What is piracy? Websters dictionary defines it as, "The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material." Piracy is one of my pet peeves. I recently came across a site that contained hundreds, if not thousands, of e-book downloads of books in their entirety. I was throughly mad to see this. When you distribute e-books or other electronic forms of a publication you violate the intellectual rights of the author. Technology books are on the lower income end of the book spectrum, so it's an even harder hit on the author in this situation. Pirating books equates to stealing hard earned money that is the result of months of research and writing the book. So, before you illegally distribute or download an e-book or other electronic form of a book think of this: How would you like it if you were the author?

What can you do about piracy? If you witness the distribution of illegal e-books, report it to the publisher and/or author.