looks like advertising piracy?

[Ken Maltby]

"One of the best-known eBook pirate websites offers a selection of best-sellers that should not yet even be available to the public.
One example is 77 Shadow Street, the new novel by Dean Koontz. Amazon customers will have to pay £11.96 to pre-order it – but an eBook and audiobook version are already available for free from the pirate site."

It looks like the Brits have the real Pirates, but then I always kinda thought of Pirates as
being British saliors, and they had those pirate radio and tv stations, didn't they?

It also seems that the writer is equating the removal of DRM and format shifting as a
form of Piracy.

Luck;
Ken

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Do they mean things like Harry Potter that have been out in realbook for years, or do they mean pre-release / advance reader copies that have been leaked? One could be fixed by not witholding the ebook version for whatever reason they think it should be witheld, the other could be fixed by adding something that would uniquely identify the source but not be obvious to anyone reading it. Like having a minor character with a different name or wearing a different colour socks.

Reading the article the example unreleased books he uses are like Koontz's newest release. It is released in the US and probably other parts of the world but not yet in the UK. So UK buyers have all sorts of lovely choices if they want to read that book

*they can figure out how to fool the ebook system with IP address forging, fake addresses etc etc and buy as US buyers hoping they don't get "caught" paying good hard money for an ebook they aren't allowed to buy and have their accounts turned off.

*They can order the physical books from Amazon or wherever and wait a couple of days for them to be shipped across the Ocean.

*They can just sit like good little children and not buy the book until they are given permission to hand over their money.

*Or they can just say $$#@@#! it all and have it downloaded and be reading in under 30 seconds from a pirate site. A choice which is remarkably simpler, faster, and easier (and really cheaper) than any of the above choices.

It is a classic example of how the publishing system absolutely refuses to modernize for the global economy.

[fjtorres]

Part of the problem with these half-baked mainstream media "piracy" screeds is they focus on the downloaders, when the primary copyright violators are the uploaders/distributors. And among the those, they focus on the general-purpose file distribution channels instead of going for the for-profit "clubs" and resellers.

But then, they'd rather whine and penalize the paying customers than go after the sharks. Hard to be sympathetic to those folks.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

But then, they'd rather whine and penalize the paying customers than go after the sharks. Hard to be sympathetic to those folks.

They are good at doing that. Perhaps if they made changes to how they do business and distribute ebooks? That would eliminate most of the casual piracy.

But for the more serious core group of pirates, that would not matter a jot. They would still pirate away me hearties regardless of any changes made.

[xg4bx]

i've always wondered how pirate rips of video games, books and movies appear online weeks before an official release anywhere. the only suspect i can picture is someone in the pressing plant or whatever reviewers they're sending it to.

they may want to start keeping better tabs on who they send freebies to.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

they may want to start keeping better tabs on who they send freebies to.

Or whom they employ. Not the first time these big companies employers have been nabbed for pirating other companies content or passing on their own employers...

[Gardenman]

How many the of called pirate downloads authors and publishers complain about are books that are not even released as ebooks yet. If they are not released as ebooks than any downloads from pirate sites cannot be lost sales.

[MV64]

Piracy is stealing. I wish we could all agree on this as it seems very basic. That said, I'm not sure it actually affects sales that much, and it's clearly the publishing industry's fault for not properly adapting to the modern age. It's not surprising that people pirate books when the choice is just so much easier. Artificial restrictions can't be justified, and neither can higher prices. So I'm not going to treat pirates like terrible villains. They are rebelling against a screwed up system that abuses them. But it IS stealing.

It would be amazing to see their businesses take off if they released books at just a few dollars cheaper. Imagine a bestseller for 6 as an ebook. They would sell more than normal and it would more than make up for sales. Imagine 3 or 4 dollars for a backlist title.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by MV64

Piracy is stealing. I wish we could all agree on this as it seems very basic.

Piracy is only "stealing" if someone's losing value from it. If piracy doesn't cut into sales at all, it's not stealing--which means that ebook piracy of a book with no legit ebook may not be stealing.

The Harry Potter books would hardly have doubled their print sales without bootleg ebook editions floating around. The people who downloaded either (1) already bought print versions, and wanted digital versions for the purposes pbooks don't cover (search, copy/paste, portability), or (2) were too poor--or believed they were too poor--to buy the print books, and would've just gone without.

An argument can be made that they should just go without. However, going without doesn't increase sales or popularity; there's no *benefit* to the author if people who can't afford the paper version just don't read their books.

We keep going back to the "define piracy" game because it is not "obviously stealing" as some people say.

If you have a bread shop, and sell bread for $2.00/loaf, and I read your recipe, memorize it, and make loaves and give them away in front of your shop--I haven't stolen your bread. I haven't stolen your money. "Stealing" does not mean "Makes so many copies so cheaply that you can no longer make a profit selling it."

I might be cutting into your profits, and that might be a crime--but the name of that crime is not "theft." I can't steal what you didn't already have--those profits.

Imagine a bestseller for 6 as an ebook. They would sell more than normal and it would more than make up for sales. Imagine 3 or 4 dollars for a backlist title.

We get both of those in the indie markets. I regularly pay $3 for backlist ebooks, and some of the self-published books for $4-6 have made the bestseller lists.

[Chi Cygni]

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

I "like" how this article implies between the lines every ereader owner will jump to pirate books sites = thief.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Piracy is only "stealing" if someone's losing value from it. If piracy doesn't cut into sales at all, it's not stealing--which means that ebook piracy of a book with no legit ebook may not be stealing.

But they do not want you know that!

To them EVERY downloaded whatever is a lost sale. Remember that they have statistics to prove they have lost billions on lost sales because everyone would have purchased the ebook/movie/trash song in question.

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The Harry Potter books would hardly have doubled their print sales without bootleg ebook editions floating around. The people who downloaded either (1) already bought print versions, and wanted digital versions for the purposes pbooks don't cover (search, copy/paste, portability), or (2) were too poor--or believed they were too poor--to buy the print books, and would've just gone without.

This is a great example of the incredible navel gazing that some authors and the publishing business in general is currently undertaking. Do they change, evolve and benefit? Nope, they simply winge about it. Afterall, those lost sale every download statistics look good don't they?....

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

An argument can be made that they should just go without.

That same argument is spruiked by those who reckon that geo restrictions are a good thing we all need to have.

Lets face it, there are always going to be piracy. It is the degree of casual piracy that can be resolved IF the publishing, entertainment and music industries start making changes to their business and distribution models to meet customer expectations in this digital age.

Customers are getting bloody sick and tired of bending over and taking it amidst a cacophony of "we know what is best for YOU!"

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by abookreader

Reading the article the example unreleased books he uses are like Koontz's newest release. It is released in the US and probably other parts of the world but not yet in the UK.

modernize for the global economy.

I just checked several of Koontz's older books. Strangely enough they are considerably cheaper in the UK then they are in the US.