Book Blogging and Piracy

I'm hopping into this conversation a little late, but I still think it needs to be addressed. So, as many of you have probably heard an author, Teresa Mummert, was notified by one of her readers about a giveaway in which she received a pirated copy of an ebook. Here's a link to Teresa's post, you may want to read it.


OK, so now you know what happened.

As book bloggers, we sometimes receive books in exchange for honest reviews. However, there is almost always a catch: the book you receive is for your eyes only! Writing is a job - authors deserve to be paid for their work. When someone distributes files that are not supposed to be shared they are pirating and stealing from the author. (FYI: according to merriam-webster, pirating is "the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright")

Now some people might argue that this file sharing is similar to buying a book at the book store and lending it to a friend, but it is NOT the same. First of all, you would have purchased the book, where review copies are given to you for free. Second, if friend A has your book, then you can't lend it to friend B at the same time. Also, if friend A chooses to share your book with friend C without telling you, you would most likely be pretty pissed at friend A. With electronic files, you can share them with as many people as you want at one time and in turn they can share them with as many people as they want and so on and so on. This is stealing! You are sharing something you had no right to share! Kindle readers: ever notice how some ebooks purchased through Amazon are "shareable" and some are not? ever notice how you can only share with one person at a time and for a limited number of days? This is allowed because you purchased the book and it is similar to sharing a physical copy.

Most of us blog about books for a few similar reasons:

1. we love to read
2. we enjoy connecting with authors
3. we like to promote authors and our favorite books

It is essential that you keep this in mind whenever you accept an electronic copy of a book. 

It is also your responsibility to ensure that all electronic copies of books that you receive are done so appropriately (i.e. purchased or gifted through an appropriate website; sent to you by an author, publisher, or promotional company). It is also our responsibility to report incidents in which we may have been given a pirated copy of someone's work.

OK Book Bloggers and followers - now that you know where I stand on this, I hope we are on the same page.