Hold on… have I just jumped ship from piracy to a religious discussion. No, what I mean is that items of importance have been taken and used to suit the needs of the taker.

Come again…Someone had taken ‘something’ and used it for a purpose that it was not intended to be, let alone be taken in the first instance. In law, we call it appropriation.

Piracy happens all the time.
But is it all bad?
And we have all done it at some point? Plus, everyone else does it, so why not me?

Before I get into my opinion, and note that this is my opinion, and I would welcome yours in the comments below, let me own up to watching pirate movies.

Between the ages of 8 and 14, it was not uncommon for a VHS movie to be played of poor dire quality with crackling sound. But then, it didn’t matter if the quality sucked; it was a recently released movie, or even better, one that was not out in the UK yet. Wow! Then came the recording of music from another tape; again win, win, win. By 2000, the Internet was booming, and the downloading of music, videos, etc was an inter-global franchise with no buy-in required.

Since the age of 15, I started thinking more about the rights and wrongs of society, and one that touched a nerve with me was piracy of other people’s work. Believe me, I was a loner back than, and was often perceived as ‘abnormal’ for not embracing piracy.

The reason for why I stopped then is the same as it is now. I do not steal.

Of course, there are many that will say, “Yes I do not steal, but I don’t see the big deal about downloading movies, eBooks and music. It’s not exactly stealing per se.”

Well, actually it is… When you plagiarise, copy someone’s work, download music, etc, you are taking someone’s hard work for free. Would you be content if someone took a song that you created, broke your heart over and spent your life savings on, and distributed it across the internet for free?

And still some will say, “Yes, but we are talking about millionaires. They have made their riches. Sod them.”

Oh, right. Just because they have made their money, we can bend the term ‘stealing’.

For authors, piracy of your eBook has been deemed to be a ‘winning scenario’ because interest can be generated in ‘free-advertising’. I do not want to get into that argument, but I am concerned that many authors would be deeply upset if they lost out on income because a shrewd downloader hacked and re-distributed their novel. Even worse, their work being sold under an alternate name.

This does happen, and it is still stealing.

At work, someone gladly announced how they have purchased 5,000 eBooks off eBay for a measly low sum, and their content included all of the Harry Potter books. Erm… hang on, they aren’t available as eBooks unless you are hooked into Pottermore.

The person’s reply; “Who cares, I have them and I have so much more.”

And that’s just it. Because the author is mega-rich, it doesn’t matter how you got it.

I differ greatly because, in Manchester 2004, 23 low-paid workers died in appalling conditions when seeking cockleshells for gang-masters. When the police raided some of their homes, they found that most were behind a large network of providing pirate movies onto the Internet.

Some will say; “Yes, but I get mine off a sharing site and that has nothing to do with criminal kingpins.”

Really… and how sure are you of that?

Now, let me return to the Harry Potter eBooks… I am going to assume that someone has re-typed the novel to make them distributable. Now who would have done that? A student? A retired person who is finger quick? Or maybe, a low paid, beaten, abused individual in a third-world country. I don’t know, but what if the latter were true?

Do you still not care how that eBook came to be?

When someone makes a movie, a song, a book, an image, then a part of them is plugged into it. And for that, they deserve to receive an income. Forget who is rich or poor. If they have worked for it, they deserve something for it.

If we take without caring for how it got there, then we can’t complain when someone takes something personal of yours.

We take products off the millionaires because they have more than we do.

• People break into homes because they want what you have, and in their eyes, you have more than they do.
• Suddenly people will shout; “No, this is not the same. Breaking into homes is a far more serious crime.”

Really?

Stealing is stealing.

What is not rightfully yours can never be yours.

I work hard for what I do. And if I ever get published, I do not want my hard-work, or the money I have invested in editing, critiquing, setting up a website and using every spare moment of time… to be abused.