Fuck that site. Offers people links to free PDF downloads of my book that I worked on for 32 years and finally got published by Pantheon Books in 2017. I didn't work all that fucking time for criminals like these to just break copyright law and make the book available for free. Fuck Anna's Archive, and I hope they go down in legal flames ASAP.

I hope you wrote that book more for personal pleasure and fulfillment than monetary gain. Over 32 years, would you have to be a best seller given the price of your book on Amazon (without counting the free audiobook you offer if someone starts a trial) to be making a minimum wage.

If you did that for passion and the book is good, it will definitely have a bigger impact if people can read your stories without having to go through Jeff or a bookstore (many English books are very hard to acquire outside of the US).

So, rejoice in the fact that someone thought your book was worth making available for the few who even know how to use these kind of online libraries (most people in the world don't). Bitterness on loss of revenue is definitely not worth it, especially after having put 32 years of life into it.

Unfortunately I don't really care about 60s US tech "scene" but the cover seems nice.

It may be a minority, but not all authors share your view. Paulo Coelho [1] says “a person who does not share is not only selfish, but bitter and alone”. Sorry gotta say it, your tone matches.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho

I can promise you that the site isn't the reason your book flopped financially. That is just what the vast majority of books do, especially ones on such niche topics.

I'm sorry you feel that way and it's understandable to be frustrated by them allowing piracy of something you've worked so long on.

That being said, do you know if their offering of your material has had a significant impact on your revenue or is it more the principal of the matter?

Well, according to the publicly available stats on annas archive, all versions of your book available there had 177 downloads combined. So it's probably not the end of the world.

This strikes me as a bit ironic, if you're serious, as you list your current work as covering the entirety of the Beatles discography. Are you paying them for the rights?

We could hold all the following thoughts simultaneously...

• Anna's Archive is a delightful resource for readers

• the more widely the public reads, the better for society

• copyright law should be changed

• it would be good if society made it easier for authors to make a living

• some authors will rightfully feel exploited to have free copies of their works distributed illegally and without their permission

...or we could collapse under the cognitive dissonance, and lash out at @brianstorms instead.

I wonder if the people who downloaded it for free (has anyone actually done so?) would have ever paid for it.

I think they shouldn’t publish books which are fairly new. Hurts the authors…

I never heard of the site. But looking at it now, I can't see how it's anything else other than piracy.

I looked up one of my favorite authors ( https://annas-archive.org/search?q=scott+sigler ) and you can download practically his lifetime's worth of work in 5 minutes. This is not some author who lived 200 years ago - he is living and writing books now and this is his livelyhood.

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Cultures are created to protect power structures. Culture is the enforcer of authority.

Culture distorts principles in order to defend the authority of evil. Culture must convince you that it is not wrong when law subjugates your worth and destroys your freedom. Culture convinces people of this by perverting the concept of morality. Morality is liberty. Immorality is evil. The exercise and defense of freedom are moral. The destruction of freedom is immoral. This is the pure truth of morality.

Prudence is the proper application of principle. Imprudence is foolishness. Prudence is not morality. It is not immoral to kick a heavy stone with your bare foot, but it would probably be foolish. Prudence is a question of applying the principles and wisdom you have gathered in your life to achieve the goals you have for yourself. This is made possible by liberty. Without liberty, prudence is meaningless. Morality must come before prudence.

The great lie of culture is that authority is not bound by morality, and that authority can enforce its own prudence upon you. The great lie of culture is that you are worth less than law. Cultures teach that intentions of prudence can be enforced by law. In this fashion they gain excuse to control the lives of people.

In order for people to learn, grow, and find happiness, people must be free to test their understanding of principles. With freedom, they can do this by a process of faith, trial and error. In this fashion children grow from immaturity to maturity. In this fashion human beings gain wisdom.

Cultures are agents of evil. The objective of evil is the damnation of your ability to grow strong in wisdom. The objective of evil is the destruction of your worth. In order to gain control over you, culture spreads the lie that authority is not bound by morality. It teaches that authority can destroy freedom at will, and claims prudence as the reason you should willingly submit. In the name of defending you, culture claims that the destruction of freedom is morality. Cultures pretend that evil is good and that good is evil.

Prudence can be found all around you. It is found in the choices you make every day. Even when a mistake is made, you learn prudence. Prudence cannot be enforced. To enforce prudence is law. Law is lie. Without the freedom to choose, you cannot learn prudence. You cannot be happy.

Morality can be found all around you. Wherever you find it, you will find joy. Wherever you find immorality, you will find misery. Culture enforces authority by destroying freedom with law. This is immorality.. - The End of all Evil, Jeremy Locke

You have invested in an idea that has been created by power structures through culture, that you are getting harmed by someone else's freedom. The people that will/want to support your work will do so out of a desire to do so, not because law says its right.

Many people are deceived that law breakers are immoral and harmful to society, but I don't think that's the case. Most laws are created to subjugate people, (I.E, take away there agency) Law's created by power structures which are ultimately designed to benefit the creators or supporters have done a very good job and convincing the subjugated that their interests align. Those that have been deceived by a system of laws that benefit the powerful are too invested in demanding a return for their efforts. What ever happened to the priority of making the world a better place first and foremost and having faith that you will be compensated in some fashion for your efforts?