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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 commentsthe pl4gueJan 27th 2010 8:17AM
I think that once eBooks vecome popular, there will be a major increase in piracy for it.
ArnuzJan 27th 2010 8:17AM
I prefer real books if I 'really' want to read it :)
GavJan 27th 2010 8:18AM
The fact of the matter is, in the UK at least, it's cheaper to buy a real book and have it shipped, than it is to buy an eBook.
astrotoysevenJan 27th 2010 8:18AM
it is also better exercise for developing great biceps if you like to carry around a few books, papers, comics etc at a time ! \o/
dsfdsfdsfJan 27th 2010 8:18AM
Brad: That's exactly why I never understood why publishers are playing along with the ebook trend.
They are actually WORKING HARD towards making their product easier to pirate. Shouldn't they be glad that their product is so far inherently linked to a physical item, even with people generally liking that current state?
Anyway, for some things ebooks make sense, like standard scientific reference books. They become much more usable with PDF search.
But for novels? I don't get it.
AzayzelJan 27th 2010 8:18AM
E-book piracy is already quite rampant, just do a quick search on your favorite torrent tracker, drop into an ebook IRC channel or check the usenet newsgroups that have been there since the Microsoft Reader DRM got cracked for digital content and were there, as you previously mentioned, for physically scanned books. You can find pretty much any book you want and convert it to the reader of your choice, if that's what you choose.
The only reason it hasn't received all the publicized exposure is, as David Gill mentioned, the saturation rate of readers is much smaller than kids d/l mp3s or avis of the latest movie. People don't care how much it actually costs; hell, just check out all the .99 iPhone games that get ripped and you'll see. I personally think they're just asking for it charging dead-tree price for a digital copy you can't loan, resell or trade a couple of for a different book. Publishers continue to remain greedy with their pricing, which in turn, tends to make it easier for people to drop to the dark side.
Ashley AllenJan 27th 2010 8:19AM
I think it's all down to pricing. I think the app store and iTunes has proved people will pay but only micro payments. I'm not willing to pay anything near the same price for a digital copy as I am for an actual book. £3 for a digital book sounds about right to me.
There's two things I'd like to see. First I think the first few chapters should be free. Letting people get a taste before they buy would be a good way of upping the price as if you were enjoying the book you'd stump up more to find out how it ends. You get previews on tracks and trailers for movies but bar a little on the back and some well selected review quotes you don't get much for books.
Second are we going to start to see multi media packs E.G. you buy a Harry Potter film, but you also get the book, audio book and soundtrack too? It's another way of adding value, but you can let people pick and choose which parts they want.
MJan 27th 2010 8:30AM
Epub and Amazon DRM has already been cracked - like years ago. Yes, ebook piracy will definitely be one of the hot topics soon, once ebook readers spread.
Crazy SerbJan 27th 2010 10:03AM
If publishers/content distributors would only accept the $0.99/ebook model or pay what you can/feel is fair value (customer suggested price), the piracy would become extinct overnight...
Those who want it for free would get it for free (pay nothing for it), and those who want to pay X amount of dollars for it would get it for X amount of dollars... in the end, it would all even out at a few bucks per ebook.
But no... why go the easy route when you can go the complicated DRM route.
PeterJan 27th 2010 11:06AM
"If publishers/content distributors would only accept the $0.99/ebook model or pay what you can/feel is fair value (customer suggested price), the piracy would become extinct overnight..."
And we all know how well the low cost, easy to buy model has wiped out music piracy.
PeterJan 27th 2010 11:06AM
"If publishers/content distributors would only accept the $0.99/ebook
model or pay what you can/feel is fair value (customer suggested
price), the piracy would become extinct overnight..."
And we all know how the low cost, easy to buy model has wiped
out music piracy.
dfgdfgdgJan 28th 2010 8:02AM
I don't know where you live, Peter, but I wouldn't know where to get low cost, easy to buy music.
In Europe at least prices for digital downloads are only slightly lower than buying the CD. If songs were 50 cent each and albums 5 € each, and if all albums were available as some comfy drm-free 1-click zip file download, I am pretty sure piracy would go back quite significantly.