The technical author David Flanagan has <a href="http://www.davidflanagan.com/2011/04/javascript-the-1.html" target="_blank">a frank and moving post</a> which should be read by anyone who thinks book theft has no effect on its victims, those who write the material being stolen.

Flanagan is the first to admit that, like all other authors, it's impossible to put a figure on how much piracy has cost him (though it's obviously something). But having your work stolen is about more than money. It's like having some faceless thief come in and steal a part of the life you've devoted to producing that book in the first place.

He expresses this dispiriting sense very well, citing how links to ripped-off copies of his ebook seem to relentless come up ahead of genuine ones in Google.

But beyond the non-quantifiable financial impacts, I can report that, to me, the piracy of my books is profoundly discouraging. When my Ruby book came out in 2008 I was sad to discover that pirated copies were available within a week or so of the book's release. When my jQuery pocket reference came out earlier this year, I was shocked to discover that Google was giving the ebook download sites higher placement than reviews of the book. And now JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is out. I don't have a copy of it yet, but illegal copies are free for anyone who wants one. And Google will suggest those illegal downloads to anyone who tries to research the book (see the screenshot). I've worked really hard on this book, and I've got to say that this just feels like a kick in the gut.

Flanagan's not the only one to feel this way and he's an experienced author. Imagine the reaction of a first-time writer who's slaved and struggled for years... only to find their first book getting ripped off the moment it appears. And the dregs who do this have the nerve to tell you, 'We’re advertising your work, dude. Your problem's not piracy... it's obscurity.'

Congratulations to David Flanagan for exposing this puerile nonsense. For fifteen years he's been a working author living off nothing but books. Thanks, in part at least, to piracy he's now looking for a job. If he can't afford to write another volume of his clearly popular and compendious guide to web technology