#ppl pretty much unanimously understand that pirating college text books is fine bc they're way too expensive

[arosnowflake]

It irks me so much when otherwise pro-piracy people draw the line at book piracy. Yes artists deserve to be paid for their work, and the money you pay for a book goes to the artist in a more direct way than in much of the video game/TV/movie industry. Having a book do badly absolutely can and does affect the author negatively, so if piracy seriously cuts into a book's sales then that's bad for the author. But also: it's not a lost sale if you couldn't afford to pay for it. That does not suddenly stop being true for book piracy. If the publishing industry makes books prohibitively expensive, you do not get to blame poor people for pirating them anymore than you get to blame poor people for pirating video games, movies, and TV shows.

"Just borrow it from your local library!" not always possible. Not everyone has a local library, can afford a membership to a local library, or can physically access a local library. Get okay with book piracy right now. Poor people have a right to experience art too. The publishing industry and capitalism is your enemy, not poor people pirating books because that's the only way they can afford to read. If you're an author who hates book piracy because you're worried about your bottom line may I direct your rage away from poor people and towards capitalism.