What's the difference from a pirated book and a group of friends not buying it and just passing it around?

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Asked of an e-book What's the difference from a pirated book and a group of friends not buying it and just passing it around?


Caveat: This question was asked by a correspondent on a different GoodReads group.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

"Asked of an e-book What's the difference from a pirated book and a group of friends not buying it and just passing it around?"


It's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of law. The law is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Under copyright, an author has the exclusive right to control the REPRODUCTION (or copying) and DISTRIBUTION of his or her work.

Sorry for the capitals, but those two words are important. It is legal to share/lend/sell a paperback book with/to your friends (or anyone else).

The physical paperback changes hands. If your friend has it, you do not have it as well. You might get it back, but it does not exist in two places at the same time, no unpaid-for copy of your copy is created.

However, if you go to your local copyshop, and photocopy your paperback, you are breaking the law. There are warnings taped to public copymachines advising you of that.

With an ebook, you purchase a license to read the work on your own equipment. You do not purchase the copyright. You may hand a friend your ebookreader, or allow them to sit in front of your computer and read the ebook.

However, it is impossible for you send an ebook to a friend (or stranger) without creating a copy that wasn't paid for. By emailing an ebook to someone else, you become a REPRODUCER (because you make copies) and a DISTRIBUTOR.

Same thing if you upload it to a storage site and then upload the URL to a "sharing" site. You still have the copy you paid for on your hard drive, and on your desktop, and in your automated backup... it is also in your ISP "Send" file, and it is in the "In Box" of whoever you sent it to.

If you play Bridge or Whist, you'll be familiar with the idea of Trumps. One suit "trumps" another. Under current copyright law, the right of an author to control reproduction and distribution (and the performance) of his or her work "trumps" other rights and doctrines such as "first sale".

"Fair Use" almost always applies only to excerpts, never to a whole work. One of the tests of whether a use is "fair" or not is the effect that the proposed fair use would have on the author's ability to sell legal copies of the original work.

Obviously, if readers can read the entire book, free, on a pirate site, or buy an authors' entire set of books on CD on EBay for a couple of dollars, this is going to cut into sales and the authors' rightful income.

[Pauline]

Excellent summary, Rowena. :-)

[Guido]

You took the words out of my mouth. I've been thinking about writing something like this up for a few days already because I keep hearing people complain about how it is okay to pass around books but not eBooks. They completely fail to understand that with a book only one person can read it at any given time and that it is still "the one" book.

[[deleted user]]

Guido, Please do write something. The more we can educate readers, the happier we all will be. Rowena has written an excellent summary.

[Guido]

I am somewhat reluctant to do that, particularly after having seen what happened to Doug Preston. He made some simple comments to the extend that he felt people have a somewhat misguided sense of entitlement, expecting eBooks to be super-cheap and it backfired on him so badly.

People do not want to hear these kinds of things. They live in their make-believe bubbles in which anything they "want" is right and anything that has even remotely to do with someone making money is "greedy" and despicable. Most of them have absolutely no business acumen and don't even stop to think where their own paychecks come from.

Unfortunately I am not in a position that I could afford to incur the wrath of the eBook reader community and thus, so far, I have decided to remain silent for the most part.

[[deleted user]]

Sadly, I understand your position.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Guido,

I understand. A lot of authors share your apprehension. The irony is that people don't respect cheap e-books, either.

There's an old saying (that I'm too old to remember) to do with valuing ...or maybe it was respecting... something in proportion to what you paid for it.

I suspect that when a reader is permitted to read a free e-book on the author's site, they think nothing of sharing it. However, many authors put up free books on their websites in order to attract traffic to those websites.

The website is intended to be a destination, not a distribution point.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Why buy a cow when you can get milk for free?

That's not it!

[Pamela]

Thanks for the piece you wrote. I copied it so next time I am on an epublishing panel I can explakin clearly to those in the audience. I think people think that anything is out there is theirs. Think of fan fiction.

Irony for me, I found a free eread I have under my pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, from All Romance eBooks is actually pirated. I found it, without thje lovely coverart, on a forum. I call that the most ironic thing, as the readers can get it free and with the cover art from ARE.

[Alice]

Passing a book around is fine. People often discover new writers that way. It's a Good Thing for us.

In that case, though, there's only one copy in existence. That's a very different situation from the one in which hundreds or thousands of people can get their own individual copies for free and potentially upload and create hundreds and thousands more illegal copies.

That's why it's called "copyright." You have the right to pass a book around among your friends. You con't have the right to copy it.

Rowena wrote: "Asked of an e-book What's the difference from a pirated book and a group of friends not buying it and just passing it around?


Caveat: This question was asked by a correspondent on a different..."

[Crystalwizard]

with a paperback book, if you buy it and pass it around, there's still only one copy in circulation. There's a good chance those friends you passed it to will go buy their own copy.

when you hand out digital copies of an e-book, however, you've created more than one object, no one you hand it to will need to go buy a copy because they have one.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Very true, Crystalwizard.

While one does not wish to be greedy, and one certainly does not expect that everyone who goes into a bookstore or library to browse will purchase a copy, file "sharing" of entire novels is not browsing.

Even if the original sharer would never have purchased or read a copy of the novel they duplicated, someone else down the line might have done so.

[Cheryl]

The key to this argument goes back to the original question. Someone either bought or borrowed the paperback from a library. That specific book was more than likely purchased, unless it was a gift ( then the giver bought it) or a prize.

And as Rowena explains quite nicely, pirating is theft of an author's copyright.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author

PS: I had a recent battle about this issue with 4shared.com, a known pirate site, plus I debated this with author JA Konrath who feels there is no loss of sales to him since he's one of very few authors making any real money. By the way, I experienced a small victory when my works were deleted from the pirate site.

You can read about 4shared, Konrath and my battle at http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com

[Heidi]

Guido wrote: "I am somewhat reluctant to do that, particularly after having seen what happened to Doug Preston. He made some simple comments to the extend that he felt people have a somewhat misguided sense of e..."

I don't believe it's that people don't want to pay (although that is part of it), I think it's that people want to choose their price. Oh, and ebooks are now cheaper than the physical copy. Not by much, though, depending on what book you're buying. Kindle version of Eat, Pray, Love? $12.99. More than I'm willing to spend even on a physical copy of a book. I'm a trade paperback type of person. They're cheaper, smell better, feel better, and are just all around way more awesome/sturdy than the current binding's everyone is using. Pick up one of the "newer" bindings by the cover, you practically rip the cover off the poor book because the entire book opens. What's up with that?! And they *stink* they don't smell like book at all. They smell more like paste. And yet...they cost more? Lol wut? Oh, and trade paperback fits better & looks nicer in a bookcase. My bookcase is currently organized based on the size of books. My DVD collection is organized by title. I can't do that with my current books. It'd look too weird.

I also think that people get upset if the original artist doesn't get anything from the sale. If Paul and Ringo aren't making any money from The Beatles (and in fact have to *pay* if they ever feel like performing a Beatles song in a concert), then what's the point in paying for any of the albums or games? The idea is that paying for said album or XBox game helps support Paul & Ringo in the event that he gets throat cancer like George. If the money from the album/game isn't supporting Paul and Ringo...why buy it? That's the argument I hear more often amongst music fans who download for free (well, the only reasonable one left now that you can own your music, instead of renting it).

Something I've always wondered, though. Why do publishers/tv execs/etc. take down sites like astavista, tv-links.co.uk, alluc.org, etc. Yeah, they're doing a terrible thing by showing everyone where to find your works for free. But on the plus side: they're showing you where to find your works for free! Why not use that to your advantage? Let those sites do the hard work of scouring the 'net for your work, and then just use the links and go report the users to youtube, megaupload, megashare, rapidshare, etc. Those 5 minutes you spend a day looking for your work? Wouldn't it be easier just to use the search engine on those websites, click the download link and then report that user to the host? Wouldn't you be able to tear down more people that way? Like get their IP on a 'banned from google servers' list?

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Heidi,

Thank you so much for your contribution to the discussion. My word! What a lot of great points you cover.

Let me have a conversation with you about price. In flea markets, the customer negotiates with the owner about price.

Publishing isn't set up to be a flea market.

One does not generally (unless the book is damaged) negotiate with the clerk in Barnes and Noble about what one is willing to pay for a hardback.

One does not negotiate at the petrol pump, at the supermarket checkout, at the cinema ticket desk etc.
It's a case of pay, or walk away.

Shoplifting is not a socially acceptable negotiation technique.

If readers simply, and solidly refused to purchase e-books that cost more than $9.99 (arbitrary price), the publishers would either decide to reduce their prices to that level or lower, or they would focus on paperbacks and hardbacks.

For many, e-books are a convenience for the reader. One pays a premium for convenience. One should not be expected to "cannibalize" ones own paperback sales in order to subsidize Amazon.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Something I've always wondered, though. Why do publishers/tv execs/etc. take down sites like astavista, tv-links.co.uk, alluc.org, etc. Yeah, they're doing a terrible thing by showing everyone where to find your works for free.

It's complicated, Heidi. Some authors do exactly as you suggest, but there is a limit to ones patience and good humor.

For instance, there is a pirate who goes by the name of Desideria. Some think that Desideria is a group. This malicious entity is on Astatalk.

If Desideria does not like an author, for whatever reason, it has stated that it will repeatedly "share" copies of that authors' works.

It might "up" a file of that authors' work three times a day in three different formats on three different file hosting sites.

That is going to take the author more than 5 minutes a day to fight. Moreover, the legitimate file-hosting sites may take up to a week to remove the file. During that time, a lot of Desideria's followers can download that file.

Everyone who downloads a copy is breaking the law, and everyone of them in turn can "share" that copy somewhere else, or in their own account.

When Desideria's file is removed, the other copies are still available.

Here is a shortened example. The campaign is ongoing. Astatalk will not ban Desideria, nor will the file-hosting company.

25 Comments 9


toot432 24 Oct 2010, 14:43 #
any chance of another file in a different programme- Depositfile does not work in my country. Thanks



2
DeathDaimon 03 Nov 2010, 06:59 #
can someone pls reup? thx



desideria 03 Nov 2010, 10:37 #
Please login or register to download
or
Direct Download at 100Mbit

THAT MEANS THAT A LINK HAS BEEN POSTED



cici50 04 Nov 2010, 15:27 #
I just tried the link and it says the file is no longer there.



DeathDaimon 16 Nov 2010, 13:54 #
thanks desideria for reuploading but i received the same message as well. Can someup pls reup again? tia



desideria 16 Nov 2010, 21:49 #
Please login or register to download
or
Use alternative full direct download

THAT MEANS THAT A LINK HAS BEEN POSTED



biggyo 27 Nov 2010, 12:48 #
Removed again. Someone please re-up this? Thank you.



desideria 14 Dec 2010, 15:02 #
Please login or register to download
or
Use full direct downloader


THAT MEANS THAT A LINK HAS BEEN POSTED



desideria 19 Dec 2010, 03:47 #
Please login or register to download
or
Use full direct 100Mbit downloader


THAT MEANS THAT A LINK HAS BEEN POSTED

Heidi, Desideria cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as providing a useful service to the author. She puts up the link that the author needs to take down.

It's not like she is pointing out the one and only place where it is hosted free, and once it is down, it cannot be re-upped.

Thank you for asking!

[Heidi]

Ah. That makes a bit more sense, and I hadn't ever really thought of it that way.

As for the price of the paperback, it hadn't really occurred to me that people were actually buying the regular bindings, instead of just trade paperback. But that might have to do with targeted audience/demographic. I've noticed Barnes and Noble's prices are way too steep, and Borders is starting to follow in their footsteps. Both bookstores typically only have the newer bindings in almost all the books I've wanted to purchase (the ones that didn't go straight to paperback, and trade paperback at that).

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Heidi,

Are you in Europe? I am somewhat baffled by your references to the economical price of trade paperbacks.

In America, "mass market paperbacks" cost between $5.99 and $8.99 My own is a mass market paperback. They are the cheapest.

"Trade Paperbacks" usually start around $9.99 but may cost between $12.99 and $20.99 They usually are better quality paper and taller (but slimmer) than the mass market paperbacks.

Trade Paperback is the format used for print on demand, and if one self publishes (I have commissioned Advanced Reader Copies in this format) they can cost the author around $20 each simply to produce.

Then, there are the hardbacks.

[Heidi]

I always thought Trade Paperback and Mass Market Paperback are the same thing? Perhaps I have the names confused. Now I feel rather stupid.

I am in Upstate NY, USA.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

I lack tact. I apologize most sincerely.

I am in the rare situation of being an author who had the same book published simultaneously as a trade paperback (Print On Demand) by one publisher and as a mass market paperback by another.

The same story (albeit differently edited) was sold for $14.99 by NBI and for $6.99 by LoveSpell. The trade version, being on larger paper, had exactly 300 pages, and the mass market version has 326.

I hear it's very cold in NY! I'm in Michigan.