Digital Piracy Hits eBook Industry

[MickeyC]

CNN reports that, on Amazon, Dan brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol sold more eBook than pBook copies in the first few days after it went on sale. They also report that, within 24 hours of its release "pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites ... Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times." See http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/01/e...acy/index.html for full details.

The article also mentions that the publisher did not release the eBook version of the Steven King novel, Under the Dome until several weeks after the pBook version was available to help minimize piracy.

And the article further bstates "Recent statistics have shown that consumers who purchase an e-reader buy more books than those who stick with traditional bound volumes. Amazon reports that Kindle owners buy, on average, 3.1 times as many books on the site as other customers." and goes on to say that piracy may be a 'necessary evil'

[Javed]

Originally Posted by cassidym

And the article further states "Recent statistics have shown that consumers who purchase an e-reader buy more books than those who stick with traditional bound volumes. Amazon reports that Kindle owners buy, on average, 3.1 times as many books on the site as other customers." and goes on to say that piracy may be a 'necessary evil'

This is a good point.

Although not accurately measurable, I wonder what the ratio of pirate copies to bought copies would be.

[Kellhus]

Less than 24 hours after its release, pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites such as Rapidshare and BitTorrent. Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times.

I'm curious how in the world would they be able to count downloads from sites like RS?

[neilmarr]

How does anyone manage to monitor pirate downloads? I was able to download a reasonably priced (legal) copy of *Lost Symbol* on the day of release, by the way. Wish I hadn't bothered. Even had I been given it free of charge, I would have considered the reading time unduly wasted. Neil

[stustaff]

It almost seems like parts of it have been made up? or are guesses?

[K-Thom]

The article also mentions that the publisher did not release the eBook version of the Steven King novel, Under the Dome until several weeks after the pBook version was available to help minimize piracy.

Would printing publishers please stop this nonsense? Pirated eBooks usually don't get ripped off digital files, the get ripped of printed books. Most illegal eBooks available exist because there's no DRM on printed books (now THAT'S an idea, isn't it ...?).
It takes two to three hours to scan the latest Brown or King. It takes about two to three days for a solidly proofread scan.

Why would anyone even bother ripping the DRM off eBooks (which is prohibited by most countries) when it's much easier to scan the book (which is even permitted in some countries)? And faster - why wait for a delayed eBook when the scan of a friend's copy (or your local library) can be done during the weekend ...?

[Kellhus]

Why would anyone even bother ripping the DRM off eBooks (which is prohibited by most countries) when it's much easier to scan the book (which is even permitted in some countries)? And faster - why wait for a delayed eBook when the scan of a friend's copy (or your local library) can be done during the weekend ...?

Woooah, proofread is not as easy as it seems, trust me. Especially if you don't actually read the book while doing it. On the other hand most people don't even notice mistakes in ebooks and would read a terrible scan as long as it's full and free.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

It takes two to three hours to scan the latest Brown or King. It takes about two to three days for a solidly proofread scan.

If you can proof-read a large book in 2 to 3 days, I'm impressed. It takes me 2 to 3 months to properly proof-read one of my Dickens uploads, working at it a couple of hours a day.

[gollu]

100000 download doesn't equal 100000 reads. There are people on the pirate sites who download anything down-loadable, especially small 2-3 mb files. Surely leeching will be included as a known psychiatric disorder in a few years.
As for the copies - K-Thom said it - the e-book illegal file don't originate from the e-book legal files. The best example is the Harry Potter series, which is yet to be officially released as ebook.

[Bremen Cole]

Originally Posted by gollu

100000 download doesn't equal 100000 reads. There are people on the pirate sites who download anything down-loadable, especially small 2-3 mb files. Surely leeching will be included as a known psychiatric disorder in a few years.
As for the copies - K-Thom said it - the e-book illegal file don't originate from the e-book legal files. The best example is the Harry Potter series, which is yet to be officially released as ebook.

Very true. I remember years ago I knew people that had insane sized pirated mp3 libraries. Funny thing was it was stuff they would never buy, they just thought it was cool to have. My son used to get pirate video games like crazy, but played few. There are "collectors" out there that just get a charge out of having copies of movies/songs/books. The vast majority of pirate downloads are not lost sales.

And yes, you can get pirate copies of books that have not been released in ebook yet (or perhaps never will be).

But, what is truly amazing to me is how many good, free, legal books there are. Great reading days ahead!

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by cassidym

The article also mentions that the publisher did not release the eBook version of the Steven King novel, Under the Dome until several weeks after the pBook version was available to help minimize piracy.

Bah! I was able to get a hold of Under the Dome 2 days after it was released. Sure, it was a shitty OCR but it was still available

[Spectrum]

I would not read this book even if it was given free e or p version.
I saw the scanned book on the web the day it was released...

How many trees did it take to make copies of 1000+ pages long monster?

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times."

And how many times was it borrowed from libraries for free? I would be willing to guess that number was at least 100,000, if not more!

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by gollu

100000 download doesn't equal 100000 reads. There are people on the pirate sites who download anything down-loadable, especially small 2-3 mb files. Surely leeching will be included as a known psychiatric disorder in a few years.

It is just a form of hoarding or completism in the digital realm. If you had plenty of shelf space, and people were giving away free (good quality) deadtree books, wouldn't you take lots of them, even if you knew you'd never get around to reading all of them?

I don't know how many pirated books I've accumulated over the years-- but they fill several DVDs.

My biggest completist fantasy? I would SO much love to have digital copies of the entire print runs of all pulp/"digest" type Science Fiction magazines published in the 20th century (extant examples being Asimov's and Analog) even though I would never, ever get around to reading more than a small fraction of them.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

Bah! I was able to get a hold of Under the Dome 2 days after it was released. Sure, it was a shitty OCR but it was still available

I'm only impressed with the timing of piracy when I can get something before it is released. I don't think I've managed that with ebooks, but I have with movies, and upcoming TV episodes. And 2 or 3 times with physical books (by buying cheap advance reading copies off of Half.com or Ebay.)