I found out last week that some of my books were on a piracy site. It was a strange experience. I had just read another authors blog (badredhead media) on handling pirates. It got me paranoid, like one tends to get late at night when you should be sleeping. So I did a google search. And there, on page three, was one of my books advertised on a site I had never heard of. I’m not going to say which, I don’t want to give them any promotions, but I clicked on it.

And my antivirus software immediately alerted me that the site tried to download malware onto my computer. Another reason I’m not sharing the link. The site seemed legitimate, with links to my actual buy links on Smashwords and Barnes & Noble, but nowhere did it say ‘buy’ my ebook, but download. And there, beneath the buy links, was a link to do just that—pirate my intellectual property.

It irked. It still irks me. I put a lot of effort in making my works, and to see someone else giving them away bothered me. And they may not even be giving my stuff away, but using my works to trick people into downloading virus to steal their personal information. That download link didn’t contain my book, but an .exe program, supposedly a downloader, but how can you trust a site such as this? I didn’t download it to find out. But I did send them a cease-and-desist letter. Which they’ve ignored so far.

Seeing my work being stolen, made me think of all the times that I had downloaded mp3s or pirated software ten, fifteen years ago when I was in High School and my early twenties. Back then, I never even hesitated. I always rationalized it as I would never buy it, so how was I stealing anything from them. They weren’t getting my money either way. And it hit me, the people pirating my works would never bother to buy them from me, and while I may not be thrilled about my works being pirated, I can take comfort (whether it’s real comfort or just self-delusion) that the pirates weren’t going to buy it anyways.

If you want to learn some helpful tips on how to deal with piracy, click here, which includes a sample cease and desist letter.

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