Most people are honest and want nothing more than to peruse a book or piece of music enough to determine if they’re worth the money to buy (including an entire series or ‘album’); you know, just like we would in a ‘brick and mortar’ store. My gosh, never mind the people who want to borrow the book from a library and not pay for reading it !

I think what happened might have gone like this. The security certificate issue worried people. When they reported their site, they might have also reported it to Norton, Web of Trust, and similar sites because of their worries. So later, when people went to look at the site, they got all sorts of “This site is unsafe” warnings. However, I’ve seen those warnings come up for everything from reputable science journals to an ad for the book “Naked, Drunk, and Writing.”

I can’t believe I behaved like a sheep! An internet lemming! It reinforced my usual habit of vigilance and determination to always perform due diligence before spreading such a piece of information again.

For the record, I support lending of all books, and UBSs. I use my local library, I belong to a book trading site, etc. I’ve learned a lot about ebook lending sites from this kerfuffle because of you at AAR and DA.

In the conversation I mentioned above, an author who was not involved in the complaints simply responded to a post and said that just because Dale Porter was an Amazon Affiliate, he was not part of the publishing community. This resulted in someone believing he had said that only Random House and other big companies were publishers, and that self-published authors didn’t count. So I’m worried that people who had no part in the mess will be unfairly dragged in, just because (again) someone didn’t read correctly. Especially as I was involved in that thread, too.

Anne AAR: I wouldn’t want to see a boycott, either. Some of the authors have already realized their mistake and apologized, but that’s not enough for some people.
Another reason a boycott would be wrong is because the wrong authors will get caught up. Authors posting on the AbsoluteWrite thread about LendInk were criticized just for responding to a thread asking about the site, even if they understood it and did not smear it. On the LendInk FB page, someone was smearing one of the regular posters because he completely misunderstood what that author said. :\ Which is sadly ironic considering that the same people criticized those authors for not reading the FAQ.

Most of the authors seem to be defiantly self-righteous and don’t care that they ignorantly attacked a person that was guilty of nothing and certainly was not pirating their books.

I would not attack them, however I find it despicable that a few of the authors are still congratulating themselves on the fact that they were able to shut down a legitimate cite. The ignorant lynch mob mentality is not surprising on the web but I guess I expected better from people who refer to themselves as authors.

Another reason a boycott would be wrong is because the wrong authors will get caught up. Authors posting on the AbsoluteWrite thread about LendInk were criticized just for responding to a thread asking about the site, even if they understood it and did not smear it. On the LendInk FB page, someone was smearing one of the regular posters because he completely misunderstood what that author said. :\ Which is sadly ironic considering that the same people criticized those authors for not reading the FAQ.

I find it frightening that it is so easy for misinformed people to use social media to do something like this. I would suggest a boycott of the authors responsible, but I can see that turning into exactly the same kind of train wreck.

BUT, I think these authors are “cutting their noses to spite their face”… I think that’s how that saying goes. How many books have you gotten used or borrowed and then gone back and purchased the rest???

For ex. Found Laurie R King’s The Moor at the library for a quarter. I own all of them up to the last few. JD Robb was introduced to me at the library. I own them all and once they came out in h/c I even buy them in h/c. The list goes on and takes in every book on my shelves. Someone lent me a book, someone introduced me to an author… for free. Then I went and bought that authors books for cash.

Letting people try your books for free or minimal cost is good business sense. Books are expensive and people have definate “tastes” that they enjoy in their reading. I won’t buy a “new to me” author…. ever. If I can’t take that author’s writing out for a “spin”, I don’t usually buy it.