<a title="Another insight into how book thieves work" href="http://davidhewson.com/2011/02/another-insight-into-how-book-thieves-work/">I'm used to the idea</a> that book thieves -- who like to think of themselves as 'pirates' or even 'file sharers' -- use web groups to disseminate their stolen wares. Now it seems they are spreading their efforts to grab money for their theft through Twitter. Here's an astonishing example that hit me in the face this morning.

Like many people in the media I keep track of mentions of my work through a fixed Twitter search pane, in my case through Hootsuite. For the last couple of years this has usually brought up a list of reviews, reader comments and other useful material. When I turn on the Mac this morning I find this instead...

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7998" title="Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.06.35" src="http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.06.35.png" alt="" width="357" height="964" />

All top seventeen search results on my name (more actually but my screen couldn't accommodate them) are links to ripped off ebooks of my work. And naturally each one of those links will try to push the people who follow them into taking out paid-for subscriptions so they can thieve away to their hearts' content...

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7999" title="Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.14.52" src="http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.14.52-640x551.png" alt="" width="635" height="546" />

The scale of media theft is frankly astonishing these days. I spoke to one colleague in the book business who was just back from a trip to Asia, trying to build book sales there. He said that he spoke to people <em>in the book business</em> who habitually set up their computers each night to download ripped-off music, videos, software... anything they like. A culture in which all digital material is regarded as 'free' -- or at least available by paying for bandwidth through digital fences such as the one above -- seems to be prevalent.

How many of the people ripping off books this way would have bought them if pirate copies weren't available? That's anyone's guess. But I know of two middle-aged, middle-class seemingly respectable Brits who see nothing wrong in getting their books, music and video this way. Not that they'd ever nick something from a supermarket, mind. That would be dishonest, wouldn't it?

As to the piracy boom on Twitter... is there anything you can do? Will Twitter bar these people for trying to sell stolen goods through their channels? This is how my Twitter search feed used to look before the thieves parked on the lawn...

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8002" title="Screen shot 2011-04-12 at 08.21.22" src="http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-12-at-08.21.22.png" alt="" width="346" height="817" />