The pirates really don't like it if you happen to speak out in public about their nasty thieving habits. I've been quoted in the media twice this week about book theft and, hatemail and abusive comments on the web site apart, there are other consequences.

Here's one... <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1TMYUHMWX7UBN/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1TMYUHMWX7UBN" target="_blank">someone posting a one-star 'review' of <em>The Fallen Angel</em> on Amazon UK</a>. They don't even claim to have read the book . They just want to give it one star so the ratings go down and have their say which is...
<blockquote>Hewson was complaining in The Metro about eBook piracy, yet the Kindle edition of this book is almost the same price as the hardback. He needs to wise up a bit and get a grasp on reality. Paying more for a couple of MB of data, that costs little to publish or distribute, than for a real, printed, book, is a rip-off. Before complaining about "thieves", he should put his own house in order.</blockquote>
Is that a book review? Is the poster even aware that authors write books, they don't publish or price them? What exactly is the house that I'm supposed to be putting in order?

Nor is this just directed at me. The 'reviewer' concerned calls himself Disgruntled. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ADZWHTPSAL2W3/ref=cr_cm_rdp_pdp_see_all?ie=UTF8&amp;sort_by=MostRecentReview" target="_blank">If you follow the link to all three of his 'reviews' here you'll find this...</a>

<a href="http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-22-at-08.30.14.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-8230" title="Screen shot 2011-04-22 at 08.30.14" src="http://davidhewson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-22-at-08.30.14-640x655.png" alt="" width="635" height="649" /></a>

All 'one-star' reviews. Not one of them claiming to have read the book.

Amazon's review system is a bit of a joke, I know. But really -- getting marked down over pricing by an individual who hasn't even read the book... Someone at Amazon HQ should be thinking about this. You can't review an app on Apple's app store if you haven't bought it. Why doesn't Amazon bring in the same rule for items, not just books but everything, on its own site?