Mail This Book!

If the late Abbie Hoffman were writing today, he might have chosen that title for his famous screed. From PCWorld:

Recording industry lawsuits against file swappers and P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software companies may be forcing Internet users onto informal networks to exchange songs and videos, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

They mean email. Of course, mere books are so low on the piracy pecking order they apparently don’t even merit a mention with songs and videos, but they’re there (one or two of them anyway). But speaking of dead trees (future ones), the book I am currently writing will include details of my secret encounter with Abbie on the Universal lot in 1979 when he was underground and on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. He was at the studio primarily to flog the screen rights to Steal this Book! (for which he wanted to be paid, of course) but secondarily to excoriate the author of The Big Fix for allegedly betraying the left (especially him), a tradition which continues to this day on Amazon. (No, they didn’t remove the troll critics.)