Evidently, there’s been quite an uproar over what Astatalk did last week regarding fiction. I’ve read about it in a few places and a good friend who is a literary agent sent me an e-mail about it last Thursday.

Over the past year or so, I’ve taken a step back with regard to all things related to book pirates, file sharing, and even Astatalk. I’ve even written updates to previous posts, stating that I’m more interested now in learning why people pirate books (or anything), and that I’d like to continue to learn by encouraging their anonymous comments and protecting their privacy. There’s been an interesting, ongoing discussion on this particular post I wrote a while ago.

And just so everyone knows this for certain, don’t blame me if Astatalk won’t let you download fiction anymore. I haven’t filed an abuse form, made a single complaint, or written a negative post about book pirating or Astatalk in well over a year. I decided, after reading many of the comments to my pirate posts, to remain objective about the entire topic, making only one claim, which is that I personally do not, and never will, pirate books or anything else myself. Whatever decision Astatalk made, or whatever prompted them to make this decision, had nothing to do with me. I’m just one small writer in a large sea of many, and I don’t have that kind of power.