Authors Fight Free Books
Authors like Britain’s JK Rowling are up in arms over California-based internet site Scribd.com. The site claims to be ‘the most popular literary site in the world‘ and supplies its viewers with free downloads of many major books, including many of Rowling’s famed “Harry Potter” series. The site supplies its monthly volume of 55 million viewers with links to free copies of major books, similar to surfthechannel.com and other third party free download websites. When asked to respond to the existence of these linked sites, Rowling’s spokesperson stated actions were being taken against them. I think it is a sad commentary that after the digital music battles of a decade ago, even reading has been taken from the hard copy to the computer screen. At least Amazon’s Kindle is portable, hand held, and while not as rich and inviting as a worn old book, at least a little more interactive and less mind numbing than hitting the scroll button.
