E-reads and Curtis Agency Declare War on Piracy

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

do you think that the E-reads/Curtis project has any chance of success?

I would be interested in views on that too, but I doubt we will get any now. I'd say start a new thread about it, but it wouldn't take long for it to degenerate into another 20 page argument about stealing cars.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Harmon

And I certainly would include something in any digitized version of my book telling the reader where to find and pay for a legitimate copy, in case he's reading a pirated copy.

This is what I put at the back:

Thanks for reading. If you downloaded this from somewhere without paying for it, please consider supporting the author in some way if you derived any entertainment from it. You don't need to buy your own copy (though it would be great if you did, of course). There are lots of other ways you can support struggling writers. Leave a review on Amazon, mention it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, anywhere else you think it might be useful.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

This is what I put at the back:

Thanks for reading. If you downloaded this from somewhere without paying for it, please consider supporting the author in some way if you derived any entertainment from it. You don't need to buy your own copy (though it would be great if you did, of course). There are lots of other ways you can support struggling writers. Leave a review on Amazon, mention it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, anywhere else you think it might be useful.

That is a great note.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I would be interested in views on that too, but I doubt we will get any now. I'd say start a new thread about it, but it wouldn't take long for it to degenerate into another 20 page argument about stealing cars.

I was surprised by the fact that E-reads/Curtis are trying to fix piracy by going after filesharing sites. I remember using them a form of primitive cloud service back when the email limit was 10Mb, and one of the bad things was that unless you actually had an account, the files were there for a limited amount of time. Since I doubt that the pirates actually have accounts, the disappearance of the files would be something to be expected.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I was surprised by the fact that E-reads/Curtis are trying to fix piracy by going after filesharing sites. I remember using them a form of primitive cloud service back when the email limit was 10Mb, and one of the bad things was that unless you actually had an account, the files were there for a limited amount of time. Since I doubt that the pirates actually have accounts, the disappearance of the files would be something to be expected.

People just re-upload them again when they die. But I don't think those sort of link sites are anywhere near the "threat" people like to make out. One of the better known ones with a number 30 in its name shows the number of downloads each book gets, not one of the ones posted in the last month has seen more than a couple dozen downloads.

The cynic in me says this is just an attempt to provide a new "service" to their writers so that they won't abandon the publisher and go it alone. Especially with the Rapidshare type sites being well known as being a soft touch for removing content on request.

This idea that they won't bother tackling torrents because it's too complicated for people to download them or they're afraid of virus/malware? Just an excuse because they know it's a lot harder to get the torrent sites to remove content unless you have proof you're legally responsible for it.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But I don't think those sort of link sites are anywhere near the "threat" people like to make out. One of the better known ones with a number 30 in its name shows the number of downloads each book gets, not one of the ones posted in the last month has seen more than a couple dozen downloads.

Their argument seems to be based on the monthly views, for example Rapidshare Cyberlocker has 23,000,000 unique monthly visitors and 280,000,000 monthly pageviews. It can't be difficult to convince their clients that they are losing hundreds if not thousands of sales.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Their argument seems to be based on the monthly views, for example Rapidshare Cyberlocker has 23,000,000 unique monthly visitors and 280,000,000 monthly pageviews. It can't be difficult to convince their clients that they are losing hundreds if not thousands of sales.

That makes it even more likely it's a con to keep writers too afraid to go it alone. If they have this super software that can track pirate ebooks they will know exactly how many are being downloaded, so why not publish those figures?

Hey look, nearly 20 people downloaded your ebook illegally from Rapidshare this year, if you carry on giving us 70% of your income we'll make it so that they have to learn how to download torrents instead.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

This is what I put at the back:

Thanks for reading. If you downloaded this from somewhere without paying for it, please consider supporting the author in some way if you derived any entertainment from it. You don't need to buy your own copy (though it would be great if you did, of course). There are lots of other ways you can support struggling writers. Leave a review on Amazon, mention it on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, anywhere else you think it might be useful.

It appears to me that you know and understand more about what's going on than most publishers or authors do.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

How does repossessing a digital file work? Scan the computer & tablet & reader & external drive & etc. of the person who possessed it and remove it? And hope that they don't have an USB stick somewhere?

Swat team breaks down your door, seizes your computer, Lebowskis on your rug & drives off with a friendly "see ya in court, sucker!"

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Hey look, nearly 20 people downloaded your ebook illegally from Rapidshare this year, if you carry on giving us 70% of your income we'll make it so that they have to learn how to download torrents instead.

Oh, this is not just for their clients. Other authors can benefit from this service for a monthly fee.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Swat team breaks down your door, seizes your computer, Lebowskis on your rug & drives off with a friendly "see ya in court, sucker!"

They would have to take much more than that. I got this for my mother:

How many books can you have on a 8Gb stick?

[molman]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

They would have to take much more than that. I got this for my mother:

How many books can you have on a 8Gb stick?

Unless you are rather sophisticated I doubt it would matter, amazing the amount of residue people leave on computers and traversing the internet.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by molman

Unless you are rather sophisticated I doubt it would matter, amazing the amount of residue people leave on computers and traversing the internet.

I wasn't talking about hiding evidence, but repossessing the files. External drives are cheap, and it's easy and recommended to make copies of your documents 8-16Gb cards and sticks are even cheaper, and easily forgotten at the bottom of a drawer. So unless the person tells the police: wait, there's also this, I don't see what they can do about it.

And the same thing happens with piracy. It doesn't matter how many files they remove from the net, there will always be something left behind, probably in a zip file with the name composed from random letters and numbers.