I have a bunch of ego searches set up for things like my name and links back to this blog. One of those searches is for my name on Twitter. Last week, this result appeared:
“ Interesting” I thought, especially since there was no e-book version of that title I was aware of. So, I clicked the link and found this:
Turns out someone took the time to completely scan and create a PDF of my 2006 book. The site shown above is like a torrent tracker in that it doesn’t host the files, just points to them. According to the site they will remove any pointers at the request of a copyright holder. So, I of course downloaded each of the three copies it pointed to. (Hey, it’s my book, I’m not breaking the law by doing so am I?)
Turns out all three copies are the same, just hosted on different servers. And, I must admit, it’s a really good electronic copy too. Here’s a screenshot of the cover…
…of the copyright page. (Nothing like being a little ironic.)
Looking at the document’s properties I must also say that the quality of the metadata in this file is much better than most PDFs I’ve ever downloaded. (Did they really have to create the file using a Mac? 
Since this first find, I’ve seen two other Tweets pointing to the downloadable version of my book and in all three cases I’ve replied to the tweets and received no responses back.
I’ve has mixed feelings this whole thing. On the one hand, they’re giving away my content for free without my permission. On the other, someone thought my book was worthy of the time and effort it must have taken to scan and convert 289 pages of content. Really, how many other “librarian” titles have you seen pirated? (Then again you may notice that I’m not giving out the URL to the download sites either.)
So, in the end I guess I’m not all that upset. It’s actually kind of flattering. I’m also starting to wonder how I can leverage this into sales of the second edition that I’ll be starting work on hopefully soon. In the end, given how I get most of my TV these days, to complain would be mighty hypocritical of me at least.
