After what was supposed to be a simple article related to file sharing, Norway's Dagens Naeringsliv newspaper was left surprised when a published author admitted to purchasing counterfeit goods.
The story became even more bizarre when there was an unexpected disclosure of copyright infringement along with supporting counterfeit products.
Ragde has been a staunch critic of file sharing and piracy. "I can not stand the thought of someone stealing something. I look at Norwegian musicians who have to do live concerts. We have nothing to live on other than the physical product," she said.
Her strong stance against piracy made it even more surprising when she admitted to purchasing counterfeit handbags. Along with purchasing counterfeit goods, her son dropped another bomb when he mentioned that his mother pirated at least 1,800 songs.
Ironically, Ragde admitted she may have potentially lost up to $72,500 due to piracy -- and said piracy scares her. The author has been a critic of file-sharing and piracy in the past, and didn't appear interested in discussing her music catalog before her son mentioned it.
Also published in the news piece, a pirate confirmed that he runs servers in Lithuania used to pirate material, saying "books are priced too high."
It's rather ironic that the writer and author is perfectly fine with music piracy and counterfeit products, but speaks out against e-book piracy.
"You'd think that a writer whose income is completely dependent on her rights being respected, would also respect the rights of others," said Olav Torvund, University of Oslo Center for Law professor. "When Anne B Ragde exposed her double standards and made a fool out of herself in Dagens Næringsliv as she did, she has only one thing left to do: Buy the 1800 music tracks that she downloaded to her iPod, so that musicians and composers get their rightful royalty."
After the immediate public backlash, Ragde blamed the media for twisting her words, and then said the pirated music files were connected to her son. The iPod will have all illegally downloaded songs deleted after it's reportedly taken from storage. She'll likely offer an apology for her statements, with a promise not to pirate (well, not to admit it publicly) in the future. Either way, you gotta laugh at the hypocrisy.
