“Before you click that download link at a torrent site or megaupload or sendspace ask yourself one question. If I was in a bookstore, would I just drop this book in my purse and walk out of the store? Because that is exactly what you are doing when you download a book without buying it.” So says Delilah K. Stephans in a blog entitled “Think before you download”.

It’s easy to talk theoretically about crime as long as nobody puts a face on the victim. Stephans puts a face on a victim of e-piracy and it’s her own.

“My book sells for $2.99 of that I make just over a dollar on every sale. So if say 50 people download the book those 50 people have reached into my wallet and removed a $50. What if it was a hundred? A thousand? Now, ask yourself would I reach in a stranger’s pocket and take a fifty? Of course you wouldn’t. Recently a fellow author found his book on a pirate site – there were 150 downloads. That’s 150 books or in his case $300.00 that was stolen from him.”

The author asks, “Do I think you are evil if you pirate a book? Of course not.” But why not, Ms. Stephans? Last time we looked, stealing was a breach of the eighth commandment. Some may shrug off e-piracy as a misdemeanor, but there is no footnote for “Thou Shalt Not Steal” distinguishing between e-books and bank vaults.

So, we support Ms. Stephans’s admonition: “Before you click that download button – consider the money you are pulling out of the author’s wallet.”

RC