Piracy Critic Admits to Huge Pirated Music Collection

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Piracy Critic Admits to Huge Pirated Music Collection


Award-winning Norwegian author Anne B. Ragde [http://www.amazon.com/Anne-B.-Ragde/e/B0034OXARE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1292362947&sr=8-2] found her stance against the evils of eBook piracy undermined just a wee little bit when her son revealed that she has more 1800 illegally downloaded songs stored on her iPod.

Anne B. Ragde has done pretty well for herself. She's written several successful novels, won Norway's Brage Prize [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brage_Prize] for children's literature, had her work translated into multiple languages and even made into a popular television series. So it's not too surprising that she's no fan of eBook piracy, as it has a direct impact on her livelihood. To that end, she wouldn't allow her latest novel to be released as an audiobook or to be translated into Russian and Chinese.

"Piracy scares the hell out of me. I do not know what to say. I lose sleep at night over it," she said in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv [http://www.dn.no/idn/idnenglish/]. "I have figured out that I've lost half a million kroner ($72,500) on piracy of my books, maybe more."

"I can not stand the thought of someone stealing something," she continued. "I look at Norwegian musicians who have to do live concerts. We have nothing to live on other than the physical product."

Yet for some reason, Ragde had no problem with admitting that she purchases counterfeit handbags. The reason? "I feel that the genuine Prada bags have such an inflated price," she said.

And then things got really ugly.

As she made a list of the many legitimate purchases she's made, presumably to defend her overall pattern of behavior, her son Jo decided to help out by reminding her about the iPod she apparently neglected to mention. "You have a pirated MP3 collection," he said. "We copied the first 1500 songs from one place and 300 from another."

"Yes," she admitted. "There were a lot of things on the iPod."

Professor Olav Torvund of the Center for Law at the University of Oslo said Ragde "made a fool of her herself" in the article and that there was only one way she could properly address the situation: buy all 1800 tracks she had downloaded, burn the bags and issue an apology. Instead, Ragde threw her son under the bus by blaming all the downloading on him.

"The stuff on my iPod is not representative of my relationship with the music industry and the products they produce," she said in follow-up comments. "I pay for my music." She also claimed that her iPod was actually in storage in her cottage but promised to delete all the music on it next time she's there.

Source: TorrentFreak [http://torrentfreak.com/author-slams-ebook-piracy-son-outs-her-as-a-music-pirate-101213/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29]



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Gxas

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Sep 4, 2008
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Sigh... What a *****... Her son did the right thing by telling the press that. If my mother was as much of a hypocrite as this lady is, I'd do the same thing.
 

ZehGeek

[-Militaires Sans Frontieres-]
Aug 12, 2009
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Wow...
Well it's not suprising she'd be a hypacrit or throw someone else under the bush if that's her stance on the bag. Piracy is Piracy.
 

scnj

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Nov 10, 2008
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Meh, it wouldn't be a problem if she'd admitted to it in the first place. What ruins it is her "anti-stealing" stance in the first place.
 

Hippobatman

Resident Mario sprite
Jun 18, 2008
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As a Norwegian myself, I find this absolutely hilarious.

Ha! I say. Joke's on you. You've screwed up good this time.
 

Mr. Omega

ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
Jul 1, 2010
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On one hand: Yes, piracy is bad.

On the other hand: If you're known to stand against piracy, having that much pirated material is naturally gonna make you look bad.

On an unrelated note: Her son must seriously hate her. This is gonna make Christmas dinner a little awkward...
 

Zechnophobe

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Feb 4, 2010
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And this is why we can't have NICE THINGS!

Seriously though, part of the problem with discussing piracy in any venue, is this weird claim people make that 'they would never do it'. Time and time again we find that they DO do it. It's like trying to argue about sexuality and fetishes, when no one admits to having any.
 

SnipErlite

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Aug 16, 2009
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Hahahaha but she feels like a top dickhead.

Ah I do find it funny when hypocrites are exposed. Sucks to be her I guess ;P
 

emeraldrafael

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Jul 17, 2010
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Andy Chalk said:
"I can not stand the thought of someone stealing something," she continued. "I look at Norwegian musicians who have to do live concerts. We have nothing to live on other than the physical product."

Yet for some reason, Ragde had no problem with admitting that she purchases counterfeit handbags. The reason? "I feel that the genuine Prada bags have such an inflated price," she said.
As she made a list of the many legitimate purchases she's made, presumably to defend her overall pattern of behavior, her son Jo decided to help out by reminding her about the iPod she apparently neglected to mention. "You have a pirated MP3 collection," he said. "We copied the first 1500 songs from one place and 300 from another
Andy Chalk said:
As she made a list of the many legitimate purchases she's made, presumably to defend her overall pattern of behavior, her son Jo decided to help out by reminding her about the iPod she apparently neglected to mention. "You have a pirated MP3 collection," he said. "We copied the first 1500 songs from one place and 300 from another."
hm.... There's alot of good choices, but lets go with this one today:

http://media.schadenfreude.net/2009/06/irony6.jpg

Seriously thats funny. I'm pretty sure that her right to criticize has been officially revoked.

Also:

Andy Chalk said:
"Yes," she admitted. "There were a lot of things on the iPod."
Possibly the worst feasible defense besides, "thats not me" or "God told me too" I mean my god woman, you're an author. You could have said SOMETHING abit more eloquent then that.
 

Rainboq

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2009
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*watches her credibility circle the drain before disappearing*

Whelp, that was entertaining!

*waits for lawsuits against her by the various copyright hounds*
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
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Well I found this pretty funny. There is a reason I think piracy is here to stay; basically everyone does it. It's more or less just part of life now. Does that mean it's good? No, but arguing normative morality has never really helped anything.
 

dududf

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Aug 31, 2009
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Do you hate piracy?
*links to video that has a song in it, that is being sold*
You're now a hypocrite.