Piracy of intellectual property is an exceptionally important issue to authors, publishers, filmmakers--all artists. If you think sharing other peoples' creative content online without credit, permission, or compensation is no big deal, then you've apparently never had to make a living selling your work.
To that point, all publishing folks should be taking notice of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that's under consideration by Congress, as well as its companion legislation, Protect IP [Intellectual Property] Act (PIPA) that's currently scheduled for a procedural vote by the Senate. For an excellent overview of the bills, read Amy Schatz's guide to understanding the online piracy bills in the Wall Street Journal.
And read more about author's copyright and author's rights on this site, or about negotiating with pirates (really!) on About.com.
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