The Errol Flynn movie poster makes pirates appear more glamorous than they are in reality– surely so when we talk about the literary variety, who are nothing more than selfish nerds parked indefinitely behind computer screens, on which they construct lists of millions of stolen files of books, which they can then download and read for free.

There are several of these kinds of lists, on always-changing websites, most where access is available by invitation only. Here’s a glimpse at one of them:

What! America’s leading literary critic– distinguished Harvard professor James Wood– the victim of pirates? Does his publisher, Vintage Books, know his book is being circulated for free? Along with their entire catalog, actually.

Here’s another distinguished piracy victim, Princeton’s famed novelist Joyce Carol Oates:

Either of these authors, and a few score more, have the standing, the influence, to generate outrage about these happenings. Not only they are being stolen from, but every book author and publisher in existence who have made their books available in any way online is a similar victim. So far, too many writers are silent.

BEYOND mere piracy now is the entrance of chatbot purveyors– giant companies like Facebook and OpenAI feeding these stolen files of books into their models to generate ostensibly-new creations. While the pirates are creating book-lookalikes (obvious knockoffs of best-sellers) and probably outright copies.

More about this in future days as the Fast Pop Lit “F” team continues investigating.