Do you pirate books and why?

[ProfCrash]

As I understand it, the law is in place to protect copyrights. If multiple publishers have the right to publish the book in different countries, the e-book will be affected. So if book X has a different publisher in the US and the Netherlands, someone from the Netherlands cannot buy the book from a US based store because doing so would violate the rights of the Publisher in the Netherlands.

Since Smashwords allows authors and Publishers to choose where the book can be sold, and Independent author who holds all of his/her own rights can choose to sell it world wide without any problems. So BearMountainBooks owns the rights to his/her books and can choose to sell them globally. Stephen King does not and has multiple Publishers in multiple countries who can choose to sell those books in their individual country. His e-books are available in the US but might not be available some place else. The people living in some place else are not allowed to by the book from the US because Amazon is not allowed to sell it outside of the US.

Everyone talks about Amazon's 1984 (sorry Harry) mess. That was a case where MobileReference, the Publisher, accidently included the US on its list of countries that it could sell the book to. 1984 was in the public domain in many countries but not in the US. MobileReference did not have the right to sell it in the US. Once the US Publisher of 1984 realized 1984 was being sold by MobileReference they went to Amazon and complained. Amazon, stupidly, immediatly stopped selling MobilReference's version and pulled the book from peoples readers.

Amazon had to stop the sales of the book immediatly because MobileReference did not have the right to sell the book in the US. I do not know if the Publisher was selling the book in the US, I don't think they were because I remember people being excited that it was available in the US but it was availabe in Australia and geo restricted in the US.

MobileReference books were not available for sale in the US for several weeks as Amazon had to go through and check to make sure that all of their books were being sold to the proper countries. It was a pain in the ass for MobileReference.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Stormchild

@BearMountainBooks

No, you miss the point of my question. If as ProfCrash insists, there is a LAW that prevents selling electronic goods across borders how can Smashwords operate. I doubt there is such a law.

The law prevents selling books where one doesn't have the rights to distribute them. Some publishers (the agency 6, especially) buy limited distribution rights, or parcel out those rights to different locations.

The law in question is what counts as "selling in a particular location," not "selling across borders." Smashwords demands the rights to sell anywhere. HarperCollins may only directly have the right to sell in the US, and not the UK... the issue is what counts as a "sale in the UK," since Amazon's servers are in the US.

The buyer's computer may be in the UK, in which case, if the law defines the sale as happening at his computer, HC can't sell that book to him. OTOH, if the law defines the sale as happening at his computer, if he's vacationing at Disneyland, he should be able to buy that book.

[Katsunami]

Where do these publishers obtain the rights to distribute a work; do they pay the author for that? If so, then why should an author choose to NOT make his books available in a particular country? Doing so will undoubtedly cost him fans, and money.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Where do these publishers obtain the rights to distribute a work; do they pay the author for that? If so, then why should an author choose to NOT make his books available in a particular country? Doing so will undoubtedly cost him fans, and money.

The author starts out with all the rights and the reason we sometimes hold the rights back is not simple, but in some cases the publishers don't WANT the rights--which means, we have to sell them individually. Sometimes the publishers want the rights, but has a history of doing nothing with them (Not publishing in foreign countries) so an author negotiates to keep them in the hopes we can sell them later.

Foreign sales generally bring in a higher percentage for the author so while we WANT to sell them, sometimes we can't. Sometimes we sell them only to see delay after delay in publication.

For an ebook there is little incentive to NOT sell the rights if an author is independent, but so far there hasn't been a lot of "Exclusive" talk. Amazon has JUST started trying to get authors to do "Exclusive" books. So, for example, to get certain terms from Amazon, I would have to pull my books from Smashwords--this would limit my circulation to wherever Amazon does sales. I could not sell directly to Japan. Or Estonia. Or wherever. BUT Amazon offers authors incentives to enter plans like these (more mentions, more placement, the ability to run promos, etc.)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Where do these publishers obtain the rights to distribute a work; do they pay the author for that? If so, then why should an author choose to NOT make his books available in a particular country? Doing so will undoubtedly cost him fans, and money.

Publishers gain the right to publish in-copyright works through contracts with the copyright holders.

An author might hope to make more money by selling exclusive but region-limited publishing rights to different publishers in different regions.

Publishers are currently reluctant to buy exclusive region-based paper rights but non-exclusive world ebook rights, which seems to me to be the only sensible option in a world of ebooks.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Where do these publishers obtain the rights to distribute a work; do they pay the author for that? If so, then why should an author choose to NOT make his books available in a particular country? Doing so will undoubtedly cost him fans, and money.

Generally, the author would like the works to be available everywhere. Often, the publisher contracts for the right to manage those publications, so the author can't sell them to someone else--and then the publisher doesn't bother looking for sales in places where "the market is too small." So the publisher often has worldwide distribution rights, but refuses to go to the effort of setting up sales in non-English-majority countries, leaving no books available in those places, and no option for the author to find their own sales opportunities.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Generally, the author would like the works to be available everywhere. Often, the publisher contracts for the right to manage those publications, so the author can't sell them to someone else--and then the publisher doesn't bother looking for sales in places where "the market is too small." So the publisher often has worldwide distribution rights, but refuses to go to the effort of setting up sales in non-English-majority countries, leaving no books available in those places, and no option for the author to find their own sales opportunities.

This sums it up nicely. And most publishers want to grab all the rights "just in case." This includes movies, action figures, worldwide, ebook, print, audio-- you name it. And sometimes when an author fights to keep one or another right...they can't capitalize on it. Language barriers, no contacts and so on. One of the reasons authors might choose to go independent is control of rights--and the ability to get ebooks out to just about anywhere. But make no mistake. If there is money to be made, some entity will start trying to tie down those rights.

[Dulin's Books]

edit : apparently i didnt hit enter a half an hour or so ago. my answer is quite late now.

[Krystl]

Ok. I am new here and have about 1 month experience, but I am realizing that although I truly have never pirated in any way (yes, this includes all formats including mp3), I understand why people do and am tempted.

Geo-restrictions and DRM drive me crazy because they are simply not practical for any format. My family sends me a film as a present or I buy a DVD/BluRay at home on vacation that has the languages I need/want and yet cannot play it at home, because the restriction is to a DEVICE (with the wrong electrical capabilities). I purchased it legally but cannot watch it legally because the device is wrong. This a) makes no sense and b) encourages pirating a "usable" format.

I have now realized I am buying an e-book locked to a device in the same way, not to my person. Add to that not having the ability to buy what I want read here because of the location of my BANK ACCOUNT, not my IP address makes no sense either. Americans on vacation can purchase here from the USA. (All those arguments about sales location miss this point.) Location is location. Where exactly is the logic? None of the arguments or "legalese" can truly explain that away. Seems to me they are trying to "play the field" as to what profits them MOST. To get these books I MUST break the law somehow (enter range of badness here). (And yes, I know how.)

Add to that, that of the few books I have downloaded, 2 of them are very poorly formatted/edited (read, not good enough for a DTbook). I am questioning the validity in paying extra for shoddy work. I am questioning the monopoly of publishers wanting everything for little. (Yes, I have tried returning.)

I am totally for the idea of purchase! I love supporting all people working--authors, translators, editors (I am an editor and translator in real life)! Offer me an excellently formatted ebook with proper/beautiful formatting, editing, etc (the "hidden" costs of publishing) with a digital signature to my person to unlock it for my personal use forever at a reasonable price. Then I will not ever be tempted to skirt the law.

[DrNefario]

I consider myself an honest person (who doesn't?) and realise that I need to pull my weight financially if I want the things I like to continue to be made. I don't download TV shows. I don't pirate music (although I do still tend to buy CDs and rip them myself.) I don't even buy used games, although that's more of a quality thing than an ethical decision.

I did have a handful of MP3s I shouldn't have had when file-sharing was a new thing, and I am fairly sure some of the ebooks I read way back when on my Palm Pilot must have been illegitimate, but basically I don't pirate.

Would I pirate? If the money was going to someone I definitely did not want to support? Like a politician I despise (not sure I really need the "I despise" bit, there :-)), or an organisation I dislike? Hmm. Maybe.

There are also one or two books in my collection that are possibly not out of copyright here in the UK. There are two free Agatha Christie books on the Kobo store, for instance, which are out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure they ought to be in the UK. I'm not sure whose problem that is if I downloaded them in good faith. Morally, I don't have too much of a problem with it, since Christie is dead, and I wouldn't have downloaded them if they weren't free (and if I really like them, I'll probably buy some).

Edit: Sorry to go on, but I've just thought of this:

I've been trying to read all of the Hugo award winners. Many of them aren't available as ebooks, or weren't when I was looking. In searching for them, I would often find links to torrents for the whole set, but where's the joy in that? Searching these books out was half the fun.

I'm still missing three. One of them (Stranger in a Strange Land) was available as an ebook and now isn't. Bah.

[Apache]

One of them (Stranger in a Strange Land) was available as an ebook and now isn't. Bah.

It is available in the US but not the UK.
Another stupid regional restriction.
Apache

[DrNefario]

I thought I'd seen that it was missing from the Kindle store in the US, too. I occasionally check, to see how indignant I should be.

[WT Sharpe]

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

It is available in the US but not the UK.
Another stupid regional restriction.
Apache

It certainly used to be available in the UK, because I bought it. If memory serves me right, it was one of the last books I ever bought from FictionWise.

[Apache]

Amazon UK now has a link for "I’d like to read this book on Kindle" for Stranger in a Strange Land.
Apache