Pirate my books, please

"In the former Soviet Union, in the late Fifties and Sixties, many books that questioned the political system began to be circulated privately in mimeographed form. Their authors never earned a penny in royalties. On the contrary, they were persecuted, denounced in the official press, and sent into exile in the notorious Siberian gulags. Yet still they continued to write.

Why? Because they needed to share what they were feeling. From the Gospels to political manifestos, literature has allowed ideas to travel and even to change the world. I have nothing against people earning money from their books; that’s how I make my living. But look at what’s happening now. The publishing industry is trying to have laws brought in against “intellectual piracy”. Depending on the country, the “pirate” — that is, the person disseminating art on the Internet — could end up in jail. And how do I feel about this? As an author, I should be defending “intellectual property”, but I’m not. Pirates of the world unite and pirate everything I’ve ever written!"

More: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/editorial/op-ed/pirate-my-books-please-663

Publishing is a matter of choice; writing is not (at least not for many writers).

Just why writers write?

Thrillers, Suspense, Espionage, Conspiracy: SPYWRITER.com

Paolo Coelho scores riches through piracy

Author Paolo Coelho finds riches in piracy:

"His view is that letting people swap digital copies of his book increases sales. He gives this example of his experience in the Russian market where his books sold a mere 1,000 copies. He uploaded the Russian translation of his copy and the sales went up from 1,000 to 10,000 and more.

Once he found this avenue he says he set up his own site called ‘The Pirate Coelho’. He went to BitTorrent and got all his pirated editions and put them on his site. “Since then, my books have sold about 140 million copies worldwide,” he noted in his article.

According to him this gives a reader the possibility of reading your book and choosing whether to buy it or not."

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/189585/20110730/paulo-coelho-piracy-books-authors-the-alchemist.htm