Now I\u2019m not talking about old fashioned pirates with an eye patch and skull and crossbones, although the people I\u2019m talking about probably should be made to dress like that as part of their punishment. I\u2019m talking about the many thousands of people who steal books, artwork, photographs etc on the Internet. When you start to use words like stealing and theft it makes people sit up and take notice and realise it is serious, but those same people seem to think nothing of downloading films, music and books from sites where the content is shared for free illegally. I\u2019m sure we\u2019d all like to have thousands of music tracks available to listen to regardless of whether we can afford to pay for them \u2013 but contrary to what people say, someone does get hurt by those actions. The artist, writer, film maker etc that does not earn their royalties won\u2019t be able to continue working to produce more music, art etc if they can\u2019t afford to live. It is theft, pure and simple. My Mistress found one of her books on a site where people were talking about how good it was and how to download it ILLEGALLY for free. She had to jump through hoops to get it removed, which was a waste of more of her time. Some people use the argument that when it is something like a film from a big company then it\u2019s all right as they will still make enough money, but the truth is they don\u2019t. Films cost a lot to make and film companies are having to lay off staff because they aren\u2019t earning enough from films and a lot of that is because of the Internet. If piracy continues at these levels the quality of art and entertainment will be reduced by it and everyone will suffer.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thinking, these crimes need to be more vigorously enforced amongst the ordinary people who are doing the downloads and that suitable punishments should include things such as having to walk the plank (although I draw the line at my Mistress\u2019s suggestion of it being over a pool of sharks \u2013 or being publically put in the stocks so that the artist whose work has been stolen can throw rotten fruit at them). Somehow we need to get people to understand that they are committing a crime every time they do it and it does matter.<\/p>\n
Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book as well as our other books are available HERE<\/a><\/p>\n You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"