It seems as though our old trusty friend the book is making waves in it’s digital form as a digital e-book, but publishers now face the same issues that those in the music and film industry have faced for many years: piracy.
A large proportion of the problem lies in the consumers thought processes and habits, if they can have music, television shows and watch movies for free then why can’t they have digital books too? With 3 million people searching daily for illegal e-book downloads it is clear book piracy is thriving. (digimarc 2014)
Piracy accounts for an estimated $3 billion loss each year in America, and with piracy expected to grow year on year is it no wonder that publishers are seeking alternative methods of protecting their content other than DRM?
Essentially e-books are extremely small files, this means that they are easily shared and made available on thousands of sites in a wide range of convenient formats (torrent freak 2014) these include torrent sites, file sharing websites and peer to peer sharing. How are the files shared in the first place? Most commonly the files can be shared by cracking the DRM (Digital Rights Management) a lock that secures the file to the persons device who purchased it to begin with.
DRMs have proved to be verging on hopeless at protecting e-books from piracy as free available software and plugins along with online instructions allow anybody of any computer level to hack into the file and remove the restraints.
There’s mixed response to DRM, publishers have the best interest to protect an author’s work and their own investments and therefore DRM is needed as although it doesn’t safeguard a file it does reduce the risk of pirating. Publishers are business minded, they take an authors pride of joy and make it a profitable gain. Although there is no significant proof that the piracy of e-books affects an authors income it is still a large risk. In 2011 one in eight women admitted to having downloaded an illegal version of an e-book (readwrite, 2011)
Harper Collins announced in September a new anti-piracy strategy. Instead of locking a file via DRM they will aim to combat the source of the problem. Digimarc offer Gaurdian Watermarking which is invisible to the reader and works by using publisher provided metadata to detect pirated copies of an e-book online that do not come from the copyright holders.
Digimarc have a 3-step process which is demonstrated in the image below:
Digimarc has clients including Pottermore, Random House and Oxford University press.
By disrupting the distribution process and providing their clients with clarity over the piracy ecosystem, publishers can adapt and grow to create a model that eliminates illegal content distribution. And with proof it could even have impact on future piracy laws.
It is certain that e-book piracy is theft and therefore we must strive to educate about intellectual property, copyright and the struggles piracy may cause to the publishing industry, it’s authors and even those who unintentionally download illegal content and in turn steal from their literary idols.
Un-protected work may have positive outcomes to authors, it may have quicker and wider circulation but do these really out weigh purchases and royalties and a positive professional relationship with a publisher who circulates the content at a cost?
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Bibliography
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Publishers Association. (2007). Copyright the basics. Available: http://www.publishers.org.uk/images/stories/AboutPA/Copyrightthe_basics.pdf. Online [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.]
Robley, C. (2014). Whos stealing ebooks and why you shouldn't worry about piracy. Available: http://blog.bookbaby.com/2014/07/whos-stealing-ebooks-and-why-you-shouldnt-worry-about-it/. Online [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.]
Springham, K. (2014). What YA Publishers and Authors Can Do to Fight E-Book Piracy. Online. Available at: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/63357-the-piracy-problem.html. [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.] Stross, C. (2012). The case against DRM on e-books. Available: http://gizmodo.com/5905023/the-case-against-drm-on-ebooks. Online [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.]Watters, A. (2011). Survey Finds E-Book Piracy Occurs Among a Surprising Demographic. Available: http://readwrite.com/2011/05/24/survey_finds_e-book_piracy_occurs_among_a_surprisi. Online [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.]
Webb, J. (2011). Book Piracy, less DRM more data. Available: http://toc.oreilly.com/2011/01/book-piracy-drm-data.html. Online [Accessed 25th Nov 2014.]