“Five times since last May, sheriff’s deputies in Kansas and California have stopped armored cars operated by Empyreal Logistics…seizing a total of $1.2 million, but did not issue any citations or file any criminal charges, which are not necessary to confiscate property through civil forfeiture. That process allows police to pad their budgets by seizing assets they allege are connected to criminal activity, even when the owner is never charged, let alone convicted.”
The police are legitimately the biggest gang in the country.
[ID: Tweet from 7 February 2022 by Read the Dispossessed by Ursula… @ JoshuaPotash that reads: “Uh, this should probably be bigger news.” with a screenshot of a news article tagged “Civil Asset Forfeiture”. The headline reads:
“Kansas and California Cops Used Civil Forfeiture to Stage Armored Car Heists, Stealing Money Earned by Licensed Marijuana Businesses”
The visible body text reads: “The Institute for Justice argues that the seizures violated state law, federal law, and the U.S. Constitution.” /id]
the best thing that we can do right now to fight for abortion rights is donating to your local abortion fund, especially in states with “trigger laws” or laws that will immediately take harsh measures to shut down abortion rights as soon as roe is overturned. If you don’t know your local abortion fund or states with trigger laws, here’s one in Texas,one in Louisiana,one in Georgia,one in West Virginiaandone in Mississippi (all states with such “trigger laws”). There’s so many more beyond the handful i just listed here but times like these are the time to donate and support the incredible work that these organizations do for their communities.
It seems like we’re talking about pirating again because some asshole uploaded an arc to a pirate site before the book was published and the author is now facing a possibility of losing a contract with a publisher.
So here’s are a few reminders:
when you pirate books you help devalue them
you may not have money for books, but authors may not have money to eat, pay their bills, etc.
you are stealing, which is a crime in basically every country in the world
if a book is pirated enough the author loses not only money they could have made on those sales, but also future contracts. so not only are you hurting book sales, you’re literally ruining a person’s career
if you pirate a book that’s part of a series, the publisher may decide not to extend the author’s contract and not buy future books
if you live in a foreign country other than where the book is published and you pirate books, you are hurting not only the authors but the chances of ever having more books published in your country, because the decision of a publisher to ever publish in your country is based on the sales and piracy rates
If you live in the US and pirate foreign books, just remember that the amount of published foreign books is very tiny, and you’re helping make it even smaller
no books shouldn’t be free because they take a ton of labor and resources to produce and are a business.
It doesn’t matter if you decide to buy the book later, you still helped contribute to piracy numbers
Also please refrain from telling people to go to the library to get their books. Many places, even in the United States, don’t have libraries or don’t have free libraries, so it’s really moot point.
Just remember that you don’t have to read the latest release or popular books. There are plenty of other reading materials. And if you really value books and reading, maybe don’t devalue them by stealing.
I would literally rather send people PDFs of my book for free on an individual basis than have them upload it to a piracy site. I would rather purchase and mail physical copies of my book to dozens of strangers a week than have them do this. I would rather call libraries in the readers area and ask them to order a copy than have them do this. The first time I saw The Wicker King on a piracy site my heart sank. I’m a debut author, my sales at the time determined whether I would continue to even get to BE an author. Please just… if you want to read something, reach out to the author. They might help you find a way.
