Burn that Pirated Version!!

Piracy in any form is hideous and should not be encouraged – thats my opinion and belief and I have always stood by it. Therefore, its no wonder if my blood boils or I cringe at the thought of pirated books being sold the minute after they hit the stands and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Its not about feeling sorry about the author or the royalty that he/she does not receive, however it is clearly about feeling sorry for the written word. The very word that gets pirated. The word that is someone’s creation, someone’s hardwork and certainly someone’s baby. As much I hate Fahrenheit 451 ever becoming a reality, I support the idea of setting fire to pirated books.

I pass by every station in Bombay and every nook and corner and there they are – staring at me from their fake covers and bad quality paper and it is readers who propagate the idea of piracy by actually buying these books for only a sole reason – lesser price! Some people go a step further and say, “after all its all about reading right? what has quality got to do with it!”…This very attitude is the start of such a business prospering and reaching this far.

Piracy is blasphemous to the religion of reading and collecting books. I almost thought of picking a pirated version of “Freakanomics” the other day from Sion Station. Thank God I did not. I agree that the pirated copies are sold purely on the basis of price and that books these days have become very expensive commodities and reading – an expensive hobby [As my mother would put it], nonetheless it will probably not do any good for the writers…Imagine your blog being reproduced word for word…