eBook Pirating: A Good Thing?

Interestingly, while the vast majority of blog entries on the issue of eBook piracy are generally opposed to illegal distribution and downloading, and endeavour to find a solution to what they view as a problem, a handful of bloggers are actually in support of eBook piracy.  Cecelia Tan, a writer, believes that pirating eBooks will actually help increase authorized book sales, rather than reduce them.  “Pirate sites are havens for dedicated book addicts,” Tan writes, “and so what better place to get your name or title in front of a rabid audience?”  To support her argument, Tan refers to the case of Adam Mansbach’s book, Go the F*k to Sleep, whose galley proofs were illegally distributed online prior to the book’s publication.  The leaked galleys led to the book reaching #1 on Amazon’s list and acquiring over 100,000 pre-orders.

While the case of Adam Mansbach’s book is certainly a compelling one, I feel that it is the exception, rather than the rule.  Not every book will go viral, as Go the F*k to Sleep did, nor will piracy necessarily bolster book sales.  “Give the people what they want,” Tan urges, “and make it easy to get them in their hands.”  But assuming that by giving people what they want for little or no money will generate legitimate business is simply delusional.  In reality, if you give people what they want, they will simply ask for more.

I don’t mean to sound overly cynical or jaded.  I understand that in some cases, eBook piracy can be beneficial as it can act as a kind of free publicity.  I don’t, however, believe that we as industry professionals should stand idly by, watching as the number of pirated books increases and hoping that it will translate into a corresponding increase in sales.  At the same time, however, to believe that eBook piracy can be stopped completely is to fool ourselves; eBook piracy will continue, just as illegal music and video downloading continues despite efforts to halt it.  What we can and should do is take the necessary regulatory steps to reduce the number of eBooks being pirated, to ensure that wherever possible authors and publishers are being fairly compensated.   The first thing we need to address is Canada’s sorely out-dated copyright law.  Pushed to the back burner with every election (the most recent one being no exception), the Copyright Act does not currently contain any regulations for online content.  Pressure needs to be placed on the government to update the Act to reflect changing trends in media and technology.

Once the Act is updated, we can legitimately target the unauthorized eBook market.  As the music industry discovered early on, tracking down and penalizing individuals who download illicit content is not only an inefficient use of time and resources, but nearly impossible.  Instead, we should be targeting the distributors of pirated eBooks, the websites through which the public can access stolen content.  Shutting down these free downloading sites, in the same way that Napster, Limewire and countless other MP3 downloading sites have been closed for copyright infringement, certainly won’t eliminate eBook piracy, however it will make it more difficult for users to access stolen content.

There is not easy solution to the issue of eBook piracy.  No matter what rules and regulations are put into place, computer-savvy bibliophiles will find ways around them.  Nevertheless, we need to find ways to discourage eBook pirating.  Authors and publishers need to get paid.  Passivity is NOT an option.

Recovering Lost Income

Nicholas Croce, a literary agent blogging for “The Gatekeeper’s Post,” makes an interesting suggestion for how income can be generated from eBook sales.  He notes that to date American publishers have lost $2.8 billion dollars because of unauthorized eBook distribution and download.  Croce suggests that the solution to revenue lost through eBook piracy is advertisement.  By placing ads in electronic books, he believes that two things can be accomplished: first, the money that publishers and authors would make through ad placement could drive down the retail price of the book and second, even if the books are distributed illegally, revenue would still be generated through the advertisements in the pirated content.

Croce’s idea is certainly a creative one and perhaps, in time, it might be attempted.  However it seems unlikely that such a creative solution could be implemented without a great deal of backlash, particularly from authors.  Producing books is a business, yes, however authors write not simply for commercial purposes and inserting advertisements into their work would likely be perceived as some kind of assault to the artistic integrity of their creation.  Nevertheless, as Croce points out, such drastic measures may well become “a necessary tool to save our industry from the threats of shrinking margins and growing theft posed by our digital world.”

Author vs. eBook Pirate

In a blog post for “The Digital Reader,” David Hewson, a bestselling author whose books have been distributed in print and electronic formats around the world, offers his opinion as a successful writer on the issue of eBook piracy.  He attacks some of the falsities that currently surround eBook piracy, refuting claims that the authors do not need the money from royalty payments, that piracy would not occur if books were less expensive, and that eBook piracy is actually a good thing, offering free publicity to the author and his or her book.  Hewson argues that while some authors like himself do not necessarily need the royalties from pirated eBooks to live on, many authors do rely on income from their books.  He supports his well-structured attack on piracy by comparing the illicit distribution and download of book content to illegal music downloading, noting that the difference between authors and musicians is that musicians can count on income from merchandise and concert ticket sales, while authors are entirely dependent on income generated from the sale of their books.

Hewson goes on to argue that reducing the price of books, even electronic versions, is simply asking too much, and I completely agree.  Even under the best of circumstances, books offer a very small profit margin, and any revenue from the sale of books must be divided between the author and the publisher.  The cost of producing a book, even an electronic version, which still requires editing, proofing, formatting, design and distribution, prevents publishers from significantly reducing retail prices.  To offer books at a price that most would consider low enough to reduce or eliminate piracy would be to significantly diminish or destroy altogether both the publisher’s and author’s income.  The fact remains that the people who distribute and download pirated eBooks are not looking for cheaper reading material; they want books for free.  I do not necessarily think that even if publishers were somehow able to lower the retail price of books, piracy would stop altogether.  The music industry once again provides evidence of this.  The price of CDs has dropped dramatically in the last decade, however if anything, music pirating has increased.

Unfortunately despite the effectiveness of his attack on eBook piracy, Hewson’s argument is weakened slightly by the fact that he does not offer any ideas on how to fix the problem.  In fact, he claims that there really is no solution to eBook piracy.  “Authors are never going to win that battle,” Hewson states, “so we’re relying on the vast majority of honest book buyers to support the writing community. Use the established sites. Download samples. See what you like. And then, please, buy it, don’t steal it.”  The plea is an honest one, however unfortunately in a world such as ours, it is not likely to do much good.  I realize how jaded and pessimistic that statement sounds, but the reality is that people are more interested in getting what they want for little or nothing than they are in supporting the artists.  Unless regulatory steps are taken to police illegal eBook distribution and downloading, piracy will not only continue, but increase.

Implications of eBook Piracy

One of the most discussed topics in the publishing and technology-related blogospheres is the issue of eBook pirating.  Bloggers of all kinds, authors, literary agents, economists, technical analysts and simple book-lovers, each of them offering a different perspective, are discussing the increasing number of pirated eBooks appearing in the online community.  Some bloggers simply point out the dangers of ineffective or non-existent copyright regulation on electronic content, while others attempt to offer solutions to this emerging trend and debate with other bloggers the advantages and disadvantages to each solution.

The vast majority of online bloggers who address the issue of eBook piracy are, like Eugene Docena, “bothered” by the illegal distribution and downloading of eBook files.  Docena argues that like video game piracy, eBook piracy could have national and international repercussions.  The problem of pirated eBooks, Docena claims, “has led to the fall of corporations, celebrity royalties, and even the entire economy’s present state worldwide.”  Docena makes a bold statement here, attributing the international economy’s current dismal state to electronic piracy.  While I do not necessarily believe that illicit downloading of digital content, either video games or eBooks, is single-handedly responsible for our current economic state, I do agree that the growing number of illegal eBooks being distributed across the internet does have the potential to do serious damage to both the creative community and the publishing industry, to “deteriorate the idea of artistic ownership,” as Docena claims.

More reasonable than his claim that eBook piracy is destroying the economy is Docena’s argument about the negative impact the issue is having on the authors themselves.  He points out that Dan Brown’s book, The Lost Symbol, though highly profitable in both print and electronic formats, was nevertheless pirated and distributed illegally online, with the book being downloaded more than 100,000 times within a few days of its electronic release.  This illicit distribution, Docena points out, robs the author of an enormous royalty payment.

I agree with Docena that eBook piracy prevents the author from receiving royalties on content downloaded illegally, and while the example of Dan Brown’s 100,000 pirated copies is shocking, I think it is more important to consider the potential implications for lesser-known authors.  Some could argue that Brown, following the success of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons, and in light of the success that The Lost Symbol experienced despite being pirated, would not necessarily be negatively impacted by eBook piracy.  His books have sold millions of copies in electronic and print formats around the world and he can be sure to enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle regardless of whether or not his books are pirated.  Docena also mentions Stephen King and James Patterson as examples of authors commonly pirated; however he makes no mention of the piracy of lesser-known authors.  Who are the most popular authors to pirate?  Is eBook piracy only an issue for big-name authors like Brown, King and Patterson, who can count on substantial royalties with or without the distribution of pirated copies of their work?