On Internet and Digital Piracy

www.NaBloPoMo.com

One week down, and I have managed to post everyday. Blogging is helping my writing. Especially my level of awareness to life around me.

I spent a couple of hours last night and then another hour this morning looking for a book. The two hours last night only was that long because I kept stopping to look at books I had forgotten about having. I am going to be honest here, and admit to the most delicious addiction to the printed word.

I love books, magazines, newspapers - anything with more than three words strung together that I can read. I do think that there is something about reading that is genetic. I say this because most of the people in my family are readers, the women more consistently than the men. My father in his later years would go to the bookmobile and check-out between five and ten novels at a time. He had a friend by the name of Morris Cyphers who would do the same. They would trade bags of books after a week, thus reading ten or more books each every two weeks.

My maternal grandmother, Ethel Slade, had a collection of Zane Grey novels I read before I was 12. I read "Gone With the Wind"  the summer between the fourth and fifth grades, in less than three days. I read a two-volume 'Collected Works of William Shakespeare' the summer between the seventh and eighth grades.

I have a minimum of ninety-six feet of shelved books currently, and probably another 25 or thirty not shelved. By shelved feet, I mean just that. There are thirteen 3-foot long shelves at various locations in my house and in Roger's workshop currently full of books.

I invested a lot of time and money in my books, and have received education and entertainment from them that is immeasurable. I do not have an e-reader. I will not say I will never have one, the thought of how many books I could own if they were digital is very tempting. I have one downloaded book; a gift from the author.

All of this leads me to share the following link with you : Deep Thoughts from a Book Pirate. As much as I enjoy the written word, I would never, could never, steal a book or a magazine. Any product has cost associated with it, sometimes hidden but still costs. A library is free to the consumer but is supported by someone somewhere (often you the taxpayer). A book is written, proofread, edited and published, as are magazines,photographs, newspapers and songs. People earn a living from their work, their craft, their vocation. 

I have aspirations of being a published writer some day, and like to think that I will be fairly compensated for the work I produce. Internet and digital piracy is no different than walking up to a cashier in a store or a worker in a factory or a nurse in a hospital on payday and taking the paycheck from their hand and walking away. Think about it.