Comments on: Most pirated books of 2009 – publishers shouldn’t be worrying

By: Marilynn Byerly

Marilynn Byerly — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:41:36 +0000

A translated version of THE KAMASUTRA is copyrighted to the translator or publisher.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:11:47 +0000

I don’t think the Kamasutra is copyrighted. If it is not, how does one pirate a public domain book. Is that not an oxymoron?

By: Tony Rabig

Tony Rabig — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:27:56 +0000

It’d be interesting to know what percentage of those who grabbed pirate copies of Under the Dome did so because they didn’t follow any bookbiz blogs, never heard the news about the delay, and on publication day they saw that the p-book was available but no e-book. Don’t know how you’d get that number, though.

What I’d love to see would be a publicly accessible site performing for ebooks the same functions as Books in Print and Forthcoming Books in Print. How many people download pirate editions because the books they want are apparently unavailable through legit sources, with no word as to whether they ever will be? How many would bother with pirate sites if they knew for certain that a legit ebook of the title they want was scheduled for late April, with notes on available formats and price range?

Bests to all,

–tr

By: Hapalochlaena

Hapalochlaena — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:26:48 +0000

That’s 100 to 250 thousand copies.

By: Marilynn Byerly

Marilynn Byerly — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:25:16 +0000

All these numbers prove is that pirating reflects the popularity of the paper version of the title, and they certainly aren’t justification for stealing.

By: Greg M.

Greg M. — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:20:56 +0000

Showing that porn is pirated more than bestsellers is meaningless. A lot depends of actual and relational numbers. The site said from between 100 and 250 times per title. If Twilight was stolen by downloading only 250 times, then what is the estimate for in store shrinkage, i.e., Shoplifting. I’m guessing, purely out of nowhere, that the number is higher than 250 across the country over all bookstores, but I don’t really know.

Also, I don’t visit pirate sites, so can’t truly judge, but does 250 for Twilight seem kind of low to anybody? Maybe the actual number gets higher when other sites are included.

So are more books stolen by downloading or shoplifting? And what is the percentage per title?

By: Hmmm

Hmmm — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:55:17 +0000

The list makes me wonder if book 8 was often downloaded along with books 9 & 3 at the same time…