The 10 Most Pirated eBooks of 2009

[Blackguard]

what?

[Ankh]

Although I do agree that data from one tracker is a poor indication, I am not surprised by the list. Truth to be told, I am surprised by reactions to the list.

Computer books, erotic content, do-it-yourself guides, twilight... with the exception of erotic/porn content which is primarily internet phenomenon, the rest of the titles are a good sample of what one can find on the shelves of any general (p)book store in my neighborhood. Or on the front bookshelf of my public library.

[Hellmark]

Widespread pirating, is done via bit torrent anymore, however it all tends to originate on IRC. Very few people have access to newsgroups anymore, and most don't know what IRC is.

I was actually just talking about this with someone last night. In my experience, most ebook pirates seem to be fairly respectful of copyright, and just go after things they couldn't get normally or maybe would be embarrassed to get.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Widespread pirating, is done via bit torrent anymore, however it all tends to originate on IRC. Very few people have access to newsgroups anymore, and most don't know what IRC is.

Bit torrent is that main source for pirates now days.

But I am still stock on this results. Then again how big is ebooks as a medium, compared to music and films. I don't think the kids in the play ground sharing the lastest pirated ebooks just yet

[Slite]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Widespread pirating, is done via bit torrent anymore, however it all tends to originate on IRC. Very few people have access to newsgroups anymore, and most don't know what IRC is.

I was actually just talking about this with someone last night. In my experience, most ebook pirates seem to be fairly respectful of copyright, and just go after things they couldn't get normally or maybe would be embarrassed to get.

Mostly correct, as far as the hard to find stuff goes. As far as embarrassed, wouldn't really know since I never read that genre.

The reason that the ebook piracy hasn't really taken of yet tho is that e-reading is still a small "market" and MOST of the pirated books out there are really REALLY badly formated. At least the ones I have seen.

I admit to having downloaded a few "darknet" e-books, that were impossible to find as legit e-books. But I tossed them out pretty quickly due to the fact that they were pisspoorly formated and a pain to read.

[Abecedary]

Originally Posted by Slite

I admit to having downloaded a few "darknet" e-books, that were impossible to find as legit e-books. But I tossed them out pretty quickly due to the fact that they were pisspoorly formated and a pain to read.

I'm in the same boat. And the sad thing is that many of those poorly proofed and formatted books had supposedly been through 3 or 4 rounds of cleanup each (if the versioning at the end of the file is to be trusted).

[yagiz]

I think e-book piracy will never be as big phenomenon as music or game piracy just because people don't read that much, unfortunately. We would be living in a highly educated world if there were widespread e-book piracy.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A lot of people download eBooks via bittorrent and don't ever read them.

Plus it only covers public trackers, etc.

It's not so much take it with a grain of salt, but a grain of salt in a haystack.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by Abecedary

I'm in the same boat. And the sad thing is that many of those poorly proofed and formatted books had supposedly been through 3 or 4 rounds of cleanup each (if the versioning at the end of the file is to be trusted).

I think the books scanned 5 or more years ago are usually very bad but the newer ones with the current OCR technology and computer speeds are a lot better. I was able to convert them to very good quality epubs so didn't need to break the spine of my original books to scan

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

I think the books scanned 5 or more years ago are usually very bad but the newer ones with the current OCR technology and computer speeds are a lot better. I was able to convert them to very good quality epubs so didn't need to break the spine of my original books to scan

You mean the newer ebooks which are simply deDRM versions of legal ebooks

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Slite

Isn't it though? Amazing to see that the only "Bestseller" on there is the Twilight series. And to find "The complete Idiots guide to sex" the third most downloaded book makes you seriously wonder about the state of humanity.

Looks to me like it's trying to continue

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Forgive me for asking, but how do you know that these books are "Pirated"? There are innumerable public domain versions of the "Kama Sutra".

The title is inaccurate; these are "most torrented," not necessarily "most pirated." And we've got no idea what torrent stats they were using.

I suspect they were looking at names of torrents, rather than tracking individual titles inside collections; the Harry Potter books aren't listed because no single torrent stands out--each of the books has a torrent (often more than one with slightly different names), plus there are collections of "all the books" that were assembled as each new one came out, plus they're included in various scifi/fantasy collections.

[Moejoe]

Sharing != Piracy

[acidzebra]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Sharing != Piracy

Can I still keep the parrot and the eye patch though?

Arrr!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

Can I still keep the parrot and the eye patch though?

Arrr!

Yes, but we need the peg leg back