To Clarify...

OKay--I've officially decided the whole pirating thing (at least in this case) doesn't chafe all that much, but in order to explain why, I should probably make my position clear on the whole thing.

A. I know any sort of piracy is illegal.
B. I know most of us do it in one form or another--even if it's very very mild.
C. I know that for small presses--as for me the indie--this sort of thing can break us, and it should be taken seriously.

All that being said, I also have some gray area rules that may not make me particularly popular w/many of the writers I know, but I think I can live with them.

A. We lend books all the time to friends.
B. Some of us are organized enough to offer lending libraries. (I am not!)
C. Yes. On a one on one scale, lending an e-book to a friend simply constitutes that: lending to a friend. It is not an attempt to undermine an author or screw a publishing company, it is a courtesy and a way to share resources like paperbackswap.com or booklenders. (One of these places exiled JenB for saying the F-word... not my kind of place, really, but they exist!)
D. While it would be lovely if everyone could afford to buy books, they can't, at least not at the rate some folks read them--and I buy into this gray area.
E. (And this is the biggie.) Reading a book you get for free does not mean you're not going to buy it. I lent my entire collection of J.D. Robb to a friend of mine--and she went out and bought her own. OUr own lovely Dec Rain downloaded Vulnerable, and SHE went out and bought her own (and thanks for the reminder, sweetie) and so on and so on and so on. If we love a book, we will buy more than one copy--even at the expense of other books we want. Given the price of my books is specTACular, this could be the only way the book hits wide distribution. If people love it (and I posted this on the site before it ousted me) hopefully they will buy their own copies, and, hello, a sale has been made that would not have been so before.
F. I know this is true for e-books too--because I have done it!
G. The site that caught my attention was for 'friends only'--I saw it because of a google alert (and the site host promptly kicked my ass out of there) but if this person is offering books to a select group of people? Well, that meets criterion A, right?
H. Yeah, I'm out of letters.

So anyway, I've made my peace with it. Demonoid and Bitorrent can still kiss my ass, but friends helping friends? Not so much to worry about.

In other news?

Supernatural premiers next week. Galad? Knittech? Everybody say ***WWWOOOOTTT*** for angst and veal! I rewatched the season finale tonight. *shivers* I wonder if God wept when he made Jensen Ackles? All that perfection and green eyes... mmmm... Just a thought;-) (I'm pretty sure the Goddess said the same thing I just did-- "*WOOT* Damn, Boy, you did your Godliness PROUD!" )

Oh yes-- The CaveTroll has been watching Nightmare Before Christmas ad infinitum-- he keeps saying "I'm JACK, the Pumpkin King... that's right. I AM the pumpkin king!" And this afternoon when I woke him up (because he fell asleep watching it) I called him 'Bonedaddy' and he gave THE sweetest smile. I may make THAT his nickname, if I can get it to stick, because heaven knows, besides snips, snails, and puppy-dog tails that kid is mostly the razor sharp bones in his ass.

And in Big T news? I went to T's back to school night. You know, as a teacher, there's a special sort of SQUEEEEEEE!!!! you get when other teachers compliment your kids. I got that SQUEEEEE!!!! four for four times. "He's a TREMENDOUS kid!" said his weight training coach. "He works his heart out, we love him!"

I love him more:-)