For those of you fans of the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer's best selling young-adult serial novels, your wait for the concluding installment may be as endless as a vampire's lifespan.  The series thus far includes four books, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. The fifth and final book in the series, Midnight Sun, was in the works. However, an unedited draft of the story was leaked on the internet this week. So devastating was this leak to the author that she has addressed the issue on her website and decided to put her work on the novel "on hold indefinitely."

It is likely that Meyer knows exactly who leaked the manuscript as she had distributed very few copies, and each copy was unique. It is not clear how the damage of copyright infrigement will be handled in this situation as Meyer is quoted saying, "The manuscript that was illegally distributed on the Internet was given to trusted individuals for a good purpose. I have no comment beyond that as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution."

However, she does not neglect to address the problem of copyright infringement, illegal distribution, and the personal pain an author experiences after having an incomplete text made readily available to the world.  

"I did not want my readers to experience Midnight Sun before it was completed, edited and published. ... Unfortunately, with the Internet, it is easy for people to obtain and share items that do not legally belong to them. No matter how this is done, it is still dishonest. This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control."

Many readers will mourn the possibly permanent loss of what could have been a great conclusion to a wildly popular series. But we do learn and important lesson about the sanctity of an author's work and the profound importance of respecting copywright laws.

Time to tell us what you think. Is Ms. Meyer overreacting? Does she owe it to her fans to finish the book? Or is her reaction appropriate? Leave a comment on this thread and we will post your responses in the coming weeks.