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darryl · 02-09-2012, 06:00 AM

I found some interesting reading in a document entitled Coda - A Short History of Book Piracy. I have not looked at the authors or their efficacy, though on the surface at least it appears to be bona fide reputable research. You can download a pdf via the following link:

http://piracy.ssrc.org/wp-content/up...Coda-Books.pdf

It is from a larger report entitled Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, which is also available for download (though I have not yet done so). The following links to an index of the full report with download links.

http://piracy.ssrc.org/the-report/

A summary from that site refers to the efforts of the copyright lobby to strengthen laws before stating:

"The report argues that these efforts have largely failed, and that the problem of piracy is better conceived as a failure of affordable access to media in legal markets."

My own view is that this is no doubt very true in many countries. Geographic restrictions in the past enabled, amongst other things, different pricing in different markets, and many governments, such as Australia's, assisted against the interests of its own people with parallel import legislation. Before ebooks became common it was usually much cheaper for Australian consumers to import books bought retail from the United States rather than buy locally. Local bookstores were not very happy even when Amazon was selling only paper books.

Of course, now we have essentially one worldwide market, despite the no doubt doomed efforts to cling to and enforce geographic restrictions. Without effective geographic restrictions this essentially means an ebook must be priced essentially the same globally.

The Coda makes some very interesting points about the origins and purpose of copyright, and the reaction of those favoured by it whenever the status quo is threatened, which to no ones surprise is lobbying for new and draconian laws to preserve such status quo. It also looks at the likely role of publishers and the possible form a new market may take when the current upheavals are ultimately settled. And the current strong stance of the US in favour of copyright was of course not always the case, as many of the old English and other European publishers can attest to.

Some thought provoking material as well as a lesson in hypocrisy and self-interest.

02-09-2012, 06:00 AM	#1
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,108 Karma: 60231510 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	A Short History of Book Piracy I found some interesting reading in a document entitled Coda - A Short History of Book Piracy. I have not looked at the authors or their efficacy, though on the surface at least it appears to be bona fide reputable research. You can download a pdf via the following link: http://piracy.ssrc.org/wp-content/up...Coda-Books.pdf It is from a larger report entitled Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, which is also available for download (though I have not yet done so). The following links to an index of the full report with download links. http://piracy.ssrc.org/the-report/ A summary from that site refers to the efforts of the copyright lobby to strengthen laws before stating: "The report argues that these efforts have largely failed, and that the problem of piracy is better conceived as a failure of affordable access to media in legal markets." My own view is that this is no doubt very true in many countries. Geographic restrictions in the past enabled, amongst other things, different pricing in different markets, and many governments, such as Australia's, assisted against the interests of its own people with parallel import legislation. Before ebooks became common it was usually much cheaper for Australian consumers to import books bought retail from the United States rather than buy locally. Local bookstores were not very happy even when Amazon was selling only paper books. Of course, now we have essentially one worldwide market, despite the no doubt doomed efforts to cling to and enforce geographic restrictions. Without effective geographic restrictions this essentially means an ebook must be priced essentially the same globally. The Coda makes some very interesting points about the origins and purpose of copyright, and the reaction of those favoured by it whenever the status quo is threatened, which to no ones surprise is lobbying for new and draconian laws to preserve such status quo. It also looks at the likely role of publishers and the possible form a new market may take when the current upheavals are ultimately settled. And the current strong stance of the US in favour of copyright was of course not always the case, as many of the old English and other European publishers can attest to. Some thought provoking material as well as a lesson in hypocrisy and self-interest.