In case you haven’t heard about it already through the book world, The Atlantic recently release an article about Meta’s AI model and how they used pirated novels to train the AI, as well as a way to search that database to see what novels, papers, and other writings were used. Since then, numerous discussions about AI and books, and book pirating in general have sparked in the writing world.

Now, full upfront confession: I don’t have a subscription to The Atlantic and haven’t read the full article. I’ve only looked at the search database and read several authors responses. As I was thinking about everything, I wanted to write my own response.

Second thing I want to make clear right away: I’m not going to delve into AI, its usage, and how it relates to writing. I think that’s a really big conversation with a lot different faucets to consider, and it’s not a can of worms I want to open at the moment.

With those clarifications out of the way, let my share my thoughts on the pirated books.

Since anthologies aren’t tied to one particular author, and The Atlantic‘s search database is by author only, I don’t know if any of my published short stories have been pirated. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have. Honestly, I expect them to have been stolen. And when my debut novel comes out next year, I expect it to be pirated as well.

I’m not trying to be pessimistic. I’m not trying to be realistic from a downcast perspective. I’m simply trying to be realistic from an honest perspective.

We live in a fallen, sin-warped world. We live in a world of thieves. The eighth commanded is, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). We steal all sorts of things in all sorts of ways. That’s why I’m not surprised that books are digitally stolen and pirated. I’m not surprised that people try to justify pirating and illegally distributing ebooks–we don’t want to call out sins sin.

Does that mean I think that pirating is all right? Of course not! It’s theft, plain and simple, which is breaking the eight commandment. It’s a sin.

A common reason given to justify pirating books is that buying them is too expensive. But there are ways to legally get books for free. Public libraries are almost always free. They typically also allow patrons to request specific titles to be added to their collection. Watch for when author’s run free sales on the Kindle editions of their books. This happens more often then you might think. There’s also the option to become an ARC reviewer. It does require the commitment to read and review the books, but it is a opportunity to receive free books.

Yes, books can be expensive. My budget can attest to that fact. But pirating isn’t the only option for those unable for afford them.

Book pirating is another sad reality of living in a fallen world. It’s theft. Those illegally distributed copies don’t benefit the author and can be employed in uses without the author’s permission.

But I don’t want to let that reality stop me from writing. If anything, I want to let that reminder of our broken, sin-filled world spur me on to write stories filled with truth. Stories that, while they may not be overtly Christian, are filled with themes that reflect Biblical truth and values. Stories that might help and hone that longing we have for the better kingdom to come.