[Pulpmeister]

On piracy, the issue does get confused by what is I think excessively broad usage of the word.

Book piracy used to mean unauthorised publishing, for profit, without paying royalties to the author. The publisher was the pirate. The punter buying the book in a shop was unlikely to know, or even understand, and was not a pirate.

In digital publishing, it is sometimes easier to know, if you're reasonably sophisticated, whether a book is a pirate publication or a legitimate one. But many who buy and pay on-line would have no idea, and indeed no interest. ("I paid for it so it must be OK"). The pirate publisher takes advantage of that ignorance.

It is quite a bit different when the author is very well known and current, and the book is on a free site. Even the dimmest of punters must guess that something is not right, and must be knowingly downloading a pirated book. That makes them, I guess, knowing receivers of stolen property, but still not pirates.

Unless of course legislation has widened the meaning of piracy, which I don't know. (Too many countries, too many laws.)

After all, when I buy some much-hyped toys -- say for example an R2-D2 pencil box -- for a kid for Christmas, how can I tell if it is pirated or legit? The fact that I'm buying it in a big store suggests it's legit. Do I have to do research (and how would I go about it?) before buying?

There's a new model of music marketing developing: give the music away free in the first instance; make your money on yourself as a brand, through tours, merchandise, and advertisements hosted on your websites/facebook/etc. The music is in effect the advertising for the muso and the mechandise. Your fans aren't being thought thieves for getting free downloads, either. You are protecting them.

Harder to translate into the book world, I agree. Somehow I can't see myself making a fortune out of Pulpmeister T-shirts, and I couldn't sell out a phone booth for a live tour.

I must think about that Pulpmeister T-shirt idea a bit more....