by Bob Flaws

Honora just came into my office saying that she's found three more companies making unauthorized free digital downloads of one or more of our books available on-line. So she's filling out all the paperwork to have their Web hosts and Google pull them from the Internet. I can't tell you how upsetting this is from the standpoint of a waste of time. Instead of Honora and I being able to create new content and share new information with the profession, we're having to spend our time putting out these piracy fires day after day. I just don't understand how people can think it is ok to steal the fruits of someone else's labor. If we can't control our intellectual property, then Blue Poppy is basically done as an information provider for this profession.

A couple of days ago, I asked members of our profession not to use such pirated materials. Now I'd also like to ask for your help in stamping out this phenomenon. If you come across a free digital download of one of our books or any CD bundles of our titles, please inform customer service of this so we can take appropriate action. You can do this by e-mailing Lori at lori@bluepoppy.com or calling our toll-free number: 800-487-9296. Please be sure to tell us the offender's URL (Webpage address) so we can check for ourselves and inform their Web hosting company.

Blue Poppy is not some anonymous multi-national, multi-million-dollar company. We've poured our hearts and souls into making the highest quality information we can find available to our profession. It would be a shame to see this all go down the tubes due to unthinking greed by unscrupulous people.