NSFW: People Pirating Your Sex eBooks? Just Strip Naked In Protest

Hollywood and the games industry have spent years searching for a solution to piracy, though most measures they’ve employed have served only to alienate paying customers. Perhaps they could learn a thing or two from Brazilian author Vanessa de Oliveira, who bared all in front of a government building in Peru, in an attempt to stop her books from being “pirated anymore anywhere in the world”.

Not safe for work warning: The video above contains brief nudity.

It’s certainly one of the more interesting approaches conceived, though I doubt it will be as effective as Oliveira would hope. Her ebooks, including “If He Cheats On You, It’s Your Problem” and “100 Secrets of a Lady in Waiting”, draw from her experiences as a “a girl of company”, according to TorrentFreak. It’s an occupation she alleges saw her bed close to 5000 suitors.

Oliveira wasn’t naked for long, with police quickly putting a stop to the protest, though she had enough time to expand on her grievances:

“I’m doing this for my book so it is not pirated anymore anywhere in the world,” Oliveira explained, attracting the attention of the police. “A country is made with culture, with books. When people pirate books culture is in danger. [Peru] is the first country where I see this,” she added.

I don’t think it’s just Peru where this sentiment applies, though I don’t necessarily agree that pirating “culture”, as it were, is a danger. Sure, it’s not great when someone decides not to pay for something you’ve worked hard to write, but if they weren’t going to pay for it in the first place and hence, not read it, you could see it as culturally-enriching, if you squint hard enough.

What is a danger is a growing generation that feels stealing digital goods is perfectly normal. It’s a shame publishers and movie studios are doing such a bad job of reversing the trend.

As for Oliveira, the jury is out on whether it was a genuine protest against piracy, or a flashy stunt to promote her ebooks. Whatever the motive, it’s certainly given her plenty of attention.

[TorrentFreak]