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Talking About...Intellectual Property and Theft: Is downloading of pirated books not stealing?

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How is downloading of pirated books not stealing? Oh, of course, it’s stealing.   Absolutely. As a writer with a couple of self-published books among my credits, I’m incensed when people (mainly males between 16 and 30) try to justify piracy in all sorts of ways. They’ll flatly straight-up tell you that “Piracy isn’t theft” if a person copies a published work (either hard-copy or digital; format doesn’t matter) and distributes it without the author’s permission. Save Me the Aisle Seat book cover. © 2012 Alex Diaz-Granados and CreateSpace (now Kindle Direct Publishing) I don’t think so. It doesn’t matter if the pirate is stealing  my  work for profit or in a “Robin Hood” gesture of taking something from the creator and giving it to those who “can’t pay.” It’s illegal. It’s unethical. Piracy is theft. Simple as that.