Pirated eBooks and how libraries can reduce it

via www.mediabistro.com

This is a really interesting article on why people pirate eBooks - thanks to Shirley Burnham for pointing it out to me. It's been around for a couple of months now, but if you haven't seen it, I would recommend it. The article links to various comments and explanations as to why people pirate eBooks, and I've included them below and then given a librarian's take on them

I’ve pirated electronic versions of books I already own physically.

OK, so this person clearly wants to have access to specific books that he's already got copies of. It's a bit like taking a copy of a CD that you own so that you can put it on your MP3 player. I absolutely get that, and can see why it's tempting. However, if the eBook was available in the library, so that the person could get hold of it whenever they wanted to, surely that's a winner all around? The person gets the book to read again (or who knows - simply to check out and re-read a paragraph), the library gets another user, and the publisher wins as well.

I limit myself to pirating things that are out-of-print or otherwise unavailable through a legal digital outlet

Well, I'm guessing that for most of us, a library, with access to eBooks is a legal digital outlet isn't it? So once again, the reader gets the book he wants, when he wants it, the library gets another user, and the publisher gets to see someone else reading their book.

I’m poor and I like to read, but I can’t pirate food, so I pirate everything else.

OK, so if the eBook is available for free in the library, she can just go and borrow it from there. Another win-win scenario. Moreover, once she can see that there are plenty of books available, she's going to read more and more of them.

The library rarely has the books I want to read

If the publisher let the library have the eBooks to lend to people, maybe they wouldn't pirate so many of them?

I only pirate textbooks from school … They are ridiculously priced an I have a hard enough time paying tuition

Again, the more expensive the book, the more likely it is to be pirated - stands to reason. Yet a library is one place that students will go time and time again, and if they can get the text book they need, that's a book that isn't pirated. Publishers are not helping students here, they are actively hindering them.

If the ebook is more expensive than the paper-version I sometimes pirate it out of annoyance

The pricing model is crazy - that person is quite right. However, what about when the eBook is free? No need to pirate a copy of it then.

pirating also lets me sample things i would not be willing to pay money for up front

People want to try authors and genres out. That's why they come to a library. If they can use the library to try out a book, they may find that they like it so much they'll go and buy a copy. Publishers are shooting themselves in the foot over this.

I think every single one of those key reasons why people pirate books is a key reason why publishers need to work with libraries. We can help REDUCE piracy, which in turn will INCREASE sales of books. The harder that publishers make to legally borrow books, the more that they will be pirated, and the less money they will make in the long run.

 

Comments

[Paula]

I totally agree with you, but the problem here is that piracy is not *the* target of publishers, their target is abundance. And libraries mean "abundance" in this context.
Big publishers are attacking libraries, universities, public domain, creative commons and even fair use (and free uses in Europe). All of this means abundance.
Actually, publishers must love piracy, because it is the only excuse they have to convince politicians to pass laws that will help them to achieve their ultimate goal: a total and an eternal copyright.
If copyright holders are so worried with piracy, why *honest* citizens have much less rights than they had 10 years ago?

[Sarah Stamford]

"If the publisher let the library have the eBooks to lend to people, maybe they wouldn't pirate so many of them?"

Yes, publishers could do a lot more to make it easier for libraries to acquire and loan ebooks, but pirating is part of the "want it easy, want it now" culture. Downloading a pirate copy is easier than a 10 min walk, or a 10 mile bus ride, to a library.

[Hartwig]

At least one point of disagreement:
I need some out-of-print books for my work (programming) over more than a year. Libraries do not fulfill my need there, because they bug me after a month, that I should return the book.

Otherwise I totally and completely agree with Paula's comment.

[Phil Bradley]

Sarah - yes, I agree. Which is why libraries need to continue to be able to lend ebooks electronically so that people can download them from the comfort of their own homes.

[Angel]

Something this does not take into account: when borrowing the e-book from the library is harder than pirating the book. Very often, interfaces and other hoops in the library's offering just make it frustrating for the user. So, why jump through hoops, frustrations, trying to see if your Kindle or other reader is compatible, etc. when a trip to your favorite pirate site makes it easier? This is something I constantly see: I want to download this library book to my Kindle. Oh, not compatible with Kindle (or insert your other reader option here).

Best, and keep on blogging.

[Nathan @SWONtech]

I'm discouraged when I see comments that describe piracy and purchasing as equal acquisitions. Asking which way is easier is one thing when comparing Amazon to a brick & mortar bookstore. Deciding whether to buy a movie ticket or sneak in the back door is different.

On the other hand, libraries have a very difficult case to make as an alternative to piracy. Not only are so few ebooks available to them, some with limited available formats too, there are so many print books that aren't legally available as ebooks, period. I'd like to buy Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels as ebooks, but right now there are only Spanish versions available. I could pirate someone's scanned/OCRed copy, or wait for an indefinite amount of time. Sometimes print is better.

[mclicious]

"The harder that publishers make [it] to legally borrow books, the more that they will be pirated, and the less money they will make in the long run." Yes! I still don't understand why publishers aren't just admitting that books are books, regardless of format, and that they should sell and have borrowing privileges that are the same as regular books (you could even have, say, a 15-year expiration if you want to make the argument that crappy paperbacks fall to pieces and end up getting sold at library sales...I wonder if there could be a sale thing for ebooks?). Clearly the music industry didn't stop selling CDs to libraries when people discovered how easy it was to rip CDs to mp3 and redistribute them, or at least keep them for their own use.

[Geisha]

For me the library isn't good enough. Its too limiting not in just what is available but the policies as well. I hate the 2 week borrowing policy as it makes reading more of an obligation than leisure because I am a slow reader with little time to do reading. It takes me a while to get through books. I hate that there is a max number of times you can renew a book and if someone has your book on hold, you can't renew it at all.

So no, the library really isn't an option unless you have very low standards.