Stealing Books
There is a website allegedly operated by ill-intentioned Russians, the boogeymen of online shady activity. This entity cycles through domains rapidly. When you visit, you’re likely to see an FBI notice informing you the website has been seized for illegal activity.
Sometimes, a group selfie of four individuals with their faces blurred is displayed alongside a photo of a boat, a lake house and a recreational vehicle. These photos have the intended effect, the blurred faces are eerily void of information, the red text on the FBI warning generates thrill, fear, judgement.
I think “What kind of people would run a criminal enterprise like this?” while wondering what illicit activities are financed through this website. Then I log in and steal ten books at once until I have reached my download limit.
The book website evangelises piracy, framing themselves as fighters for the cause of free knowledge sharing, education even. When a book isn’t available you are shown a quote telling you to beware of ‘those who withhold information’.
The ‘those’ in question might be law enforcement but the quote would feel at home in a a conspiracy page on a Facebook group, warning you about People With Too Much Power orchestrating Very Bad Things. Morally speaking, everyone should have access to literacy and reading material, even in prison. Should everyone be compelled to donate a percentage of their books annually?
Downloading Things Online is making a comeback after being relegated to a mildly mysterious activity with imagined barriers to entry; abandoned due to the proliferation of streaming and a lack of mainstream comfort with Big Computer.
Ethical dilemmas around piracy cite revenue and job losses as ‘cons’ but the culture is unlikely to sympathise with companies making fewer dollars. Fake Gucci bags made Gucci sell more bags. Papers on piracy ethics talk about the infringement on artists’ rights; the chronically online left champions equal respect for the humanities and STEM while framing torrenting as generally good, moral activity. Attention spans are so greatly diminished even the stupid feel like everyone is stupid. There are so many articles about people breaking the social contract via loud FaceTimes in cafes or blaring TikToks on the tube at 7 AM.
The Anglosphere maintains cultural centricity which affects pricing though subscription charges and book prices are mostly adjusted by country. You can’t use Disney+ with a VPN. ExpressVPN costs 1,149 Pakistani rupees monthly and is operated by an Israeli parent company, the owner of which incidentally owns Camden Market. I used to work there.
Ambiguous moral valence makes behaviour intriguing.
It is weird that I stole seven books today and that stealing the physical object ‘book’ from a store feels abhorrent.
The book stealing website lets you have ten a day. Months ago, I accepted an invitation to moderate files to assess value and fitness-for-use. Like most people on the internet, I take more than I give and download almost every day, moderating a handful of uploads once in a blue moon.
The book:trash ratio feels 1000:1 and I’ve never seen bomb-making instructions or extremist doctrine. There is so much absurd material, mostly obscure foreign language novels and self-published drivel (usually Farsi or Arabic). I reject uploads on a technical basis, segmenting things as useless only if the file is illegible. We have a right to read all kinds of things.
Things I want to read are rarely unavailable. Books with striking covers in Waterstones, titles that are part of the literary canon of well-read people, personal recommendations. I write names down and download books most nights.
Here are some statements about authors.
Authors write and sell books for a living. Writing is a profession and a craft. It’s hard to get a good book deal. Being a New York Times bestseller is becoming commonplace. Being published by a well-known entity that feels like it’s always been around is an achievement. Authors pay their bills, they fix their homes up and buy food for their kids with the money they make writing books.
Authors like J.K. Rowling are millionaires and say mean things on Twitter a lot. Men like Neil Gaiman write beloved books and assault people. Book writing has to make someone some money to be worth doing.
One of my best friends has a giant bookshelf organised by color. My dad bought me a new edition of ‘Leaves of Grass’ by Walt Whitman labeled with RRP £15.99. When I m walking around my city I often buy books to encourage myself to flâner, to not be inside all the time. Most books I read suck.
I got Violet Papers Issue 2 for £25 at Shreeji News in Marylebone and bought a matcha latte for £6 right after. Time feels cheaper than money to me but only as regards reading. Reading puts me in a weird mood recently because my taste is changing faster than I can understand it. My essay collection retails for £6.99 on Apple Books, real people paid me £17 for a hard copy because they knew me and the cover was hot pink.
Initially using the website made me uncomfortable. I don’t feel much about it now.
Authors should be able to sell books for money. When the book is bad, which is often, I feel better not having tapped my card or a button on my phone to tell my bank to send some company or person some money for it. I buy physical books I downloaded and read already because I like them; I buy a lot of books written by dead people.
FaceTiming my grandma makes me closer to her in real life. I prefer to read from a screen. The author of the last book I read probably started by typing words in a Pages document just like me doing this blog post.
Sometimes, you should work for free. Jesse Pinkman was my favourite character in Breaking Bad. Being judged by my peers for not compensating people for their artistic efforts would make me uncomfortable. Most AI art is ugly. People linking to their PayPal or Kofi feels tiresome and demanding. I had a well funded Kofi account in 2020. Reading improves my character and makes me a more patient, pleasant participant in the world.
Buy or Take or Need or Must
- Is the author dead or alive?
- Is the author a bad person?
- Is the author big enough to take the hit?
- Is the book good?
- If I met the author, would I tell them I stole the book and had the means to buy it?
- Do I know the author personally?
- What would I do instead of reading this book?
- It’s not just me, right?