illegal ebooks how many are there?

[drewey25]

I'm not looking to download, just wanted to discuss.

how many books have been uploaded. we know most movies and music have.

[carld]

If it's at all popular I'm sure it's out there somewhere. The total is certainly in 10's of thousands, at a guess.

[sabredog]

If it has been published, it is online and available to be downloaded (in the vast majority of cases).

With current publishers archaic practice of discriminative territorial restrictions, often, it is the only way to get the book you would love to buy but cannot.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by carld

If it's at all popular I'm sure it's out there somewhere. The total is certainly in 10's of thousands, at a guess.

More than that, definitely.

[wvcherrybomb]

Pretty much all of them.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by sabredog

If it has been published, it is online and available to be downloaded (in the vast majority of cases).

With current publishers archaic practice of discriminative territorial restrictions, often, it is the only way to get the book you would love to buy but cannot.

To put it in even more perspective -- if it's been published electronically (easy to rip off DRM and upload) or on paper, it's been uploaded somewhere. Not everything is of high quality, but there are some ridiculously good "illegal" copies of books. For example, there are several hand-crafted, well-designed versions of the Harry Potter books available illegally. Those book still are not available electronically legally yet (and the publishing date got pushed back to next year), and even when they are I suspect the pirated versions will still be higher quality.

Not that I would know, having not read them electronically. Because that would be illegal.

[crich70]

I agree with the others. If it exists it's probably digital somewhere, and it's just a matter of looking it up. I imagine that some are books long out of print for which there are no legit ebook versions yet just as some of them are no doubt today's best sellers whose pbook ink is practically still damp. Name a book and it's probably on someone's computer system somewhere.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by crich70

I agree with the others. If it exists it's probably digital somewhere, and it's just a matter of looking it up. I imagine that some are books long out of print for which there are no legit ebook versions yet just as some of them are no doubt today's best sellers whose pbook ink is practically still damp. Name a book and it's probably on someone's computer system somewhere.

Talking about in English, this is also a function of how recent it is and how popular it is. Stephen King? Likely to be out there the next day, if not sooner.

Random author X who sells 1027 copies of a book only is a 'possibly never' to maybe eventually. And it it is from 1974? Whenever someone feels like scanning it or selling it.

The 'Ripoff' samples I did which were reasonably recent books showed availability in the 90+ percentage. Including some ebooks that were not on sale at all digitally.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

More than that, definitely.

Yeah, I meant to add another 0, but thinking about it, there might be millions.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Random author X who sells 1027 copies of a book only is a 'possibly never' to maybe eventually. And it it is from 1974? Whenever someone feels like scanning it or selling it.

That's the terrible thing about current copyright laws - works like this will probably never, ever see the light of day legally. And probably bypassed by illegal scanners as well...

Just lost in the dustbin of history, even though they could have been saved...

[crich70]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

That's the terrible thing about current copyright laws - works like this will probably never, ever see the light of day legally. And probably bypassed by illegal scanners as well...

Just lost in the dustbin of history, even though they could have been saved...

Ah, but then you are assuming that every author's works deserve to be saved. I wager for every Dickens, Twain, Wells, Verne, etc. that is preserved there are 100's of authors who never made the grade because something about their writing just didn't click with the readers of the day. We speak of the Golden Age of Science Fiction for example and name favorite authors who got their start in the Genre back then, but I hardly think they were the only writers who wrote Science Fiction at the time. Some probably just didn't write something that really caught the reading public's interest and some remained in obscurity for other reasons. Some may have died in WWII for example or given up before they wrote a breakthrough story that got people talking about the new writer whose story they had just read. And some even back then probably just didn't have the proper skill to write fiction that lasts.

[xg4bx]

if its from a major publisher, it'll be posted that night. within the week at the latest.

as for smaller pubs/indie authors it's hit or miss. once in awhile there will be some posted but generally due to the lower price or limited interest its not worth the time for one to post.

toddos is right about the pro quality of some of the pirate editions. theres pirates of things like David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series floating around out there (or so i've been told) that would be indistinguishable from a pro release (if one actually existed or the books were even in print....)


as for the amount of books out there, hard to say. even with stuff like piracy links go dead and nobody bothers to reupload them so those disappear too. its very fluid.

personally i don't know how romance pubs stay afloat, EVERYTHING gets posted. horror fans are the most rabid when it comes to posts. they'll go out of their way to scan and format loooong out of print horror novels and anthologies, thats really the only older stuff that has any life pumping through it.

[sabredog]

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series has long been available. Initially very basic TXT files, they certainly would have been improved over the years.

[Ekaros]

A lot, specialy when some collections on more popular sites, multiple gigabytes of books and some of them in pure text format. You just can't stop piracy if you don't strip customer naked and watch entire process of reading ;D

I wonder how many original digital copies or proofs there are, stolen by someone at the press...

[RainingLemur]

This is the interwebs. You can find pretty much anything with enough searching.