MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates

stonetools · 04-26-2011, 04:49 PM

Wow, just wow.
We have an author who posts that he is fed up of being ripped off by pirates ( despite jumping through all the right hoops)and has stopped writing as a result. Now you would think that the MR crowd would re-examine their assumptions about piracy (" It's all the fault of the EEEEEVUUL publishers! Besides, piracy never hurt anyone."). Instead, they attack the messenger.
"You're whining like a teenager"
"You didn't try hard enough"
"Suck it up, mister. Being ripped off like this is just the way of the world"
"Think it of it as free advertising"
"You should be glad that they thought you worthy of being torrented"
"How do you know, for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN, that you lost any sales? Isn't it POSSIBLE that you could have gained sales?" (Note the differing burdens of proof ).

Man, if the author had been a rape victim, you would have told him to lay back and enjoy it and to stop wearing that tight clothing!

I think we have to be realistic about these things : piracy (and I might add, large scale casual sharing) probably does hurt sales, especially of best selling books, and it WILL dissaude some authors from writing, MR dogma notwithstanding. When content providers feel that they are being ripped off, they'll just do some other activity where they WON'T be ripped off. Authors aren't our performing monkeys and aren't obligated to work "for love alone" because we like cheap or free.
Mr. Jordan has the right of it. Large scale piracy is flourishing because the governments can't as yet be bothered to move against it. If authors were oil companies, I can guarantee the government response to piracy would be a wee bit stronger

The government can crack down by going after the hubs (findable by Google, I'm told) , closing them down, and by handing out 15 to 20 year sentences to the owners. Do that a few dozen times, and slap some stiff fines on ISPs who knowingly enable these hubs-and piracy will decline to low levels. No need for a "police state".
I think technology will eventually solve the problem, if only because content providers and distributors are VERY focused on the problem of protecting IP rights for digital goods. If they don't, we'll end up with fewer content providers, as the case of Mr. Jordan suggests.

04-26-2011, 04:49 PM	#244
stonetools Wizard Posts: 2,016 Karma: 2838487 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Washington, DC Device: Ipad, IPhone	Wow, just wow. We have an author who posts that he is fed up of being ripped off by pirates ( despite jumping through all the right hoops)and has stopped writing as a result. Now you would think that the MR crowd would re-examine their assumptions about piracy (" It's all the fault of the EEEEEVUUL publishers! Besides, piracy never hurt anyone."). Instead, they attack the messenger. "You're whining like a teenager" "You didn't try hard enough" "Suck it up, mister. Being ripped off like this is just the way of the world" "Think it of it as free advertising" "You should be glad that they thought you worthy of being torrented" "How do you know, for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN, that you lost any sales? Isn't it POSSIBLE that you could have gained sales?" (Note the differing burdens of proof ). Man, if the author had been a rape victim, you would have told him to lay back and enjoy it and to stop wearing that tight clothing! I think we have to be realistic about these things : piracy (and I might add, large scale casual sharing) probably does hurt sales, especially of best selling books, and it WILL dissaude some authors from writing, MR dogma notwithstanding. When content providers feel that they are being ripped off, they'll just do some other activity where they WON'T be ripped off. Authors aren't our performing monkeys and aren't obligated to work "for love alone" because we like cheap or free. Mr. Jordan has the right of it. Large scale piracy is flourishing because the governments can't as yet be bothered to move against it. If authors were oil companies, I can guarantee the government response to piracy would be a wee bit stronger The government can crack down by going after the hubs (findable by Google, I'm told) , closing them down, and by handing out 15 to 20 year sentences to the owners. Do that a few dozen times, and slap some stiff fines on ISPs who knowingly enable these hubs-and piracy will decline to low levels. No need for a "police state". I think technology will eventually solve the problem, if only because content providers and distributors are VERY focused on the problem of protecting IP rights for digital goods. If they don't, we'll end up with fewer content providers, as the case of Mr. Jordan suggests.