Book piracy: Less DRM, more data

[OtterBooks]

The level of time commitment to consume the product combined with the fairly low cost of alternatives suggests to me that someone who targets a specific book for download is much more likely to be willing to pay for it otherwise.

After getting my Kindle I discovered ebooks were torrented. I wasn't surprised; I just never really thought about it. I was well acquainted with torrents in my college days, so I'm no saint and certainly not one to judge. But even then, when I really wanted a movie or album I preferred the retail copy for my collection. Sits on a shelf, looks nice, whatever.

Ah, but there I sat with a new e-ink toy and was curious. In moments I had windows open showing two products utterly identical in even the most superficial ways, sans DRM. One was $7, which is well worth the time I spend reading a novel I enjoy, paper or not. Literally the only difference was I could click one button and spend $7, or click the other and spend $0; both delivered to me in seconds. It almost made that $7 seem like a donation to corporate charity. I didn't want to add to my lovely collection of text files to put on Shuffle; I wanted to read that book. It's of little use to me otherwise. I spent $4 on a used trade paperback instead (still easing into the transition), my age-inspired ethics intact.

That said, I don't think publishers see organized torrent sites as the real problem, against which DRM is ineffective. IMO they're worried about copying and trading between friends and so forth who otherwise are not the 'pirate' type (Grandma sending copies to her book discussion club, etc), and I think DRM does have a significant impact on that. However I can only guess.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by ficbot

My own bottom line is this: there will ALWAYS, in any business, be 'pirates' or whatever that industry calls them. You will not sell to those people because they weren't going to buy it anyway. They are part of the cost of doing business.

I disagree. One reason we need a new model or more for the digital age is that those pirates are not a cost to anyone. People who were not going to buy anyway do not cost the author and the publisher anything.

They have enjoyed an eBook. The publisher and the author cannot realistically or morally decide and enforce who gets to enjoy a book.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

That's a widely held belief, but I'm not at all sure that it's true. I think it is an assumption not based upon evidence.

I have frequently seen another proposal that I don't think is based upon evidence: that the biggest pirates are also the biggest customers.

Consider music. The fact that the most popular (sold) songs are also the most pirated doesn't prove to me that the pirates would have spent money on it.

Perhaps there are two markets - people with money and people without. Pirating allows those without money to enjoy what they have not paid for. But it is not clear to me that the artists have lost anything because the poor never had the money to give them in the first place.

I saw record exec Tommy Mottola interviewed on Fox Business about a month ago, and he said that music used to be a 50 billion dollar industry and it is now a 25 billion dollar industry. My opinion is that the decline is based upon the fact that they are making records nobody wants to buy. The popular touring acts are for the most part the older acts, not those with current hits.

The truth of the matter is that no one knows or can know what the exact numbers are, but in my opinion it's just as foolish to state there is no loss from piracy as there is to state that every illegal, unsanctioned or pirate download would have otherwise translated into a full retail price sale.

I personally don't think the actual, as opposed to the potential, loss is that high - in many cases I'd be surprised if it's as high as 1% and astonished if it's as high as 10% of all pirate downloads. However, that doesn't mean it's zero - and as long as the two sides keep to the extremes no one is ever going to resolve the issue.

Yes, there is a loss involved, no, it's not as large as most of the industry think; yes, there are factors which mitigate and in some cases may even outweigh the loss; no, it doesn't mean that no creators are hurt.

Take the oft-touted statement that the biggest downloaders are also the largest purchasers of music. This may well be true - it certainly wouldn't surprise me if many downloaders were also large purchasers. However, just because people who download music also buy music does not mean their purchases are in proportion to their downloads.

They may buy far more music than they download from one band, and much less than they download from another. The music industry as a whole may make more money from them than they would have otherwise, but one particular band may make less.

Piracy is not a zero-sum game; it does have an impact. In some cases it may be positive, in others negative.

The people who claim there are no losses from piracy are no closer to the truth than those who try to claim every unsanctioned download translates directly into the loss of revenue from a sale that they otherwise would have had.

It's complicated and no one has the numbers - but by this time it should be clear to everyone that the numbers are neither all nor nothing.

[amoroso]

Originally Posted by ficbot

What you CAN do is address the people who might have bought it in another circumstance and did not---if you find out why they did not, and address that, you can convert that to a sale next time.

Speaking of DRM and data, it might be worth starting to estimate also honest to good lost sales, i.e. those from customers who publicly express their frustrations with DRM and unwillingness to buy copy-protected ebooks. The Lost Book Sales site and posts in this forum may be a good start.

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

The statement that a person who pirated a book "would never, ever buy it" doesn't change the fact that he has it now... that makes it a copy that has not been paid for, and therefore, a lost sale caused by theft.

Sorry, no. The publisher still has it and can still sell it. That's in fact the key difference between theft and violating somebody's copyright. If somebody cannot afford to buy a certain book, CD, movie, whatever -- obviously the moral choice would be to refrain from downloading it illegally, but if he does so there was still no sale lost. Had he not been able to download it he wouldn't have bought it, either.

The fact that he says he wouldn't have paid for it is immaterial to the fact that he took.

That's only true for tangible goods (a book in book store, say). For intangible goods marginal costs are zero.

[Hatgirl]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Piracy is not a zero-sum game; it does have an impact. In some cases it may be positive, in others negative.

The people who claim there are no losses from piracy are no closer to the truth than those who try to claim every unsanctioned download translates directly into the loss of revenue from a sale that they otherwise would have had.

It's complicated and no one has the numbers - but by this time it should be clear to everyone that the numbers are neither all nor nothing.

This is what I think too, but I was having trouble expressing it.

Cheryl Morgan, who runs Wizard's Tower Books had some interesting thoughts on ebooks and piracy. (I was going to quote the most relevant parts, then I realised I was essentially going to quote the whole article )

[deddajay]

We love reading but since my partner lost his sight 7 years ago, accessible books are the priority in our household. This brings its own problems as so many books he wants to read are never published in audio. Ebooks are the next best thing, provided his screen reader can access them. Ereaders are a no no for him, so the pc is his only option, which means we have to convert books to text or mp3 file formats for him to be able to read them.

For as long as publishers continue to release books with DRM, I will continue to circumvent it so that books can be converted to plain text. However, we are not prepared to pay silly money for ebooks either - a recent hunt for a book found it being sold on one UK site at £21.55 with the paperback being sold for £16.24. How can this be justified? I would rather take the tedious option of buying a cheap second hand paperback and scanning it than pay silly money. In the case of rip off prices I will search the Darknet for available alternatives that can easily be converted. For someone who is confined to home 24/7, reading is a life saver not a pastime, and we already buy upwards of 50 books a month between us as it is. I therefore don't feel any guilt at seeking alternative sources to legal outlets, nor in increasing my computer skills to find new ways to convert DRM protected books.

When publishers finally get their act together to consider accessible books which are released at the same time as mainstream editions and at the same price, then I will change my ways. Until then, needs must and I will continue to be a "pirate".



Now on my third Sony Reader!

[FF2]

deddajay:

The kindle3 (I don't know earlier models) has speech-to-text. I know it only works for certain books but it is there. Obviously, a mechanical/computer voice but some folks apparently like it.

So your partner could be freed from having to sit by the computer.

[sunlioness]

A while ago I watched a film I bought on DVD called The Corporation. It was an amazing documentary and it ended with these words:

If you have watched this film for free and you have enjoyed it, please consider going to our website and donating. The film was made by dedicated, independent filmmakers who have spent the better part of the past nine years funding, producing and promoting this film. Please send a monetary thank-you note to the filmmakers for their years of effort making and promoting the film.

I found that fantastic as the film is very easily found online (mutliple times uploaded on YT) and the publishers don't seem to mind. I LOVED it.

I NEVER buy any book for which I'm not sure of its quality, so that means I almost never buy books from new authors. I only borrow them from the library or friends and if I like it enough I'll buy it for myself and my family. And I think that's the only fair thing to do as I feel robbed (both for my money AND time) when I buy a bad book/film.

If an author was to offer their eBook (that costs nothing to distribute) for free, and the book was good, they'd be able to earn money directly with no middle-men for it through donations. But writers pay their publishers not just for publishing the book but for advertising it and "pushing" it. Hence the DRM.

[GA Russell]

I remember twenty years ago when shareware was a popular concept for computer programs. You downloaded the program, and then if you liked it you sent the company ten dollars. It worked on the honor system.

I suppose that didn't work out too well, because I haven't seen much shareware in years, although I sometimes see it at tucows.

What makes more sense to me is giving away the first book of a series for free, like Baen does. If nobody likes the book, the author needs to find a new line of work. But if they do, the author has customers for the remainder of the series.

[OtterBooks]

[Lemurion] While that definitely makes it a loss, it doesn't make it a lost sale, just as the theft of a paper book from a bookstore is not necessarily a lost sale. It has the potential of a lost sale, but the actual loss is the wholesale cost, not the retail price.

Heck, I think you could go even further. A digital violation, sans intent to purchase, isn't even a loss. When you download something, you aren't receiving an item which as a result no longer exists somewhere else; you receive instructions on how to make it yourself.

The spirit of copyright law in this context is the prevention of someone being deprived the fruit of their labor. If someone who downloads an ebook for personal use truly would not or is unable to obtain that written work by any lawful means, then I don't feel that spirit has been violated. No material loss, no potential loss. I also feel that such conditions are uncommon, relative to other forms of media.

[NVash]

Originally Posted by Hatgirl

This is what I think too, but I was having trouble expressing it.

Cheryl Morgan, who runs Wizard's Tower Books had some interesting thoughts on ebooks and piracy. (I was going to quote the most relevant parts, then I realised I was essentially going to quote the whole article )

I just read that entire link and the comments and I noticed one thing that stood out at me. How can one call something a 'fraction of a sale'? They were only going to buy half the book?

Why is piracy such a big deal? Why dont people work on putting out the best product they can so that whether its pirated or not it doesnt matter? See, if I were a writer Id give out my first book for free. If I have all these bills that need to get paid I wont be doing it. Id front the bill for the first book. Thatd get my name out there. Then Id start cheap with the other books. Heck, Id have my books so cheap that people wouldnt even want to pirate. You see a book at $10 or $20, when you know you can find it somewhere for free, its temptation. You see a book at under $5 it nears an impulse buy. Think authors with cheap ebooks are pirated often? Sure they are pirated, no doubt, but do you think it happens often? Im sure there are some books that arent pirated at all, what do those authors have to say about piracy? What about the people that decide they instead would rather buy it used and get it off the Amazon Marketplace for pennies? They arent the problem, no, its those pirates! Heres an idea, why dont they drop their prices for, oh, a week. Give them one week. Advertise it of course, give about a month of advertising. One week, every book GUARANTEED under $3. See how many sales they bring in then. But oh, thatll never happen. Thatll never happen or they wont advertise it so that no one will know and then they can again say, "PIRATES ARE THE PROBLEM! ITS NOT THE PRICES, WE LOWERED THEM AND STILL DIDNT GET ANY SALES!" And nobody wants to talk about those pirates that got it the wrong way to begin with but liked it so much they went back and bought it. Oh no, forget about them. Do they even exist?

Bottom line, why are pirates the problem? Its almost like the Kansas City Shuffle from 'Lucky Number Slevin'. "EVERYBODY LOOK OVER THERE! PIRATES PIRATING BOOKS!" when they should be over here asking questions like "Why cant we get decent prices? Why cant we have back catalogs released? Why cant books be formatted right?" Why dont these publishers work on making the consumer happy instead of making up these tired excuses that no one cares about? Thatll never happen will it?

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

That said, I don't think publishers see organized torrent sites as the real problem, against which DRM is ineffective. IMO they're worried about copying and trading between friends and so forth who otherwise are not the 'pirate' type (Grandma sending copies to her book discussion club, etc), and I think DRM does have a significant impact on that. However I can only guess.

Great point! I hadn't thought about it in quite that way.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

That said, I don't think publishers see organized torrent sites as the real problem, against which DRM is ineffective. IMO they're worried about copying and trading between friends and so forth who otherwise are not the 'pirate' type (Grandma sending copies to her book discussion club, etc), and I think DRM does have a significant impact on that. However I can only guess.

Yeah, it does have an impact. It gets me to buy a used hardcover, or if necessary, a used paperback, instead, that doesn't have any of the ridiculous DRM restrictions associated with it.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by deddajay

We love reading but since my partner lost his sight 7 years ago, accessible books are the priority in our household.

If you didn't know--Baen offers all its ebooks free to people who have a reading disability. I've got several friends who've signed up for their ReadAssist program, and they say the process is simple and painless.