J.K. Rowling still fighting ebook piracy, and ebooks are still being demonized
I’m pretty convinced that J.K. Rowling does not read this blog, because if she did, she would have read this earlier post about her problem with ebook piracy. Yet Rowling has still refused to release her popular Harry Potter books into ebook format, creating a ripe environment for unscrupulous pirates to post digital copies of her novels online.
Today I came across this article from the Times Online, which says that her novels, along with other popular books, have shown up on the popular site Scribd.
Publishers and agents representing the authors J. K. Rowling and Ken Follett were battling last night to get free copies of their novels removed from a Californian website that claims to be the most popular literary site in the world.
Obviously, the authors who have refused to go digital are either totally blind to the ebook revolution taking place, or someone (i.e. agent, publisher) is influencing them to shun digital books. I’m not going to spend much time rebuking Ms. Rowling, as I already did that in a previous post (see link in first paragraph).
Thinking about piracy in a different way
The article, however, does bring up a major point about piracy. I find it interesting that piracy is always portrayed as the problem, and not what it really is, a symptom of the problem. The real problem is authors and publishers who are refusing to embrace new technology (ebooks) and meet consumer demand by releasing popular books in ebook format.
If the author/publisher doesn’t release an ebook, then someone will come along and throw up a pirated copy on the internet. This is why a little quote from literary agent Peter Cox caught my attention from the Times article:
Peter Cox, a literary agent and editor of the Litopia blog, said: "These people are pirates. We don’t have to give in to this. We can’t afford to make the same mistakes the music industry did."
What he says is a little cryptic. So I went to his blog for clarification. The issue is being debated in his Litopia forum, and only users have access. I searched some more and found this little nugget from a Channel 4 news site:
Peter Cox a literary agent and editor of the Litopia blog told Channel 4 News: "Publishers have been asleep at the wheel. Sites like Scribd make their money by allowing their users to steal from writers. Most of us aren’t JK Rowling, many live on a minimum wage."
The article continues:
Pointing to the growth of the e-readers like the Amazon Kindle, Cox said: "The e-reader is going to turn this from trickle to a torrent. It’s the ideal piracy magnet. Why bother to pay for a book when you can
get them for free on the net?"
I’ll agree with Peter that publishers have been asleep at the wheel. But not in policing sites for pirated copies of their author’s work – they’ve been asleep at the wheel in not embracing ebooks earlier. And I’ll also agree that many writers are living on minimum wage. I doubt a few pirated ebooks on a site like Scribd is the cause of the problem. I think he’s just throwing out anything he can against ebooks and sees what sticks.
But it’s what Peter Cox said about the e-reader that really got my blood boiling. I’d say a vast majority of ebook readers have no problem paying a fair price for an ebook. The problem arises when the publisher wants $15 + for a book in digital format, or refuses to release a book as an ebook at all. Then pirates will come in and give people what they are hungry for.
Not all ebook fans thieves
If I had a choice between a legitimate Harry Potter ebook, and a pirated one, I’d chose the legitimate copy every time. Why? Because, as a struggling writer myself, I think it’s only right an author gets paid for what he/she produces.
Doesn’t Peter realize that fans of ebooks are not trying to get anything free "on the net", or trying to rip off writers? Of all the ebooks I own, I paid for all of them, or downloaded them free with permission of the author and/or publisher.
Peter, the problem is not e-readers or ebooks. The problem is when an entire industry refuses to embrace new technology that is becoming a staple in the way many people are consuming books. That is what motivates piracy. The music industry is an excellent example of the fallout from ignoring technology and the demands of the consumer. The music industry has been reduced to suing their own customers.
Do you think piracy is the problem, or just a symptom of the problem? Is Peter Cox unfairly demonizing ebooks? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
Related posts
- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, ebooks, and the definition of irony
- 2 authors, 2 very different viewpoints on ebook piracy
- Irony Revisited: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and the 10 most pirated ebooks of 2009
- Can JK Rowling move beyond Harry Potter?
- Publishers still resisting ebooks – at their own peril
Read More: Author News, Publishing News, Reading
You can almost hear the dinosaurs taking their last breath and yes I am referring to the record and publishing industry. Their outdated thinking and allegiance to vinyl and dead trees stands in the way of progress and industry trends. As an author I made Flores Girl free as an eBook to get an audience and like other authors will figure out a way to monetize my writing efforts. You can either get in front of the wave or drown!
Cheers
Erik John Bertel
Definitely a symptom of the problem. Given a choice, I will always choose to pay for a digital copy. I didn’t buy a Sony eReader to download illegal content from the web. I bought one so that I could purchase portable books (I want to be able to reread favorites and not have to decide prior to a trip what I might be in the mood to read). A legal digital copy will always beat a pirated copy when it comes to the quality of the ebook. But I do understand those who already own the hard copy of a book who feel that downloading a pirated e-copy is not that big a deal – seeing as they have already paid $30+ for the hard copy (and I would wager that a huge percentage of those who download pirated copies of books fall into this category).
Legal issues concerning copyright aside, environmental issues should also play a role. The world is changing while the publishing industry hangs onto a medium that is becoming more and more obsolete (not to mention a bit wasteful and certainly cumbersome). The paper medium relies on a natural resource that will become increasingly precious. And while there is nothing like the smell and feel of a new book, I like feeling like I’m not wasting paper on a hobby.
It’s not the ereader that is the piracy magnet. Stubborn refusal to embrace a new and growing market – this is what draws people to the pirated materials. Historically, the black market flourishes when a product is scarce. Make it accessible and reasonably priced and the black market for it will flounder. The mistake the music industry made was to ignore this to the point of idiocy. If Cox doesn’t want to make the same mistake, he needs to LEARN from their mistakes and recognize that we have entered the digital age. And no amount of litigation, regulation or wishful thinking is going to change that.
How ironic. I went searching Google for places to purchase digital versions of the Harry Potter books and instead I find a link to your blog AND numerous links to BitTorrent sites, but not a single legitimate outlet for purchasing them.
Earlier, last month, I found my daughter had borrowed my Sony eReader and was reading a copy of Little Women that I had downloaded, along with a few other public domain titles, through the Sony eBook store right after I purchased the unit nearly a year ago. Now I had been trying everything I could think of to get my daughter interested in reading. She’s a smart girl who excels in math and science, but struggles with reading as, I believe, it just doesn’t interest her. We make regular trips to the library, we visit the standard brick and mortar stores, I’ve even tried to get her interested in comics or manga. I spend sizable amounts of money on any sort of reading material that may catch her eye. If she shows an interest in something, and there was even the slightest chance that it will turn on the “like to read” switch, I have no qualms about making a purchase for her. Alas, all of those efforts have only resulted in library books that are browsed through in the car on the way home from the library. The library books then lay unopened on her desk until it becomes necessary to return them. The purchased items end up stored away after it becomes apparent that they too will go unread. Imagine my joy as I not only found her reading an entire book, but doing so without any specific prodding from myself. She just picked up the eReader, became fascinated with the technology, and started reading. Last week she finished, what I believe to be, her first full book. I wanted to celebrate by buying an eReader that she could call her own, complete with many of the books that she showed interested in before, but didn’t like having to read in physical form. I still plan on doing that this week, however, now it has become obvious that I will have to do it without the Harry Potter novels.
Not only do the authors that refuse to publish in digital form encourage piracy, they may also be complicit in the destruction of the very market they claim to be protecting. If my daughter doesn’t experience the wonderment of reading novels in her youth, she is unlikely to purchase titles as an adult for herself or her children. With the rapidly changing world and the instant availability of information, both bad and good, through the internet, it is becoming ever more difficult to encourage are youth to simply read a story for entertainment. Fortunately, there are many other authors out there that don’t feel this same way and I can skip over the Harry Potter books (I still won’t download illegal copies, despite the author’s short sightedness.)
Any author that would prohibit their works from reaching any potential audience is doing their art and our future a disservice. Many will still want to curl up late at night with a physical book to read. But just as many, if not more, are growing up comfortable with technology and may well prefer to find their entertainment through the use of their shiny new gadgets.
First of all, what I’d really love to see is something along the lines of what the movie industry has done. I would eagerly buy a hardcopy book that came with an ebook version/code as well, even if it meant a higher price. It’s frustrating to try and decide whether I should buy the ebook I read anywhere or wait to buy the hardcopy I can physically have in my library to lend, lose, and find. What if instead I could purchase the ebook with an option to recieve the paperback version as well at a bundle price? What is wrong with this?
More on topic, I do have a problem with one aspect of your argument. The twilight series is listed as #7 on your list, and yet it’s treated as irrelevant. The actually caliber of the book is disputable it’s true; but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a perfect example of what these authors are afraid of. A new BESTSELLING author quickly put her books on the digital market, and here they are on your list. No matter how bad her writing these books are currently just as popular. So no, you can’t just write off piracy as bring only a symptom or only for closet sex fiends. There is a problem here.
That being said, there is still a lot more money to be made by ebooks, and as pointed out by mr. Hughes, it’s what the fans want. Besides, they’re just so beautifully convienient.
I am a graduate physics student, and I live off of my e-reader. It is great that I can download all the pdfs I need to read for research and not waste trees. It also lets me download physics books out for review and preview. I can frequently find the next edition of the book I need for class out on the internet for review, which lets me get the information and test the book before I buy it; and if I download something that I am “reviewing”, I make sure to go to the author’s blog/site/e-mail to give them thoughts, problems, or things I wish there were more of.
That being said, I LOVE to read. Most of the books on my reader are classics that I downloaded (legally!) for free, but I would love to have my whole library with me. Which leads to the problem my entire generation seems to be facing now: with limited space, uncertainty of our future, the constant need to have accessible information, and a bad economy, how do we keep our favorite books and references with us without breaking the bank or our backs?
I have bought several of my favorite series multiple times (it is often easier and cheaper to re-buy than it is to ship books during a move). I am at the point where I need to move again, and I have to decide to either buy the books in a digital form or get hard copies. There is not enough space for hardcopies, and sometimes there is no legal way to download a series (like Harry Potter).
Do publishers really expect us to just accept that? My generation’s response to “No” or “It doesn’t exist because of piracy issues” has consistently been to work around it and come up with an illegal copy. I don’t know anyone at school, work, or as friends who will download an illegal copy of anything if a legal copy exists. But if a legal copy doesn’t exist, well… what do they expect?
And then there are the DRM issues now popping up. If I buy a book, I expect it to be mine, to do what I need and want with it, forever. If I need to put a book up on a personal cloud so that I can access it from any of the 15 different computers I frequent and a cell phone or two, or lend it to a friend for 5 weeks so they can use it for independent research, I should be able to. If I loose or upgrade my e-reader, I should be able to put my entire library on the new device without consequence. And there should be absolutely no way the book can be forcibly recalled from my computer once it is mine. I am not against DRM, just the way it is implemented now. A better way would be to give each user a username and password to access DRMed materials. The material could then be viewed by the user from anywhere. Then if the owner wanted to let someone borrow the book there could be a function to create a temporary borrower name and password that would time out after an owner-defined period of time.
It would also be neat, if you could donate the rights to your e-books to the local library when you are done with the book. Naturally, the book would be removed from your library when you do this. Then the digital copy would truly act just like their hardcopy ancestors.
If they advanced the technology like this, and made better DRM material, I can see people holding private release parties while waiting for the material to be unlocked so they can all download it online and begin reading immediately. Can you imagine if they had done a digital release for the final Harry Potter book? I know adult fans who would have planned a 24-hour party around it where they would marathon the Harry Potter movies that were out to date and speculate about what was in the new book, while drinking and having a general good time until midnight on the day of the release. Then they would all buy and download the book at midnight, simultaneously, and read it, all in the comfort of their own home. And if it was bundled, after reading the digital copy, the next day they could go pick up their copy in the store. No more waiting in long lines in the book store. Can you imagine?
No more waiting to read the book while you stand in the checkout line and drive home, or just sitting on the curb outside the bookstore until you have finished reading enough to go home without being distracted. And book parties would be held for some of the lesser known books and series (I know people who throw parties whenever a new Xanth book comes out).
I think it would be a huge boost for the industry if they made everything in digital copy as well as print. I also think that if people already own a book or series (like the Harry Potter series, Artemis Fowl, Xanth, The Alchemist, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, etc.) could use the book’s individual ID number to get a free or cheep ($.99) digital copy of the book. If I could do that with the books I own, I would gladly pay $1.00 each to have digital copies of them all.
At this point, the industry either needs to make an easy way to integrate the digital and paper worlds in a cohesive and financially manageable way, or they need to stop complaining when pirates make information that would otherwise be inaccessible usable to the masses. Books, welcome to the information age. Libraries for all!
I have bought an eReader (Kindle 3) because of one reason… SPACE! I read a hell of a lot and end up with loads and loads of books in boxes which means if I want to find a specific book I end up looking for ages just to get the book I want.
Then along comes the eReaders…
If an eReader version isn’t available and I really want to read it on digital format I buy either a hardback book or a trade size paperback (one of the big ones) and then get a pirated copy for my eReader. I’ve paid for the book, I should get to choose how to read the darn thing. Having it on my eReader means in future I won’t have to dig through those boxes in my packed storeroom.
Ideally I would just rather go full digital with Amazon storing my archived copies. Living in a one bedroom flat means I have very little space to store my books. My sister has advised me many times to get rid of my book piles to make space but I hoard them. If I could buy the digital version legitimately I would have LOADS more room in my home.
J.K.Rowling… stop thinking you are in your books… this isn’t Hogwarts you know… THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY HIGH TECH EARTH. Music fought MP3 because of the pirates… now artists are making tons on MP3 sales… The same will happen with eBooks…
The Legitimate Pirate