#1 – Seems a tornado paid a visit to my area. That was fun. I was in the basement thinking there was a hurricane outside since my ears were popping as wind whipped past my winds. Nothing damaged around me but some people had felled trees and such. That was interesting.
I lost power around 1:30AM and just called it quits and went to bed. The power people said it would be on by 11AM but I didn’t stick around to find out. Suffice to say, it was back on by the time I got home around 6PM. I’m happy.
#2 – Astatalk, Zippyshare, Multiupload, Mirror Creator, 4Share, et al are NOT legal vendors of my books. My books are NOT free. There is NO such thing as a complimentary read of my book. If you didn’t win a copy in a contest and you didn’t pay for it, then you have stolen from my publisher and from me. It’s just that simple. You are an internet communist.
Before someone gets their tighty whiteys in a bunch, communism is defined by Mirriam-Webster online as “a theory advocating elimination of private property” and “a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed”. And defined as “a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless society structured upon communal ownership of the means of production and the end of wage labour and private property” by Wikipedia online who annotated their information as coming from Columbia Encyclopedia 2008.
This IS the correct definition of the word communism. The above definitions are the very SAME words many people use to excuse their illegal activity when downloading stuff they know they should be paying for and then claiming I’m being greedy because such actions upset me.
You who download my books through illegal means and especially you who facilitate this by uploading my books in the first place are NOT a pirate. That word is too good for you and makes you feel like you might be the next Johnny Depp or some other such nonsense. You are in fact an INTERNET COMMUNIST.
You are not my fans. I’m not grateful to you at all. A TRUE fan knows success of an individual in ANY career field is measured by monetary gain. We know this is true because of Forbes world’s richest people list. Since my name is NOT on that list, I canNOT afford to lose what little money I gain from the sale of my books. An amount made that much smaller each time someone decides to go to an internet communist rather than paying for their entertainment.
I quite agree. Pirated books don't help put food on the table, or keep a roof over your head, see the kids through college or pay for medications when needed – all of which we expect because we work for money like anyone else! Not one of the trolls on the various forums would work for free, yet they expect authors to do so.