Where was I?
So, the other day...
It was a weird day. I caught this really huge and scary centipede, and then I discovered a gigantic bee hive was being constructed right outside the French doors on my office deck (Sorry, bees. You can't live there. Well, let's just say they're not living there anymore. I wonder if bees can turn into zombies.) I should put pictures of the massive centipede and the even more massive hive of dead bees here. (By the way, I did not kill the bees with poison. I hate poison. Never use it, and I have totally organic orchards here. The bees left their earthly existence because I opened up the hive at night and it gets down into the 20s here, even though it is allegedly spring. But we get good cherries.) I had a few nice phone calls from an editor who is in love with a new book of mine, which is nicer than beehives and centipedes; and The Marbury Lens was optioned for film.
But, none of that is what I want to talk about.
Here's what happened, and you'll have to remember that I'm not a mass-follower of anything, which accounts for my Bieber-Friday-Winning-and-Every-Show-That's-Ever-Been-on-TV stupidity.
Someone, obviously trying to be mean -- trying to be a bully (which, I really don't care if people pick on me because nobody picks on me as relentlessly as I do) -- came up to me and said:
Oh... you know, all of your books are on FrostWire. I downloaded all of them...
...and then, the person added:
and they SUCK.
Well, I don't really care about the "suck" part, because the person who said it is stupid and ugly and has bad teeth. But I was intrigued by this FrostWire thing...
I had no idea what it was.
So I asked some "cool" people.
And, I was, like, fuck that shit.
Getting books off FrostWire, I suppose, is like me coming up to you, ugly dumb person with bad teeth, and saying:
I just made a withdrawal from your checking account...
and then, add:
stupid bee-otch.
But I understand the masses think this FrostWire method of getting anything for free is totally okay, since it's easy to be so anonymous on line, and since "everybody else" is doing it, too.
I imagine most of the people who STEAL SHIT via FrostWire would cringe at the prospect of holding up a liquor store or jackin' some fool's car in the 'hood, but they're totally immune to the consideration of ethics when they STEAL SHIT by using their computer.
Which, kind of, relates to exactly what I was getting at yesterday.
All I can say is, to FrostWire and to everyone who's ever illegally downloaded one of my books over the internet:
I hope you get an intestinal blockage and explode because of all the shit you've got where your soul is supposed to be.
That is all.
10 comments:
Agreed.
Sometimes they will comply with a takedown notice. We've done it a couple of times with various sites, though not this particular one. I'll ask Jake when he finally emerges from his cave and see what he knows.
Thanks, Michael. In looking it up, it seems to be the new iteration of LimeWire.
Fuck them.
Yeah, Jake says it's a bit torrent not a site and beyond the reach of all law or reason.
Yep. Fuck 'em.
huh. I never heard of frostwire before. Well that's not good.
So FrostWire is like the new LimeWire or something?
I wouldn't worry about it TOO much Andrew (that's not to say ignore it, and Michael's advice is probably sound), but I will point out that filesharing of this kind doesn't tend to be as bad as it sounds.
Most people who steal books (or music or movies) over services like this (or bit-torrent) never would have bought the media in the first place, and occasionally will actually end up buying something else of yours in the future.
I'm not trying to say it's okay, because it isn't, and IMHO people who steal shit like that are fucking morons. If you like something enough to want it, why not pay for it? I mean how do you expect that writer/musician/video game designer to make more cool shit if they can't pay their bills?
Also the person you describe is obviously a fool. I've only read one of your novels but the only way you could say it sucked was all the time it sucked away from me because I still can't stop thinking about it. So fuck you FrostWire asshole, go get a clue.
My best friend's boyfriend is the poster child for illegal downloads.
The idea of zombie bees is beyond frightening to me.
Sorry about the Frostwire moron. I've heard rumors that there is a special level of hell that awaits those who illegally download media.
Maybe Frostwire can be my next vendetta, after I get bored with vendettasizing Kirkus and Common Sense Media.
Don't know about zombie bees, but zombie ants.
I've seen others considering the same thing, but I was fascinated by Dan Ariely's exploration of the theft dynamics you're talking about in his book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. A relevant section from the chapter "The Context of Our Character, Part II: Why Dealing with Cash Makes Us More Honest":
When we look at the world around us, much of the dishonesty we see involves cheating that is one step removed from cash. Companies cheat with their accounting practices; executives cheat by using backdated stock options; lobbyists cheat by underwriting parties for politicians; drug companies cheat by sending doctors and their wives off on posh vacations. To be sure, these people don’t cheat with cold cash (except occasionally). And that’s my point: cheating is a lot easier when it’s a step removed from money.
Do you think that the architects of Enron’s collapse—Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew Fastow—would have stolen money from the purses of old women? Certainly, they took millions of dollars in pension monies from a lot of old women. But do you think they would have hit a woman with a blackjack and pulled the cash from her fingers? You may disagree, but my inclination is to say no.
One example: He went into the MIT dorms and put things in student fridges: 6-packs of Coke and plates with 6 one-dollar bills. After 72 hours all the Cokes were gone and none of the money had been touched.
More about the book from me. More about the book from Amazon.
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