eBook Pirates

[pwalker8]

Ran across this rather interesting article on eBook pirates, who they are and why the pirate

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...conomics.shtml

In a nutshell, the article says that more than half the ebook pirates are 30 and up and a third have an income of $100,000 or more. In addition it says that the number one driver for piracy is convenience.

The article also talks about a subject that comes up here quite a bit, the marginal cost of ebooks, i.e. why pay for something that doesn't cost anything to reproduce?

My basic take is I totally get the convenience part. Being able to get almost any ebook that I want at one place is very compelling.

I don't get the marginal cost issue. I mean, I understand what it means and yes, I understand that it doesn't cost anything to reproduce an ebook. However, I don't understand how people do not acknowledge the cost of creating the book in the first place.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Ran across this rather interesting article on eBook pirates, who they are and why the pirate

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...conomics.shtml

In a nutshell, the article says that more than half the ebook pirates are 30 and up and a third have an income of $100,000 or more. In addition it says that the number one driver for piracy is convenience.

The article also talks about a subject that comes up here quite a bit, the marginal cost of ebooks, i.e. why pay for something that doesn't cost anything to reproduce?

My basic take is I totally get the convenience part. Being able to get almost any ebook that I want at one place is very compelling.

I don't get the marginal cost issue. I mean, I understand what it means and yes, I understand that it doesn't cost anything to reproduce an ebook. However, I don't understand how people do not acknowledge the cost of creating the book in the first place.

Seems to me it would be more productive and interesting to focus on the uploaders when examining piracy. Who are they and why do they do it?

[issybird]

It's such a simple issue for me that I don't understand the torturous logic to justify piracy. The rights holders have the right to charge whatever they want for content; a buyer has the right not to buy at said price. That's all. Complaints of being ripped off and others along that line make no sense to me. If you think you'd be ripped off, then don't participate in the transaction. Why do rights holders owe you something at the price you're willing to pay?

[issybird]

^I want to amend the above to say I'm not including cartels or illegal price-fixing in my rubric, I'm focusing on the basic transaction.

[kyteflyer]

I once wanted a book which was simply not available in any legal form. I searched for hard copy, for electronic copy, and even emailed the author in an attempt to find out where I could buy it (no response).

What to do? Pirate, or not.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

It's such a simple issue for me that I don't understand the torturous logic to justify piracy. The rights holders have the right to charge whatever they want for content; a buyer has the right not to buy at said price. That's all. Complaints of being ripped off and others along that line make no sense to me. If you think you'd be ripped off, then don't participate in the transaction. Why do rights holders owe you something at the price you're willing to pay?

I think the point here isn't how people justify it, it's why do they do it in the first place. I very much get the attraction of being able to get a book that is not available by any other means.

Copyright isn't property right, it's simply a government granted time limited monopoly on copying with rights and obligations on both sides. The whole point is to make such works available to the public. If a rights holder isn't making it available, then they aren't keeping up their side of the bargain. Of course, there is a some who think that copyright is all right with no obligation, much like there are pirates who don't see an obligation to actually pay for a work.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Copyright isn't property right, it's simply a government granted time limited monopoly on copying with rights and obligations on both sides. The whole point is to make such works available to the public. If a rights holder isn't making it available, then they aren't keeping up their side of the bargain.

Copyright law gives the rights-holder the right to choose whether or not to publish. It's what lets you keep your private diary private, for example, should someone try to publish it without your permission. It's a two-way street: choose to publish or choose not to publish. As the rights-holder it's your (and nobody else's) decision to make.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Ran across this rather interesting article on eBook pirates, who they are and why the pirate

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...conomics.shtml

In a nutshell, the article says that more than half the ebook pirates are 30 and up and a third have an income of $100,000 or more. In addition it says that the number one driver for piracy is convenience.

The article also talks about a subject that comes up here quite a bit, the marginal cost of ebooks, i.e. why pay for something that doesn't cost anything to reproduce?

My basic take is I totally get the convenience part. Being able to get almost any ebook that I want at one place is very compelling.

I don't get the marginal cost issue. I mean, I understand what it means and yes, I understand that it doesn't cost anything to reproduce an ebook. However, I don't understand how people do not acknowledge the cost of creating the book in the first place.

I agree. While it doesn't cost anything to make a copy of a book in ebook format there is the hard work of creation in the first place. 1/3rd eh? So that means 2/3rds are not among the wealthy? Or do they have it broken down further I wonder? While I don't understand why they charge say $9.99 for a given book in ebook format for a book that's been in paper for say 10 yrs or more I get that they want to make some $ on it in the new media. What gets me though is when a book isn't available in either paper or ebook even though it's a known title. Eleanor Cameron's Mushroom Planet books for example may be in paper (though hard to find) but they might also be expensive not to mention there is the issue of finding space for physical books (something that ebooks don't have to worry about).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by crich70

...What gets me though is when a book isn't available in either paper or ebook even though it's a known title.

I will say, I don't get too fussed about people downloading eBooks that aren't otherwise available.

As for why people do it, I think (for some at least) it's the challenge of finding what you want through surreptitious channels. Like you've pulled one off.

Also I think some people have a 'screw the corporations' attitude that drives them to find stuff for free.

[ekbell]

I'm left wondering how reliable are the statistics. Was it a random survey? Were there demographic differences in who choose to respond?

Or was this some self-selected group of people frequenting a particular place or website?

Without information on how the information was gathered Ifind it hard to take any survey seriously.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Copyright law gives the rights-holder the right to choose whether or not to publish. It's what lets you keep your private diary private, for example, should someone try to publish it without your permission. It's a two-way street: choose to publish or choose not to publish. As the rights-holder it's your (and nobody else's) decision to make.

Exactly.
The right to unpublish is part of copyright. One of the reason why "orphan works" laws are so problematic.

Just because something was once available doesn't mean it must be forever be conveniently available.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ekbell

I'm left wondering how reliable are the statistics. Was it a random survey? Were there demographic differences in who choose to respond?

Or was this some self-selected group of people frequenting a particular place or website?

Without information on how the information was gathered Ifind it hard to take any survey seriously.

You are right to wonder.
Buried in the article is the source of the report: DIGIMARC, a company that exists to sell "anti-piracy" tools. They are also a regular source of studies that make piracy out to be a big threat:

https://www.digimarc.com/application/copyright

One would hardly expect them to be issuing studies that might suggest piracy has no real economic impact on rights holders.

[arjaybe]

Why is it that they "pirate" books that people don't want them to, but they won't "pirate" my books even though I encourage it? It's just not fair.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Copyright law gives the rights-holder the right to choose whether or not to publish. It's what lets you keep your private diary private, for example, should someone try to publish it without your permission. It's a two-way street: choose to publish or choose not to publish. As the rights-holder it's your (and nobody else's) decision to make.

In the US, copyright comes from the Constitution.

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

The purpose of giving copyright is to promote the progress of science and useful arts, which is why the US has the idea of fair use embedded in copyright law. It's not an absolute.

Laws and traditions are different in different parts of the world. In the US, copyright is a trade off. In Europe, it was traditionally a royal monopoly. Other parts of the world have no real tradition of copyright.

[HarryT]

I'm pretty sure that what I said before about the law giving you the right to publish and the right not to publish, as you see fit, is as true under US copyright law as it is under British law.