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Is eBook piracy the next big thing?
But it's not internet bandwidth or digital distribution channels that's led people to cast a relatively blind eye toward pirated eBooks. It's the fact that overall the audience for eBooks is still relatively low. But with the growing popularity of dedicated eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony eBook Readers, and possibly the upcoming Apple Tablet, it's getting easier and easier to read digital books. And that could lead to a surge in eBook piracy.
There's another major difference between pirated eBooks and pirated music or movie files. While anyone with a reasonably modern computer can rip a CD or DVD in a relatively short period of time, it takes a long time to scan a physical book and convert the images to text. In a recent interview, an anonymous pirate that has admitted to uploading dozens of books says he's spent "from 5 to 40 hours" proofreading scans. The scanning process alone takes about an hour for each hundred scans, which means a couple of hours per book.
Of course, there's a faster way to pirate an eBook: crack the copy protection applied to eBooks sold by retailers such as Amazon. Up until recently, eBook sellers were few and far between, and digital book titles were even more rare. But as that changes, we'll likely see more of a battle between the folks trying to make eBooks copy-proof and hackers determined to demonstrate that there's no such thing. And that could mean a proliferation of new release titles making the rounds on Usenet and BitTorrent trackers.
What do you think? Are pirated eBooks about to go high-profile the way that pirated music and movies have over the past few years? Do you care? And if publishers pump out legal eBooks at a decent price, would you be willing to pay for eBooks rather than downloading them illegally?
Incidentally, if you're at all interested in this topic, you should really check out that entire interview with the eBook pirate. It's a fascinating read.
[via Waxy]
Comments
32
Subscribe to commentsObserverJan 26th 2010 6:59PM
Save yourselves some money and go to the library for your books. It's both free and legal.
bearxorJan 27th 2010 8:17AM
Technically, the library isn't free. You're paying for it.
DavidJan 26th 2010 6:59PM
Actually look at Baen free library www.baen.com/library/ where the publisher and authors found making books available for free has lead to noticeable and meaurable increase in sales both of the books available for free and others from same author.
BritJan 27th 2010 8:17AM
As far as I can tell, what Baen is doing is giving away some eBooks to drive sales of physical books and sales of the non-free books by the same author. (Technically, they're also bringing people to their site in order to, hopefullly, drive sales of all their books - including other authors.) Now, this strategy makes more sense in a world where no one has an eBook reader (i.e. the world where Baen has been operating), but a diminishing value in a world where eBook readers are common (i.e. the future). Personally, I don't like reading books on a screen, and I'm sure that lots of book readers feel the same way. This means Baen is giving away inferior (i.e. digital) version of it's books to sell superior (physical) copies of it's books.
Now, maybe in a world of ubiquitous eReaders, people will still want a physical copy of the book. So, maybe this strategy will still work okay for them. Plus, there's also the fact that they don't give all their books away for free. In that sense, they're operating like a musician who "gives away" music videos and radio-play to drive sales of their non-free albums.
ProlornJan 27th 2010 8:18AM
@Brit: Baen also operates a commercial online ebook service, Webscriptions, which AFAIK is DRM-free.
http://www.webscription.net/
Baen is generally ahead of the curve here, except perhaps in web design. (All of the Baen sites could really use an interface lift IMHO.)
BritJan 27th 2010 3:04PM
@Prolorn
I'm unclear how that addresses my comments. My main point was that people don't like reading long text on a screen. Therefore, free eBooks can help drive sales of a (superior) physical product. Unfortunately, this situation gets disrupted, and possibly reversed, in a world where eBook readers are ubiquitous.
Also, Tor used to give away free eBooks to drive sales of that author. People sometimes bought more copies of the original book and more copies of the author's other books (which weren't free). For some reason, Tor discontinued that program. One possibility was that their free eBook program was helping to drive sales of that author, but cannibalizing sales of other authors. (Maybe people were saying, "Hey, I've got this free eBook I haven't read yet. Instead of buying a new book, I'll read this instead.") It's possible that it was a net-loss or a wash for the publisher in that case. It's hard to figure out why Tor would've discontinued their program otherwise.
DelamistJan 30th 2010 6:47AM
actually i ended up buying around 20 david webber books after reading a free html version of book and done same with several other authors, more willing to try new author when it is free and same with music, your willing to experiment and expand your taste
darwinsurvivorJan 26th 2010 9:30PM
I don't know about the size of the problem, but the torrents sure will be smaller :D
PeterJan 26th 2010 9:30PM
The amount of time and effort some people will put into saving a few bucks is amazing.
tracker1Jan 26th 2010 9:31PM
It's worth noting that a huge number of books are in the Public Domain, so it may well not be piracy, depending on where you live. Unfortunately most of the books I'm interested in are technology based, so no PD there. On the flip side most of the books I'm interested in are available in an eBook format to begin with.
JackJan 26th 2010 9:31PM
I think the best thing the book industry can do right now is to use one single standard for ebooks with one standard DRM that all publishers can easily use and every ebook reader can utilize.
Epub is an open and workable standard that used by the Nook and Sony Reader, among many others. The problem lies with retail. If I buy an Epub book at B&N, then I should be able to use it on my Sony Reader. But alas that's not the case, different DRM systems.
That's a recipe for ordinary folks to seek solutions to breaking DRM.
BritJan 27th 2010 8:17AM
Hm. But one DRM scheme means that every pirate in the world will be trying to crack it and unlock all the books.
IquisitoJan 28th 2010 7:27PM
It still dazzles me that we're talking about DRM. If there's anything any publisher should've learnt from the music and movie industry it's that DRM just doesn't work, no matter how unified or how strong the system is. Just price books appropriately to make piracy unaffordable.
Eric H.Jan 26th 2010 9:31PM
I personally don't want to pay for eBooks. However, I treat pirating eBooks the same way that I do Music. If I really like the Author/Artist I will buy the book/CD directly from the author/artist if possible. So far I have not downloaded any eBooks that I do not already own the actual hard copy of.
I know that is a fine like there, but I feel like if I own the actual book I should be able to have a digital copy of it. I might actually pay for the digital copy of a book if I was offered the option of tacking on 2-3 dollars to the price of the hardcover instead of an extra 10 dollars.
SloogJan 26th 2010 9:31PM
I would consider buying an eBook, but only if it comes without DRM. Otherwise, heck no. We've seen what DRM crap can do (Kindle 1984 insanity) and there's no way I'm paying for that.
David GillJan 26th 2010 10:21PM
The problem with eBook piracy will never reach music/movie levels simply because the vast majority of people don't read by choice. Out of everyone I know in my generation (late teens and early twenties) only one person besides myself is an avid reader. Sure, most will pick up harry potter, the latest dan brown or *shudder* the Twilight series, but most will never really go beyond that.
Also, personally, I find eBooks awful to read. I spend nearly all day on my computer, but reading eBooks hurts my eyes. I also find my concentration lulls. Upon speaking to some other people I have found they have similar problems, and I think books may be one thing that will take a long time to be digitally adopted by the mainstream.
Alex63Jan 26th 2010 9:37PM
I'm guessing that pirating eBooks could help save a lot of College kids from financial ruin. That's not bad...
john mJan 26th 2010 9:38PM
Peter
I guess if your idea of 5 seconds to find what i need on a number of torrent sites is a lot of time and effort .. then so be it .... I am saving WAY more than a few bucks ...
borntalentJan 28th 2010 3:00PM
what sites r u getting them from?
B anonJan 27th 2010 8:16AM
I was hoping people would not catch on, But just to be sure, I have been downloading "pirating" thousands of books from computer tech books, to the new magazines,(I buy the mags I read since reading it in my hand is 10 times better), and also new fiction like Dan Brown day it came out, to, I wont even name them all, I have probably 40,000 from Moby Dick to just released 60 dollar programming books. Hey screw being PC, If I had a job and money I would pay, I live 10 miles from Detroit and just want to learn and I cannot catch a break. I know a lot of you will think this and that but I don't care anymore. Want me to change? Give me a job!