Best-Selling Swedish Author Torrents Her Own Audio Book To Protest Pirate Bay Ruling

from the legitimate-uses dept

Wed, Apr 29th 2009 10:58am — Mike Masnick

We've already seen that plenty of content creators use The Pirate Bay for legitimate distribution and promotion purposes, and now Dan writes in to alert us that a best-selling author in Sweden, Unni Drougge, is so annoyed by The Pirate Bay verdict, that she made an audiobook version of her best-selling recent novel and put up a torrent via The Pirate Bay, along with a "manifesto" in support of free file sharing. Apparently, this is getting her plenty of attention, as her book has jumped to the top of the audiobooks list (what were people saying, that the top downloaded lists never include authorized content?).

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: authors, books, protest, torrents, unni drougge
Companies: the pirate bay

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Jason, 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:26am

Stuntish?
"Apparently, this is getting her plenty of attention," seems like this could have been part of the motive - but even if it was, well played!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
R. Miles, 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:26am

The quoter has disappeared.
what were people saying, that the top downloaded lists never include authorized content?
That would be WH. Blocked from posting? Finally got a real job? Tired of the anti-WH remarks?

At any rate, I don't think one author's really going to make a difference. Now, if the list is comprised of 75% of legitimate downloads, this would speak volumes.

Sadly, I have nothing to offer.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Weird Harolds #2 Fan, 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:36am

Re: The quoter has disappeared.
Anything that makes your life better is stealing!!

(*I learned it all from WH)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thomason, 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:39am

spendable, expendable
How does she plan to spend all of this "attention"?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
AJ, 29 Apr 2009 @ 11:53am

Re: spendable, expendable
So many ways she could "spend" it. But I have a feeling it will pay for itself without her doing anything else at all. Increased hardback sales, website traffic, author commentary add-ons, t-shirts, signed audio cd's, etc etc.... its really endless, i hope this answered your question...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2009 @ 12:02pm

Re: Stuntish?
yep!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
AZ, 29 Apr 2009 @ 12:06pm

Any press is good press
How much do you think it would have cost her in marketing dollars to put an add for her book in every mag and newspaper and on every news broadcast in Sweden? Not to mention the advertising she is getting around the world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2009 @ 12:39pm

Re: The quoter has disappeared.
to remember that person is to give that person a higher honor than that person deserves.

Let us all forget.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
johnsonjb (profile), 29 Apr 2009 @ 12:44pm

support
She has my support and I don't even read or speak Swedish.

80 Kr heading her way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2009 @ 1:29pm

Re: support
This is an interesting post. Some people agree so much with filesharing that they are willing to buy products they don't even want to demonstrate that an open system works.

And people would call this guy a thief. He's a philanthropist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
R. Miles, 29 Apr 2009 @ 1:29pm

Re: Re: The quoter has disappeared.
Oh, come on. His ignorance was entertaining and cost us nothing to enjoy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Overcast, 29 Apr 2009 @ 1:46pm

How does she plan to spend all of this "attention"?

Not sure - but some companies literally spend billions per year on advertising - or it could be called "attention".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2009 @ 3:17pm

Whatever happend to Weird Harold. I never see him post any more.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
RD, 30 Apr 2009 @ 12:09pm

Good
"Whatever happend to Weird Harold. I never see him post any more."

Good riddance. He probably went back to his corporate masters to re-tool his shilling under a different nick.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mizoram, 1 May 2009 @ 12:41am

nicely done!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tron, 2 May 2009 @ 2:36pm

We are no alone, out there is not only stars.
[ link to this | view in thread ]