Guys, stop being crap to creators. You aren’t hurting Amazon. You’re stealing from writers.
Okay, to all the people blaming Amazon and TikTok, you are wildly missing the point or misdirecting blame.
TikTok is an app. It is not sentient. It is not doing this.
Amazon is also an app, and it is WHERE this is happening.
The problem is the people who are choosing to do this.
In order to “save money”— please read that as “steal”— they are buying a book fully intending to read and then return it so they get something without truly paying for it.
Nevermind, libraries let you borrow books for free, including ebooks.
Nevermind that writers can’t keep food on the table or a roof over their heads (so they can also keep writing, btw) if they aren’t getting paid.
No, no, what matters is YOU. You wanted it, felt entitled to it, made excuses to yourself and others to justify it, and then helped yourself to someone’s hardwork without intending to pay for it. AKA “theft.”
This isn’t some vigilante, anti-corporations BS. You don’t hurt corporations by doing this. You hurt authors. You hurt the author your stealing from. You hurt every author who gives up getting published because of this behavior. You hurt other authors who sees this happening, knowing you don’t give a rat’s ass about them only want to selfishly benefit from their labor. These are people who work hard, aren’t paid a living wage, and are practically begging just to be fairly compensated, yet people continue to exploit them and take their hardwork for themselves. (Slavery is coming to mind, is it doing that for anyone else? Make someone else do all the work while you reap the benefits and do absolutely nothing to earn it, including not paying them so they can pay bills and eat?).
You hurt people. You hurt the people you are stealing from. You are choosing to do that.
Stop blaming TikTok and Amazon. It’s PEOPLE who are choosing to do this to other people.
Meanwhile, you could have gone to the library or used their electronic resources. Y’all are some fucked up, selfish assholes. Treat others how you’d want to be treated. If a toddler can understand kindness and caring, so the fuck can you.
