Are We About To Enter The Age of Book Piracy? 494
theodp writes "The speed with which the 4MB e-mail hoax purporting to be the new cookbook from the Naked Chef streaked across the Internet suggests to Slate that a new, disquieting era for the publishing world may be in sight. Indeed, the latest Harry Potter tale made the rounds on the Web just hours after the book went on sale, its 870 pages apparently scanned in and distributed by rabid fans. The old argument that no one likes reading on a computer has pretty much eroded. Just because publishing people can't conceive of book piracy doesn't mean it can't happen."
just look up (Score:1, Interesting)
Comics too. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only books, but comics too. Already I've seen complete archives of all X-Men, Spiderman, etc. I think that might actually become a bigger problem, because comics are easy to scan and distribute, and their readers probably fit very well the profile of your typical "downloader".
It's all about having it (Score:5, Interesting)
For most book pirates (and pirates in general, really), it's not about getting books to read for free -- it's all about having the book. To these pirates, if you don't have a bigger collection than everyone else, you're nothin'.
duh (Score:5, Interesting)
IMO, more interesting than the fact that book "piracy" happens is the fact that with todays "electronic entertainment systems" people are actually willing to read a book instead of playing repetative action games.
Scannned? (Score:3, Interesting)
Fake books (Score:3, Interesting)
It was also remarkably similar in plot, probably due to both authors reading fan discussions on what will happen for the last couple of years.
Re:this is old news... (Score:3, Interesting)
I read on the palm but don't pirate (Score:1, Interesting)
Since I get my books from usenet, I have to grab anything that I might someday want to read when it's passing through, so I do have thousands of books on my machine that I haven't paid for. However, if I decide to read one, I go to the used book store and grab a copy (most of what I read is older SF).
Re:But still.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:article -1 Troll (Score:3, Interesting)
eCopies of books have been known to increase sales (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:article -1 Troll (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever tried flying somewhere, awaw for a couple of weeks... DO you carry 10lbs of books or one memory stick / cf card / whatever your palm/pocket pc takes.
Books are big, heave and inconvenient. Palmtops are small, multifunctional, light and their screens are getting better all the time. Battery life on all bar the ones with Pocket PC is good enough for a transatlantic flight.
Anyway, the fact they are being distributed means there is a demand. Look at the facts, if someone can be bothered to scan an entire book and then distribute it with no hope of recognition or reward they must be doing it for the satisfaction of themselves and others enjoying their efforts.
The book industry doesn't make every book available in an ebook format. Whyever not? It's not like they don't have the work in a computer? They can sell it for a bit less than a paper book, but he savings must be astronomical - no distrobution chain to run, no bookshops to pay... If they don't see the advantages they'll be left behind just like the music an video industries.
I'm not so sure (Score:5, Interesting)
I like to read in bed and I found the 766 behemoth unwieldy (or I would if I tried it, I've found shorter books unwieldy).
With my laptop I just stuck it on my bedside table, turned down the brightness, chose acceptable font and background colours in Acrobat, flipped the page 90 degrees and went full screen.
A pleasant reading experience in a comfortable position with no book to support and reposition with every page turn.
My only fear was that some joker might edit the book and interject with a spoiler part way through. With a song if a track is spoiled you can chuck it and still enjoy the track from other sources. If you get a book from an untrusted source and it spoils it then it could ruin your enjoyment of the book completely.
why not use the free market? (Score:2, Interesting)
In less regulated markets, such as those that seem to exist in the east, and in places where large sums of money are not readily available, it is often easier to violate the copyright than purchase the book under 'proper' license. In some cases, it would be nearly impossible for an average person to purchase the book under proper license because the publisher chooses not to create an affordable edition. Of course, it is no more the responsibility of the publisher to create an affordable edition that it is for the consumer to pay the publisher.
So, why are publishers now worried about copyright infringement of books. The same reason music publishers are worried. The publishers are becoming less efficient at publishing books, and therefore are charging more. At the same time is it cost much less to print out your own copy, and nearly nothing to read it on the screen. Add to this that the days of the dirt cheap paperback are long gone, and you have a situation where people will choose not to buy.
The sad thing is that instead of using free market tactics like coming up with innovative ideas to add value to hardback editions, or releasing quickly cheap paperbacks, they use state controlled market tactics like heavy regulation and government enforcement. Even the idea of creating a subsciber service in which electronic editions can be downloaded for a fixed monthly fee seem to inexistant, even though such a scheme would generate cashflow with the expense of paper publishing.
I was just reading a article in Fortune on how name brand manufacturers have become so massively inefficient that they can no longer compete with the store private label quality or price. The major brands also have lost the power to force the retail stores to carry their over priced low quality products, so these brands are losing market share. I think it is the same in publishing, and the majors probably need to be more worried about Barnes and Noble than individual book sharers(and, of course, unless they steal the books off a boat on the high seas, it is not piracy).
Potential Positive Effect (Score:5, Interesting)
They are finding that sales actually go up on the author's other books! Having freely available books gives readers an introduction to authors they may have never picked up before, they tend to buy other books written by the same author. According to Baen the life-cycle of your typical book really isn't that long.
This isn't to justify book piracy, but just as we have seen in the Music industry we may be dealing with a bit of exaggeration on the part of the publishers (and on the part of some authors who seem to have gone a bit rabid on the subject).
Brian
Re:We have standards (Score:3, Interesting)
If I want to find all texts about LTP in the amygdala, however, flipping through a dozen books and a few hundred papers just isn't the same as a quick "grep". If I want to find the source of a half-remembered quotation, I'd have to spend days to find where I read it - or spend half my reading time filling in index cards and keeping them sorted, which is what people had to do before their texts were searchable. If you want to do that, you are welcome to.
Laptop: I do have the books in paper format as well. And the size of the laptop compared to books is a non-issue; it's not laptops OR books, it's laptop, or laptop AND books.
Oh, and for all the convenience of generating vaiorus formats, you _still_ occasionally bump into PDF:s that are simply scanned pages, or where you can't extract the text for some other reason.
BTW, the title turned out wrong - Phoenix autocompleted it without me noticing it...
Re:article -1 Troll (Score:3, Interesting)
I know I wouldn't put up with a tiny screen, and I think the palm-types otherwise would have too small of a screen and too coarse of a DPI to put up with it. I would think that you'd need to carry batteries and chargers around, and for intn'l trips, multistandard charger and that can easily add up. I suppose one added benefit of a palm unit is that most are or can be backlit for dark times.
I can see the problems of reading on a palm machine being easily offset by getting the book for free, despite having to own $300 of hardware to read an eBook of some kind.
I can see the book industry and the other industries being leery about claims of not needing a distribution chain. First you'd need to raise an incredible level of traffic to the publisher's site, and basically break the consumer tendency to just buy books at a bookstore, most of which aren't beholden to a particular publisher so you get a large selection all in _one_ place without having to visit dozens of publisher sites. So you still need a dealer "network" of some sort.
Re:Comics too. (Score:5, Interesting)
But one reason they are collected is their ephemeral nature. You can't go to the library and check out issue number 31 of Spiderman. There will be some people who will collect any physical item, but there are many people who buy collectible comics just to read them. Without these purchasers, demand and price of old comics is likely to fall.
Re:Now it's getting pointless (Score:3, Interesting)
I also like to try to find books to download before I buy if I can't find a decent review of them on the Net. For example, nobody seems to have read "Northrop Frye on Myth." Mind you, you can't download this one either, but still.
I'm lucky I'm an English major; my "textbooks" can be bought for pennies used. It's such a nice feeling to tell my friends that the total for books in one term is $40 or so, and seeing the look of shock and disgust on their faces.
"$40?!? My cheapest textbook is twice that amount!"
Re:Books on audio & college textbooks (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't really know how long it took Jim Dale to get 23+ hours of Harry Potter laid down on tape, but it must have been months of work. I have no objection to seeing him get paid for that (and since the CDs are available for under $50, only a few bucks per CD, it seems quite reasonable compared to music.)
Other recorded books are, of course, much more expensive. Overall I've found that Order of the Phoenix could have been priced much higher than they did based on demand, in any format. I assume this is an economic decision rather than a friendly one, but I know that it enabled married friends of mine to purchase two copies rather than one so neither had to wait.
Now, that's just to point out that this is more than just a "golden voice"; it's a major effort by an actor with rare talent. If you want to put together an Internet project to read books aloud, I think that would be noble and interesting. For out-of-print books, you might check out AudioBooksForFree [audiobooksforfree.com]. Just don't be too disappointed when your efforts don't sound nearly as good as the professional ones, and take more work than you expect.
For copyrighted works, well, the publishers wouldn't be happy if you're competing with their efforts, especially if they have their own recordings. But I'd press you to think about the value of new books versus old; if you'd rather record a new, copyrighted book than an old one, maybe you'll see why that book has value to the one who paid to publish it.
Disclaimer (too late): I am an actor and do recorded readings (and am unbelievably jealous of a voice like Jim Dale's).
Re:It's all about having it (Score:3, Interesting)
Lots of BitTorrent sites have collections of TV shows movies that have nothing do with one another. Dramas, comedies, reality shows, fan-subtitled foreign works... they have everything. This isn't to show off what they have. It's because if they saw two sites that were offering comedies and decided, "Oh well, they've got that handled, I don't have to carry those", then those sites will doubtlessly be shut down in a week and the shows won't be available anywhere else because no one else carries them.
It's about having the works distributed as widely as possible, not having the biggest collection.
Re:article -1 Troll (Score:3, Interesting)
The cost of e-publishing is not zero, but in some cases it can be very well approximated as such. And it is definitely much lower than paper publishing. Either publishers will start using the opportunity, or the pirates and the customers will.
Re:It's copyright infringement (Score:3, Interesting)
Quote from Oxford English Dictionary:
". fig. The appropriation and reproduction of an invention or work of another for one's own profit, without authority; infringement of the rights conferred by a patent or copyright.
1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 76 They..would suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition. 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 520 He is charged with 'Literary Piracy', and an 'unprincipled suppression of the source from whence he drew his information'. 1855 BREWSTER Newton I. iv. 71 With the view of securing his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy"
Re:But still.. (Score:3, Interesting)
With a computer, you can not move at all. That makes it not relaxing, but stressful.
Re:Now it's getting pointless (Score:3, Interesting)
Roleplaying game books can cost upwards of $20 for a suppliment, $35-45 for a core book. Dungeons and Dragons, the big granddaddy of them all, only charges $30 for it's core books, but since you have to buy three of them, that's really $90, plus one of their settings for another $30-40, you're talking an investment of about $120.
But even your typical GURPS suppliment (known for detail and low price) costs about $24 nowadays...
So there definetely IS a market for piracy - many RPG players are kids who literally can't afford the book, yet want to read it anyway. Another section are people who want to see what the book contains before plunking down hard-earned cash... while most gaming stores let people browse and read the goods, they may not have more obscure games, or for some reason they may not carry a line from a particular author. (For example, some gaming stores don't carry non-D&D stuff, others, especially big chains like Borders, don't carry GURPS stuff, which has it's own distribution network, Warehouse 23.)
And for the most part, (although I can't speak for everyone) actually *keeping* the PDF pretty much frowned upon. There's a dozen "legitimate" reasons to download the books - all of which either end up with a purchased book or a deleted file. There are a couple companies that have been horrible to their customers, (The Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast, for one, and some people who have been forced to deal with the White Wolf sysadmin thinks he's a BOFH,) but most of them are really nice guys who actually do pay their authors, artists, etc. Some even go so far as to release a free PDF online, but sell the book cheaply in the stores (like Guardians of Order's "Tri-Stat DX") and many RPG companies are beginning to see the benifits of PDF distribution despite the risk of piracy.
Even so, I don't see this as being as much of a problem for the book industry in general as it is for the RPG book industry, mostly because the RPG book industry is typically more expensive, is composed of a typically younger, cash starved audience (High Schoolers & College Students)
Even there, in this industry that should be rife with piracy, the general concensus is that the RPG book is more portable, easier to read, and usually cheaper than printing it out, either at Kinkos or from an inkjet (the jury's still out on the lazer printer.)
Our best hope will be that the book industries don't march up in arms about this the way the record and movie industries have. ESPECIALLY with books, this will turn out to be No Big Deal. Unlike movies and music, books have no big control over the market (sure, being on Scholastic instead of Ted Humperdink might get you on the Oprah's book club, but if you aren't writing a book that Oprah would possibly like anyway, like automotive repair, then it doesn't really matter, does it?) to lose. Remember, the music industry is fighting to keep a monopoly, they are NOT fighting to keep profits.
-- Funksaw
Alarmist crap. (Score:3, Interesting)
My guess is that someone in the industry (think big, DRM friendly software vendor) has come up with a solution to sell, and is now looking to create a problem. The "Harry Potter" leak has all of the earmarks of a media stunt engineered to prevent the inevitable downswing of popularity that the trendy serial will (and already has) expirienced.
Alarmist Crap.
Keep your DRM, thank you.
And no, SMTP works just fine for me, thank you. If you think you have something better, then release it and see if anyone switches.
Re:article -1 Troll (Score:2, Interesting)
Age of Book Piracy: The 19th Century (Score:3, Interesting)
Closer to our own time, Taiwan did not sign the international copyright convention until late in the 1970s. Up to then, Taiwanese publishers routinely ripped off popular books and sold their editions for a fraction of the what the legal editions cost.
My point is that book piracy is nothing new.