REPOST 4/24/2007 You're FAMOUS! Not...

No, I'm not going to talk about what I consider famous to mean. I'll save that one for tomorrow or the next day. This is the subject that has me banging my head off the desk.

You know, I know that non-authors and non-publishers just don't get it. I know that a lot of people just don't understand why pirates irritate us. I know that they have the mistaken idea that, on some level, we should be thrilled that we're so popular, people will heist our books. I may have to adopt something of that mindset to avoid getting brain damage while banging my head off of a desk when I get e-mails like this one from dear friends of mine. Now, this woman KNOWS pirates irk me. She's tried to convince me that my books being pirated in the same post with Nora Roberts means something...besides the fact that a pirate is acting. Still, she sends me this.

"I saw another [Usenet] posting recently requesting any books by eXtasy, specifically a tarot series? And in reply there were about a dozen books posted, nearly half of which were yours. You're FAMOUS!!!! People like you, enough to bootleg."

Groaning. I suppose it's better than the other friend, who always asks me if I want bootleg copies of my own books, as a joke, probably to see the bland look I shoot him for it. While I don't doubt that he could probably produce them, I blow it off and remind him, "Honey, I HAVE copies of my own books...legal ones." Of course, considering the fact that his wife is a reader of mine, he could send me her copies, and I wouldn't know if they were legally-bought or not.

My husband said the same thing, "Hey, if they're bootlegging you, they're reading you, and you're getting admirers out of the deal." Doesn't make me feel better, but there's not much to be done about Usenet, unfortunately. Like many servers of their type, they are nearly useless in shutting down illegal trade. It's the sort of place where you could be screaming at them 24/7, because it enables what the pirates do. Not that no one TRIES, mind you, but making headway with them is...problematic.