anyone?

Anyway…if you’re interested in this topic, please check out the link above and read the entire interview. I’m not weighing in with any specific opinions and I encourage anonymous comments. This is partly because I think everyone seems to have a different opinion about book pirating these days, and partly because I’m struggling to come to terms with this myself.