This is a soapbox issue for me, and many authors, I suspect–PIRATED BOOKS.
Recently yet another website was brought to my attention that has illegally copied books for download by its members. Now, while many people think, “oh yeah, that’s not really a problem,” let me tell you it really really is. It’s illegal, and breaches copyright and in a nutshell, in my opinion, is theft, pure and simple. Continued abuse must be stamped out and continued abusers dealt with to the full extent of the law.
The site upon which I most recently discovered a pirated copy of one of my books had comments on it telling people how to convert books into files for download by either using a high resolution camera or scanner to copy each page (like people really have the time to do that? Well, obviously!)Â as well as comments like this:
My 4shared account has been banned… and I’ve been so angry these last few days.. You know what.. I have thousand of books in there…. They told me that somebody reported about my account that it’s illegal… so they closed my account…
Don’t worry this problem will not dissuade me from create another free account and get into action again…
I will start uploading again soon….
And this one:
Some people are just plain nasty. They hate to see anyone have a chance to enjoy a good read. Not all of us can get out to the library or afford to buy books online. And some of us just enjoy having a nice big library on their computers that they can go to and always find a good book.
Now, I have never considered myself to be ‘just plain nasty’, nor would I ever begrudge anyone having the right to ‘enjoy a good read,’ but seriously, do these people ever stop to think? They’re not just stealing from my publisher they are stealing from ME, from my family, from my right to earn a living. I write full time, if all my books are pirated and book sales slump and thereby my earnings (which are based on a single digit percentage of the recommended retail price of my books) then I would have to go back to the general workforce, have less time to write, have less books published, thereby having less books available to be pirated. Now, if that happened to all authors it would be a very sad world indeed, wouldn’t it?
Okay, so that’s an extreme example. What about using an analogy. When these people who blithely pirate books go to the
supermarket to buy their groceries, or to a clothing store to buy clothes, do they just as blithely walk out the door without paying for them?
Seriously, downloading pirated books is no different. What does it take for people to understand that?
I could rant some more but that would really tick me off because doing so would eat even more into my writing time than protecting my copyright by having to check to see which thief has most recently decided to distribute my books illegally. I thank my lucky stars for the might of the legal department of my publishing house which acts promptly to seal off these illicit corridors.
=\ That’s really sad. Also, many libraries have elibraries as well, and you can check out an ebook. (And the way its set up, after the 2 wk lending period is over you can no longer open the ebook - even if you saved it. Very tricky.) I do know a classmate that scans all of his textbooks - he just loves having them all on his computer. However, he buys and keeps the books. (Although the way they gouge people with textbooks is a whole other story.)
I can’t really believe the comments people wrote… only unfortunately, I can.
Comment by JSL — 7 February, 2008 @ 5:05 am
Hey, JSL, I know what you mean. Libraries are free, why not utilise them? If they don’t carry your book of choice you can get them to order it in. There have been years when I couldn’t afford to buy books and I’d haunt the library for the latest issues of the romances I’ve always loved. And now, while I buy most of my books for reading, occasionally I still borrow from the library (particularly for non-fiction.)
BTW, did you know you’re a winner on my blog at Novel Thoughts and Books?
Comment by yvonnelindsay — 7 February, 2008 @ 9:15 am
Hello, i read your points but don’t really agree.
how much more different is it if your fans go to the library and borrow your books and believe me, you’ll find authors with 100 people in the waiting line for that library book.
as long as people like you as an auhor, they will still buy your books, no matter the form. i am one of those people who can not buy anymore pbooks(physical books) just to fill up more needed space in my house. i have switched to ebooks. However, as long as the ebook is available by the author i enjoy, i will buy it from her or him at the usual ebookstore online because i know that money will go to the author’s pockets so that they can produce more of those stories i like or love.
The pirated versions let me decide if i EVEN LIKE the author’s style of writing. And i’ve found great authors this way and now, i actually BUY (THAT’S RIGHT BUY AS IN HAND OVER HARD EARNED MONEY $$$’S) to the ebookstore to buy their ebooks.
By fretting yourself over these petty troubles, you just give your migraine headaches instead of what you SHOULD be doing which is concentrating on writing bettter books for more fans so that they’ll come back and marketing yourself more for extra income $$$’s.
Comment by Teana — 15 February, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Teana, the beauty of the world we live in is that not everyone has to agree. You make some valid points, and thank you for taking the time to comment, but book piracy is still illegal.
I know you say that the pirated versions let you decide if you even like an author’s style of writing but in many cases excerpts are available online for readers to sample either through the author’s website or through the publishing house. The house I write for, Silhouette Books, has a massive online resource called eHarlequin.com and excerpts of all current releases are available for prospective readers to browse before buying in either physical or ebook format. And when it comes to library books, there are public lending rights associated with the books circulated through public libraries. In many countries authors receive a payment, albeit a small one, based on the lending of their titles.
I’m glad that you’ve found some great new authors through some of the illegal downloads available and that you still support those authors careers by legally obtaining their titles as well. That’s a positive thing to come from this.
For myself, I don’t tend to fret, I leave that to my publisher’s legal department (although I have to beg to differ with you over book piracy being ‘petty’), and I haven’t had a migraine since I gave up my office job to write full time :-D, although that may change if the volume of pirated copies of books available increases to such a point that it affects my ability to earn an income from my writing.
Comment by yvonnelindsay — 15 February, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
Teana, the beauty of the world we live in is that not everyone has to agree.
Quite right. We live in a democratic world (small d, not big D)
I agree that we shall agree to disagree which is not a bad thing in this democratic world :=)
……, but book piracy is still illegal.
it’s illegal as an infringement on an author’s works but it’s not illegal in the sense as in murdering someone or even physically stealing from someone.
If someone steals an XBox from a store, that’s stealing. If someone makes a copy of your book, it’s not stealing b ecause you still have your original. It’s really only a matter of control.
And the infringement law was granted by the common people so that authors could continue to write or create. It isn’t a Ten Commandmants Law like murder, rape, physical stealing, etc. which is why also i state it as petty.
I know you say that the pirated versions let you decide if you even like an author’s style of writing but in many cases excerpts are available online for readers to sample either through the author’s website or through the publishing house. The house I write for, Silhouette Books, has a massive online resource called eHarlequin.com and excerpts of all current releases are available for prospective readers to browse before buying in either physical or ebook format.
Correct and I make full use of them, but how do I know quickly if the books are any good by just a few chapters. With “pirated” versions, I can at least read the FULL book and tell how many other people LOVED the book and author such that I should pay attention to those books and authors first. This is the beauty of sharing files with others of like mind. Yeah, I can browse thru the library and waste my time trying to figure out which authors are interesting enough that i’d like to spend time with but to me, peer review by my peers is just as important and what’s important to them is something i pay attention to. If they love liz carlyle’s writing, I take a look and I’ve found her writing to my taste and see why everyone loves her also. The only ones who really lose because of pirated versions are used bookstores and bad authors (who wouldn’t have made it even before the digital age). Also, there are still PLENTY of people who would rather buy the physical book than read an ebook on the computer screen.
….ability to earn income
As i said, if you’re a great or even moderately good author, you should have lots of fans. There are some authors i know many people would pay up to $1000 with traveling expenses paid just to show up to their birthday and read a few passages from their books. Even if you had 30 fans willing to pay that much, that’s $30,000 right there for virtually doing nothing!! A democratic and free world where bottled water can be marketed How much more free is that?!!
Comment by Teana — 16 February, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
Though I mostly agree with you, I also have a few minor disagreements:
First, it is rarely possible to buy a legal electronic copy of a novel. That is changing, but until then many products people pirate are not available for purchase. Often when the books are in electronic format we get charged double or more than the price of a traditional book, despite the fact that it costs next to nothing to make available the electronic version (word document to website, poof!). When I can get used books online for a couple bucks, and the very same book costs me as much as $15 simply for the privilege of putting it on my ereader, I begin to see the frustration that leads to piracy. Especially if I already own the book and just want it in a different form.
Second, digital theft is not identical to theft of a physical item. It may be immoral (and illegal) but it’s not identical, and some people may find the differences vital. Like your other poster said, you don’t lose the original if someone pirates your book. It also costs no measurable additional money make another digital copy, whereas it does in the physical world.
Third, as in the music industry, there is the flawed assumption that if people weren’t pirating they’d be buying. That’s often not the case, as has been well studied by economists in the online music field, and it probably holds true in the ebook case as well. One downloaded book is not equal to one book unsold. The music industry has learned that it had to make some adjustments in the face of changing economics, and regardless of whether it’s moral, the publishing industry is about to have to make the same adjustment. And the good news is that the change has allowed musicians to profit and even give consumers a broader picture of the musical world at a more affordable price, with a higher overall percentage of the profits going to musicians instead of recording studios. Wouldn’t it be great if the publishing industry and authors find a way to make online publishing work in a similar way?
(Some ideas I’ve heard: sell your own books directly online; sell books to amazon.com’s Kindle publishing service; publish the books serially from a web page, readers return to download the installment and you make money by ads; place ads in books; or try what the music industry did initially: try to stamp out the crime by prosecuting 12-year-olds and casual users, while losing consumer sympathy when they realize how little cost it takes to distribute books digitally, before finally losing, giving in, and making a decent living after all)
Comment by Psi — 15 March, 2008 @ 3:34 am
Here’s another example of why people pirate books:
“Darwin Among the Machines” by George Dyson for $1 used on Amazon.com in paper form, $17 for the electronic version on the same site. It doesn’t cost them any money at all to “print” it for the Kindle, and there’s no shipping either! I’m paying to save them money! And once I’ve bought it in an e-format I can’t sell it back used; it’s only good on my device. Seventeen Times More Expensive? Piracy is immoral, but so is this.
Comment by Psi — 15 March, 2008 @ 3:46 am
Psi, thanks for your viewpoint. Clearly this is an emotive issue and quite frankly I’d be horrified to find ebooks at a higher price than a new print book. That truly sucks.
From my point of view, all my books are available through my publisher’s webtool http://www.eHarlequin.com, in print and in ebook form and at the same price. Plus, I know Fictionwise and Diesel Books and many many other legitimate ebook download companies also offer my books at the same, if not lower, price as recommended retail.
Logistically, an ebook costs a great deal less to produce and circulate than a print book and you don’t have the issues of returns either. On that basis it would be great to see authors receive a higher royalty percentage on those sales because the overheads are so much lower. Overall, author royalties are a minor piece of the profit pie, hence why we feel so strongly (or at least I do) when our potential income is erroded by online piracy where copyright and ownership of intellectual property is breached.
It’s still illegal to pirate books and while it’s darn hard to police, it doesn’t make it any less wrong.
Comment by yvonnelindsay — 15 March, 2008 @ 3:54 am
[...] — yvonnelindsay @ 2:13 am Tags: book piracy I’ve had some interesting comment on my book piracy blog and yes, there will always be conflicting views over what is perceived to be right (or acceptable [...]
Pingback by Something for nothing? « Yvonne Lindsay’s Weblog — 23 March, 2008 @ 2:28 am
You can’t control information. I love the fact that pirates are taking money out of the phat cats wallets. You can’t control it and it kills you. I plan on uploading all my books this semester.
Comment by MGB — 28 July, 2008 @ 3:40 am