The Truth About eBook Piracy: And the Truth Shall Set Them (Customers) Free
By.
A new installment in the series, A Self-Publishing Journey. Keep your eyes peeled for the next few months. I’ll be posting about what I’ve learned in my own self-publishing journey, and many top experts in the business will be adding their thoughts to the soup too. See all posts in the series.
Everybody is up in arms about the increased frequency of eBook piracy, or so it seems. If by everyone I mean e-Publishers sounding a piracy alarm, then yes, everyone is up in arms.
I first considered adding this subject as an addendum to the other eBook articles, but after only cursory research for piracy data, I found that most quotes and information (too much to list here, but you can Google it) were from the big e-publishing houses. More lengthy research confirmed this.
Most authors are not really worried. Of course, we all want pay for our hard work, but personally, I’m more worried that no one will read my books, than that everyone will steal them. And I found most authors (speaking out online) agree.
Many older pirated books were simply scanned images of the printed page. No digital text, so no bookmarking capabilities, or making notes in the margins, and no interactivity of linking to sites, videos, etc. Tools and technology are allowing better quality pirated book, and it seems this has scared big business, and in turn, they are trying to scare us into over-reacting.
An interesting background interview by C. Max Magee, of a real live pirate, gives some insight into this dark world with Confessions of a Book Pirate.
But IMHO the importance placed on piracy is placing the cart before the horse. E-publishers, and paranoid authors, themselves seem to have added to the amount of piracy through sheer customer frustration. Through the solutions offered they are instead pushing even honest customers to turn to pirated copies.
For one thing, there is such a mass of prohibitive formats, many times customers don’t realize, until they’ve paid, that they can’t load the book onto their e-reader. This proprietary licensing of books, rather than selling them to us, is as ludicrous as saying that the CD we bought will only play on one company’s CD player.
And, in addition to the pirates, it won’t be long before the book-buying public won’t stand for this either. Adobe seems to be the only one listening (so far). Their DRM technology is used by Sony and Barnes & Noble . They allow users to share eBooks with friends, and read them on multiple devices.
E-Publishing houses might better consider placing piracy on the burner behind addressing their anti-consumer agendas that make it difficult to purchase and share an eBook across our own networks. Until readers obtain real rights to their media, as we do with print books, frustration and piracy will skyrocket.
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The DRM Solutions
Amazon’s Kindle was the first to deal almost exclusively with books that have DRM, and they claim they’ve had almost no complaints from customers. But that was when they were one of the only e-Reader out there.
Many authors and readers describe problems caused by DRM software. This solution punishes customers more that pirates. Once you download a book to your eReader that’s where it stays. You can’t transfer to your laptop, or phone, etc.
“DRM doesn’t work. It only takes one person to strip the DRM from an eBook to make it available to millions, but it also prevents legitimate customers from using the book they way they want to. Unfortunately not all book publishers have learned from the music industry’s DRM failures.” Publishers Fear eBook Piracy, But Shouldn’t by Ernesto at TorrentFreak
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The Delayed eBook Releases Solution
This does nothing to stop piracy, as they have been pirating from hardcover books for decades. And when the pirated e-version hits the web before the publisher’s version you have a lot of PO’d customers who wanted to stock their eReaders honestly, but were denied the chance. This delay tactic actually costs the houses and authors a lot of money, because a good portion of those who download the unauthorized version would have paid if the eBook had been made available honestly.
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The Electronic Refusal Solution
I can’t count how many places I’ve read this story across the net, because it’s so typical of pirating. Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, refuses to offer her books in digital format because of the ease of pirating.
So guess what? Each of her books in the series is digitally available, either pirated, or transcribed by the loving fans she is denying, but all unauthorized. Google “download Harry Potter ebook” and you’ll get an extensive list (over 1,860,000 results), some even bragging, such as thepiratebay.org.
“Authors who are holding out against publishing e-books due to piracy concerns, such as J.K. Rowling, need to get over themselves. They are doing far more to promote piracy by not offering legitimate versions of their books than they are to prevent it.” So says Chris Meadows, E-book Piracy Keeping Pace With eBook Popularity
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The Hunt ‘em Down Solution
Author, Harlan Ellison, famous for this quote, “If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump,” filed the first internet piracy lawsuit. He has since filed 240 more suits, including Star Trek. But do any of us really want to walk this path?
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Let’s Address the Real Problem
I’ll end with the man who led us to wrap our heads around electronic publishing’s reader’s rights, science fiction writer Cory Doctorow. The wise and outspoken Mr. Doctorow, who makes an effort to give away as much content as possible, sums up the real problems in this manifesto.
“There’s a dangerous group of anti-copyright activists out there who pose a clear and present danger to the future of authors and publishing. They have no respect for property or laws. What’s more, they’re powerful and organized, and have the ears of lawmakers and the press.
“I’m speaking, of course, of the legal departments at ebook publishers.
“These people don’t believe in copyright law. Copyright law says that when you buy a book, you own it. You can give it away, you can lend it, you can pass it on to your descendants or donate it to the local homeless shelter. Owning books has been around for longer than publishing books has…
“…they say that when you “buy” an eBook, you’re really only licensing that book, and that copyright law is superseded by the thousands of farcical, abusive words in the license agreement you click through on the way to sealing the deal. (Of course, the button on their website says, “Buy this book).”
Read Cory’s entire manifesto
NOTE: I’ve had many commenters become enraged and accuse me of ligitimizing book piracy at my mention of giving away some of my writing. If this is a problem for you, be sure to Read Cory’s entire manifesto.
Also, listen to Leo Babauta, A-List Blogging Bootcamps, tell about what happened when he decided to un-copyright everything he writes for his blog, which gets thousands of hits daily. You heard right. People are free to copy his blog posts and put even them together into an eBook and sell under their own name, never crediting Leo at all, with full permission from Leo. Why would he do that?
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Quote: "These people don’t believe in copyright law. Copyright law says that when you buy a book, you own it. You can give it away, you can lend it, you can pass it on to your descendants or donate it to the local homeless shelter. Owning books has been around for longer than publishing books has…"
With the greatest respect, this is the problem! if you give away, sell or otherwise pass on your copy of a PRINTED book, you no longer have it. There is still only one copy and if you want it back, you either have to purchase another or the person who now has it has to return it. ONE copy has been paid for and that's fine – but if you photocopy the print book before passing it on, you are breaking the law. If you pass on a copy of an E-book, you are making a COPY. There is no other way to do it, unless, of course you erase te original that you paid for off your hard drive, and I can't imagine many people doing that. .
(Sorry I'm having to split this comment into sections) Passing on a copy of an E-book to friends or acquaintances has the potential for that E-book to be copied thousands of times, resulting in loss of already meagre earnings to authors and their publishers, many of these publishers are small and are struggling to surive themselves. We're not talking about rich and famous authors and large publishing houses here, we're talking about largely unknown authors, like myself, who spend more in trying to 'get our names out there' than we ever make in royalites, and who don't get any kind of 'advance'. Take even that away from us, by stealing our books without paying for them, and some may be so disheartened they give up writing altogether.
As for those sites that offer free downloads for a 'subscription' or sell copies of ebooks downloaded onto cheap CDs – don't get me started! Sorry, theft is theft, the copyright laws are meant to protect the writers, NOT to fleece the readers. We love our readers and want them to enjoy our books, heck we may even give them 'freereads' to show our appreciation, but we can't afford to work for months, maybe years, without receiving the small amount of royalties we should be receiving for each download
My Answer part 1:
Greetings Lyn. Thanks so much for your insights. I'm honored you feel free to disagree with me. I learn so much from respectful debate. Nobody could agree more that we need to get paid for our work. And, as I pointed out above, the piracy world is indeed dark.
But with all due respect, as I’m sure everyone could tell, this article about piracy is not about the online book pirates, it’s about the piracy of ePublishers against the reading public.
YOUR QUOTE: ..but we can't afford to work for months, maybe years, without receiving the small amount of royalties we should be receiving for each download”
We can’t afford not to stand up against this injustice. e-Publishing companies actually cost us our profits by fleecing readers. They set prices too high, and in their greed, steal from honest readers and force them into giving away copies to friends, and attempt to produce a paranoid fever among writers.
As I stated in the article above, image your horror if you purchased a CD of a movie/music/software) and you could only hear/watch/use that product on one CD player/device/computer. That's ridiculous as it comes. Yet that is exactly what e-publishers do to readers. And it costs us writers, not the publishers. With all due respect to their businesses, they take their cut no matter what.
My Answer part 2:
YOUR QUOTE: …but if you photocopy the print book before passing it on, you are breaking the law. If you pass on a copy of an E-book, you are making a COPY. There is no other way to do it,”
This is true, but it is the nature of the beast. eBooks are different than print books and laws need to differ accordingly, but the readers’ ownership of them needs to be protected above all.
Readers come first, always. Without them we’d be out of work anyway. Readers (and authors) are the ones hurting, not the e-publishing companies. When, as a reader, I purchase an eBook, I can’t even choose to read it on my computer, phone or e-reader. I have to buy a separate copy for each. That is beyond ridiculous, it’s stupidity, and nothing less than e-publishers fleecing readers.
YOUR QUOTE: Passing on a copy of an E-book to friends or acquaintances has the potential for that E-book to be copied thousands of times, resulting in loss of already meager earnings to authors and their publishers,”
That’s highly unlikely, and exactly the type of hyperbole I stated above that we are hearing from e-publishers. I can’t imagine a person having that many friends to pass an eBook on to. But on the other hand, when I pass my print books on to libraries, which I have many times, and have every right to do, there is indeed the potential for that print copy to be read by thousands.
Why are we charitable with print books, but not ebooks, which cost almost nothing to produce? Why is it a sin to want the free spread of literature and learning to be confined to a library of print books, or friends?
And there is always the insurmountable truth that most of those who read a book for free would never have purchased it to begin with, so we’re not losing a cent. But, once they read (for free) and like an author’s work, there is a high probability they WILL pay for a future work of the author; an author like me, who they would have never read if a friend hadn’t passed it on to them. So passing on a book to friends or libraries actually pays unknown authors financial dividends.
As an author, I’m about as unknown as they get. The truth is, the more you are read, (and you get that way from free copies) the more well-known, and as always follows that, the more money you make.
Plus our books were never available to the entire population of the world before digital books became the norm. If we only gain 1% of sales from that audience, and the rest are all pirated copies, we’d be rich beyond our dreams.
The greed of e-publishers has set prices way too high for ebooks, plus they’re still trying to raise it. Greed has set this ridiculous standard of only being able to read your books on one device. And greed always ends up subtracting from the meager earnings of authors.
Let’s not allow ourselves to be caught up in their greed just because they CAN do that to us. They hold the prestige, they hold power in the press, they have the ability to cause a huge paranoid reaction in the press. I won’t be part of it. I want to be part of the solution that gives readers back their rights.
YOUR QUOTE: We love our readers and want them to enjoy our books, heck we may even give them 'freereads' to show our appreciation,“
No one loves our readers more than I. Click on my link at the end of the article: “In accordance with my beliefs, please see my written works products’ sales pages where I offer a free download to those who can’t afford to pay.”
I offer my books for sale, of course, but right below that I offer free downloads of it for those who can’t afford it. Even a donation button for those who could maybe afford a dollar. We sell readers short when we assume that they are thieves. Most of them will pay.
Aggie,
Pirates don't pass books on to friends, they upload them to file hosting sites that pay them a commission for traffic, and then they advertise as widely as possible, and share the illegal copy with hundreds and even thousands of strangers.
<<YOUR QUOTE: Passing on a copy of an E-book to friends or acquaintances has the potential for that E-book to be copied thousands of times, resulting in loss of already meager earnings to authors and their publishers,”
That’s highly unlikely, and exactly the type of hyperbole I stated above that we are hearing from e-publishers. I can’t imagine a person having that many friends to pass an eBook on to.>>
<<AGGIE's QUOTE: Passing on a copy of an E-book to friends or acquaintances has the potential for that E-book to be copied thousands of times, resulting in loss of already meager earnings to authors and their publishers.
YOUR QUOTE: "That’s highly unlikely, and exactly the type of hyperbole I stated above that we are hearing from e-publishers. I can’t imagine a person having that many friends to pass an eBook on to.”
That's exactly what I pointed about that ridiculous statement I quoted. Thankx for reiterating.
YOUR QUOTE: "Pirates don't pass books on to friends, they…" All very true, but I don't address the pirating problem in this article except to link to an article about it as a side note that may interest readers, and I make sure to identify it as a side note. The pirates in this article are purely the ebook publishers, no one else. They are committing the only piracy I address here.
I was not reiterating your argument. I was quoting your rather insulting remark about hyperbole.
Could you please clarify by name exactly which ebook publishers you are calling "pirates"? Also, could you please clarify your definition of "piracy"?
No I won\’t name names. But in the text it is obvious the culprits are who I described; any e-publisher who charges the reader to \”buy\” the book, and then tells them it\’s illegal for them to copy it to or reformat to fit the rest of their e-reading devices. And/or who apply DRM to prevent the new \”owners\” of that book to do so.
I explained my definitions fully in the article above, and actually kind of repeated it several time too, so that I would be extremely clear.
(Not referring to you, Rowena:) But some people only hear what their fear and prejudices translate the words into, as is painted so clearly in all the replies here, and my other articles, that have nothing to do with what I wrote about.
As for the definition of piracy — theft, stealing.
Testing. Please ignore take 2
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This is where the phrase '2 wrongs don't make a right' comes in.
I hate DRM. I hate that publishers won't get their heads out of their collective *** and hold on to the past because they fear what is obviously the way of the future.
Still, this does not mean piracy is not a problem or should be excused, because Publishers are not behaving in good faith. Piracy is stealing, no different than if you walked into a bookstore and grabbed the book off the shelf, only a lot more damaging.
Trying to excuse it with blogs like this gives it a layer of credibility, which makes the pirates feel they are justified. After a while, it becomes ingrained, and this is all that they do, they don't even bother to try any legal means. They feel entitled.
Example: Their last album, the band Radiohead tried an experiment. They made their album available LEGALLY online for whatever price the consumer wanted to pay – including FREE. Yes, you could download the complete album completely free legally. The first week, there were still over 100,000 illegal pirated downloads of this album.
I couldn't agree more. But you are terribly mistaken thinking that "blogs like this gives it a layer of credibility." Try re-reading my post.
I couldn't have been more clear in my blog post how horrible is the crime of piracy. And how horrible are the crimes of the e-publishers.
But, as you pointed out, it will never be stopped.
“Most authors are not really worried. Of course, we all want pay for our hard work, but personally, I’m more worried that no one will read my books, than that everyone will steal them. And I found most authors (speaking out online) agree.”
Count me as one published author who disagrees with you… vehemently. I care more, MUCH more, about my income than whether anyone reads my work, so right there we are coming from two different places. I do this for a living and hope to actually be able to make a significant contribution to our household one day. I have no outside job to fall back on, and I don’t do this for fun–though I love what I do.
Pirates, quite literally, take the bread out of my mouth. My income pays the grocery bills–again, literally–in our household. Do you work a day job? Do you get paid? Do artists get paid? Do grocery store clerks get paid? Do Wall Street (unprintable)s get paid? Why shouldn’t writers get paid for their hard work??? What is the problem with that?
If you count yourself as a writer, I am quite disturbed that you think it’s all right for pirates to steal from us. People with that viewpoint are not, in my opinion, professional writers.
I’m not even going to argue the “most authors agree” matter here, but NO published author I know agrees. Your statement that most authors speaking out are more worried that someone will read their work than pirate it is unsubstantiated BS.
Yes, there are MANY problems with DRM. But DRM with ebooks would never have arisen, except the pirates make it so. It’s not a good solution. But it’s better than having hard-working, honest people ripped off by the pirate slime.
As another author wrote, (and this is directed at all pirates), what kind of sense of entitlement do you have, that you think you have a right to take my hard work without paying for it?
When you start actually having to live on what you make, get back to me on how you feel about piracy.
Quoting you quoting Cory Doctorow:
"These people don’t believe in copyright law. Copyright law says that when you buy a book, you own it. You can give it away, you can lend it, you can pass it on to your descendants or donate it to the local homeless shelter."
This is what's called "fair use" under copyright law. If you own one book, you can only give it away once. Of course, you can lend it, too. Few people, however, lend hard-copy books thousands of times.But pirates who post ebooks so that an infinite number of people can download them, people they don't even know–that's emphatically NOT fair use, and is illegal.
Quoting you quoting Cory Doctorow:
“…they say that when you “buy” an eBook, you’re really only licensing that book, and that copyright law is superseded by the thousands of farcical, abusive words in the license agreement you click through on the way to sealing the deal. (Of course, the button on their website says, “Buy this book).”
Again, when you buy a book, hard copy or ebook, you can lend it or give it away under the fair use provision. No author has any quarrel with that. However, you cannot post it on the internet for anyone to download unless you are paying royalties to the publisher (who pays the author). If you don't, you are breaking the law. Fair use does not cover posting a book for the entire world to read without paying.
Apparently Cory should read copyright law. You can find out more here:http://www.copyright.gov/
By the way, for all those who rant about "rich authors" and the like, Cory can afford to give it away if he wants–he makes many, many times what I do. So if you're going to pirate someone, why not him? He doesn't seem to mind.
Hi Barrie. So great to meet you here. I so pleased to hear your respectful opinions, and those of everyone. But once again I must repeat, "Read my post."
You obviously didn't read it, or you couldn't make any statements about me thinking it's all right to pirate, such as where you said, "If you count yourself as a writer, I am quite disturbed that you think it's all right for pirates to steal from us. People with that viewpoint are not, in my opinion, professional writers."
That's a statement that no one could accuse me of if they had read my post. Unfortunately you spent most of your comments talking about a stand against book piracy, which has nothing to do my with my post. There is no discussion in my post about whether piracy if OK. There are no statement the it is indeed all right.
Again, all I can do is respectfully remind: you must read my post to make relevant comments about it.
Everyone hates piracy. That goes without saying. Piracy is illegal and immoral. The pirates I address in this post are the e-book publishers who steal from customers in the name of protecting us from pirates.
Thank you for your comments on some things my article addresses: You wrote, "But it's (DRM) better than having hard-working, honest people ripped off by the pirate slime."
Honest hard-working people will continue to be ripped off by book pirates. We can't stop them. The only effect caused by DRM is to rip off honest, hard-working paying customers. We have to protect them, not steal from them.
You wrote: "Your statement that most authors speaking out are more worried that someone will read their work than pirate it is unsubstantiated BS."
As to it being BS, go and Google "I'm more worried that no one will read my book than that someone will pirate it." to see. And contrary to your statement, Yes, most "published authors" (who spoke out on the net about it), as I specified, do agree with that statement.
It seems you don't like my moral decision to allow those who can't afford to pay to download some of my books free, or for donations, and you adamantly disagree with the stand that Cory Doctorow takes about this.
You said, "By the way, for all those who rant about "rich authors" and the like, Cory can afford to give it away if he wants–he makes many, many times what I do. So if you're going to pirate someone, why not him? He doesn't seem to mind."
Barrie,I did no ranting about rich authors. If I must be accused of ranting, then read my post to see that the only people I've ranted against is e-Publishers ripping off readers, which is what the entire article is about.
How do you think Cory Doctorow got so well know that he makes such good money, besides the fact that he's an excellent writer and forward thinker?
Because he cares enough about the reader to actually give them free copies if they can't afford to buy it. When people heard what he was doing, his actual dollar sales came rolling in, as reported in the links at his site that I linked to in this post (and the comments made there). Personally my sales tripled when I began offering free downloads to the poor. Not only that, my subscription list doubled.
And, yes, Cory Doctorow does give away his book(s). And yes, his book(s) are pirated more than most. If you had read the links I provided to Cory's arguments, you'd have known that.
You wrote: "When you start actually having to live on what you make, get back to me on how you feel about piracy." Once more, this is an irrelevant comment about book piracy, and it has nothing to do with my post, but I'll respond: Cory does make his living from his writing. Do you?
I might add, If authors pursue such a profit-oriented approach to sales, rather than a sales approach that puts the customers first, they will most likely never make a living from writing. Readers, paying readers, respond when they know an author cares about them, and is willing to work with these through hard financial times.
Actually, Aggie, you did appear to endorse copyright infringement and piracy.
<<Adobe seems to be the only one listening (so far). Their DRM technology is used by Sony and Barnes & Noble . They allow users to share eBooks with friends, and read them on multiple devices.>>
If Adobe facilitates the ability of users to make illegal copies of copyrighted works and to distribute those illegal copies, that is piracy.
You also wrote that you are more concerned about obscurity than about being paid. That sounds like an "I-don't-mind-being-pirated" statement to me.
No, I really don\’t endorse copyright infringement in any way shape or form, and neither does Adobe. They are simply making steps to stop stealing the ownership rights of ebooks from readers. It\’s always been their right to do this, and now others are beginning to take small steps to follow suite and get rid of this ridiculous infringement of readers ownership rights of their ebooks.
And any author who wants to make money at writing will be more concerned about obscurity than about being paid. That is just common sense. You can\’t make a cent if you\’re unknown. \”The more of your writing you give away the more it\’s worth.\”
Readers read because a book is good and they like it. They will read that author again if they like the first book they read. I'm sorry, but readers don't read an author because that author is "generous" and gives away free downloads. A bad "free" book is still a bad book. And readers also don't boycott good authors who don't give away freebies. That's seriously faulty logic.
If readers think a book is too expensive, they just won't buy it. Like books that come out in hardcover and later in paperback (or movies that come out that go to DVD) you can always wait for the cheaper version. Saying that publishers' greed in pricing ebooks is causing a reader backlash of epiracy is like saying food prices are too high and causing people to shoplift.
The law of supply and demand sets the price in a free-market society. Does this make shoplifting any less illegal? No. Can people who can't afford current food prices still eat? Yes. There are programs for that. Can someone who can't afford a book still get one? Of course – there are programs for that – they're called libraries. And if someone wants to read an EBOOK on their COMPUTER or brand spanking new EREADER and can't afford it or thinks the publisher is charging too much… Boo hoo, okay? There are still print books. Go to the library.
Epiracy is still stealing, period, whether your personal belief is that something costs too much or not. If you think something costs too much, don't buy it. Vote with your dollars. But blaming epiracy on the cost of ebooks doesn't justify it. You may be rationalizing it, but it most definitely does not make it okay.
And yes, I make a good living from my writing, and I don't (as a publisher) price any ebook over 9.99. The big boys are going to find that the independent pubs have been doing this a long time and the current indy pricing system is much more realistic and reader friendly. The big pubs may find they've priced themselves out of a market that already exists. We'll see. If the free market works, readers won't have to worry – pricing will settle at a fair place eventually.
In the meantime, justifying or rationalizing epiracy based on ebook prices is irresponsible and unethical. Every person who does so gives the pirates yet another excuse. Not that they need any. Thieves will still be thieves, until there are big enough consequences to stop them. Hopefully, those will be coming soon, and the "free book bar" will be closed.
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Selena, thankx so much for taking the time to comment. I truly love great discussions. And thank you to all the commenters here. You, like the others, have made some great points that I totally agree with.
But I have to respectfully wonder, again, has anyone even read my post. The comments here consistently are not relevant to what I wrote about. Here are my responses to some of your comments. Please, everyone, feel free to respectfully respond to them.
I never hinted that readers boycott writers who don't give away free copies. My post doesn't touch on the quality of eBooks either. I also don't touch on whether or not an eBook is priced too highly.
You said: "Saying that publishers' greed in pricing ebooks is causing a reader backlash of epiracy is like saying food prices are too high and causing people to shoplift. "
Again, I never said anything resembling that. What I did say is that ePublishers are commiting ripoffs comparable to piracy. And they are. But it has nothing to do with the pricing of eBooks.
You said, "If readers think a book is too expensive, they just won't buy it."
The fact, which is what this post is about, that ePublishers are commiting ripoffs comparable to piracy has nothing to do with whether a reader can afford to buy an eBook. As I stated repeatedly in my post, and these comments, it does have to do with the fact that ePublishers are charging many times for the same book that a reader already purchased. Once for a copy for their computer, another full purchase price for one (and only one) e-reader, charging another full book price for them to read it on their phone, on and on, etc. As explained in my post, this is as ridiculous as buying a music DVD and having it only be capable of playing on one brand/model of player.
You said, "Can people who can't afford current food prices still eat?" Yes they "can" but often "don't" because they can't afford it . People are starving. And you say, "Boo hoo?" Too bad there aren't "food libraries," so they can go there as you suggested for reading. Your example is apples to oranges. Basic necessities to staying alive can't be compared to luxuries like purchasing eBooks.
You said, "The law of supply and demand sets the price in a free-market society…But blaming epiracy on the cost of ebooks doesn't justify it. You may be rationalizing it, but it most definitely does not make it okay." Again, my post doesn't touch on the pricing problems of eBooks. And again, I didn't rationalize or justify anything. I'm more against eBook piracy than you are.
You said, "Epiracy is still stealing, period, whether **** personal belief is that something costs too much or not. " That goes without saying. Again, what has this to do with anything I said in my post?
You said, "And yes, I make a good living from my writing, and I don't (as a publisher) price any ebook over 9.99. " Again, the pricing of eBooks has nothing to do with this post. I never touched on that subject.
You said, "In the meantime, justifying or rationalizing epiracy based on ebook prices is irresponsible and unethical. " Once more, who justified it? And who talked about eBook prices?
Hi every one. Thankx so much for taking the time to comment. I truly love great discussions. Thank you to all the commenters here. You all have made some great points that I totally agree with. I posted this comment as a poll. Please respond with "yes" or "no" if you have an opinion.
I have to respectfully wonder, has anyone even read my post? The comments here consistently are not relevant to what I wrote about. Please, everyone, feel free to answer this poll.
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I've read your post. My problems with it? You are lumping all e-publishers together, which is not representative of the market. And you are using a pirate's rationalizations, even as you say you don't support piracy. I know that may not be the way you mean it, but you're parroting (ironic, in a conversation about piracy…grin) a lot of the same things pirates say, their rationalizations. Please…read the reply at my blog and answer here. I'd be glad to discuss this with you rationally, but broad brush statements are not going to do the trick.
Brenna
Since you make it absolutely impossible to answer you in any detail with your truncated reply feature, I will post my reply at my blog. Answer here or there, if you choose to, and we can continue this. If you really don't care to reply, no problem.
http://brennalyonsden.blogspot.com/2010/04/answer...
Brenna
Good morning BrennaLyons,
I'm honored you took the time to read my post. Thankx for commenting. And thankx for your respectful words. Kudos to you for disagreeing without attacking. I look forward to more of your comments.
I clicked your link, but it was a a site with " content only suitable for adults." I don't click on those sites, It took me years and a new email address to get rid of the email spam when I used to click on those. So, if you don't mind I'd like to continue the discussion here. Also that would be more convenient for the readers. So, I haven't read your comments there, and I'd would love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you could copy and past them here.
A tip; if you "Post New Comment" you'll get much more space to write. I don't know why the "Reply" section truncates it so. I apologize. Even though you get more room to write, you may have to "continue" in a new comment or two. Again, I apologize. I've written to the company about it, but they offered no suggestions.
Another tip: if you don't see a "Post New Comment" section, try reloading the page. Sometimes my comments program reverts to WordPress if the page didn't load it fully.
You said, "you are using a pirate's rationalizations, even as you say you don't support piracy."
Please explain. I am sure I haven't rationalized piracy or anything else, especially when talking about the piracy of e-Publishers. Pirates steal from writers, ePublishers steal from readers. They both steal. No rationalization, just the facts.
Thus my title, the TRUTH about eBook piracy. It's not the pirates doing the big damage, it's the ePublishers' piracy.
Readers are not only a writers and publishers best friend, they are our bread and butter. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. If ePublishers don't start finding a common format that be read on all e-reader devices, they will be probably be forced out of business.
I am hopeful that if people continue to take the public stand I'm taking, that the pirates (ePublishers) will be forced to find a common format to be read across all e-reader devices. You buy ONE e-book, you read it anywhere, just like print books.
You said, "I've read **** post. My problems with it? You are lumping all e-publishers together, which is not representative of the market."
Of course I'm talking only about the ePublisher pirates who steal from readers in this way. If an ePublisher doesn't sell eBooks in different e-reader device formats, but charge full price for each and every one, I'd love to highlight them here for their honesty and integrity. As of now, I don't know of any, and no eBook-buyers I know have ever spoken of such a place. I will do everything in power to promote these ePublishers if you point me to them.
BTW BrennanLyons, love your use of the word "parroting." You've got a great sense of humor. I bet it comes across in all your writings.
Hi Aggie
This was really interesting for me. I just had an ebook, my very first come out on Monday and I found it 'pirated' just yesterday! Ha.
The format system is frustrating for some people who are trying to get an honest copy of a book, but smaller e-pubs are trying to make it better. I know the company I write for sells their ebooks in zip files so that the reader does get the book in multiple formats to avoid the static of being stuck with only Kindle or only adobe etc. It's something that more and more smaller houses are moving toward. Will this prevent pirating? No. Because some people will still go out of their way for a free copy and if they have to when I offer free reads, then they have to and it makes me sad because I certainly wouldn't steal a book from a bookstore. But that's me.
Thanks so much for the post. Just goes to show we all still have a lot to learn about the ins and outs of this digital age of publishing. I know I'm still learning
StephBeck
Stepphanie, I am soooo sorry that happened to you. Pirating is a horrible crime. I hope it didn't discourage you too much.
Yes! If I ever stop learning I'll be in trouble or dead!!! I'm also so glad to hear that some small publishers are producing cross-platform eBooks. What is the name of your company that does this? or any of the others you mentioned too? I'd love to check it out, and post the info for my readers.
No, you're right, we'll never stop piracy, but if the big e-Publishers take a cue from the ones you mentioned, maybe the piracy against readers will stop. Won't that be a grand day?!
Aggie
I"m not too discouraged, a wee bit irritated, but I"m sure it will pass
I am contracted with Lyrical Press right now. They do outsource to bigger sellers with the more specific uploads, but through their site they offer a zip with several forms e-pub, .lit, .pdf, .prc and pc and raw .html and are DRM-free when purchased directly from Lyrical. I'm sure it's not a perfect system but it works well for them and their readers. Their website ishttp://www.lyricalpress.com
I"m not sure about other smaller pubs and their policies because I'm pretty new to the publishing world, but there are many out there that are trying to bring quality novels by new and upcoming writers to readers who enjoy eBooks.
Thanks and have a great day
StephBeck
Stephanie,
I’m sure you ARE irritated. You have every right to be.
Thankx for the info on Lyrical Press. I don’t know about the Apple iPad, but you can upload pdfs to the Entourage Edge (which is far cooler and more advanced than the iPad anyway) and you can do the same with Kindle, so that small step in itself goes far towards readers paying for a book only once, and being able to read it on all their devices..
Let’s hope the rest follow suit, or even agree to use a cross-platform format to publish in the first place .
And in the meantime, with correspondence like this, we can alert others NOT to purchase from the pirating ePublishers’ bookstores. Instead, when they see a book they want and it’s from a smaller house that supply it in multiple formats, they can go to that smaller house and purchase a copy directly from them that can be read on all their e-readers. That’s the only way to get the big boys to comply.
That puts the responsibility of inconvenience upon the reader, but in the end it could pay off.
Thank you too, Stephanie, and you have the best day ever. BTW, you never told us the name of your book! Give us a hint?
Question: Do any of you know know of other e-Publishers who offer their books in formats that can be read across multiple e-reading devices, especially the most common: Kindle, iPad, Entourage Edge, and Sony Readers?
“Do any of you know know of other e-Publishers who offer their books in formats that can be read across multiple e-reading devices, especially the most common: Kindle, iPad, Entourage Edge, and Sony Readers?”
Smashwords do just this and it’s all DRM free (a requirement of the site), though I don’t know if you would call it an e-publisher or an e-book distributor.
Mark Coker’s site (Smashwords) has become something of a first stepping stone for many wanna-be writers, who are giving away their work in an attempt to build a following.
Which begs the questions; if a new writer builds a fan-base from freebie, DRM free giveaways would they then have difficulty with the culture of a Pro-DRM pub house if a contract ever got offered? Would this alienate pro-DRM publishing houses from new, dynamic, market savvy and successful writers? (Reality check; this would only happen to a very, very, very small percentage.)
Hi Andy. I use Smashwords (along with many other distributors) for the reasons you stated — their distribution. I think their work will force other e-distributors to follow suite before too long.
I believe that small percentage is growing as great writers are becoming disenchanted with traditional publishing houses.
But your question is valid right now. This transition is really hard for traditional houses to adapt to, and right now I think they’d rather not accept an author who has their books (whether free or not) at all these places already. Which is how we build a platform that draws their interest in the first place. They’d probably insint we withdraw our books for everywhere else.
What does everyone else think?
[...] They haven’t revealed much, and I’ve included some quotes and links to articles delving into various ramifications only guessed at right now, but I want to focus on the fact that this may be the genesis that frees our people (readers) from the slavery of proprietary e-reader formats (like Kindle and iPad where you can only read the eBook you buy from them on their reader. For more about this issue see The Truth About eBook Piracy: And the Truth Shall Set Them (Customers) Free. [...]
[...] past with their proprietary systems, mistakes I liken to piracy against readers. See my article, The Truth About eBook Piracy: And the Truth Shall Set Them (Customers) [...]
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