Jecopnn Webb of O’Reilly Radar has an interview today with Brian O’Leary. O’Leary is about the only person I know who has done any credible research into piracy and ebooks. Here’s a one of the questions:
Is piracy really a threat to the book industry?
BO: I don’t have enough data to say unequivocally “yes” or “no” to the extent of the piracy threat. I think what leads to rampant piracy is not meeting emergent demands. The publishing industry should be working as hard as we can to develop new and innovative business models that meet the needs of readers. And what those look like could be community-driven. I think of Baen Books, for example, which doesn’t put any DRM restrictions on its content but is one of the least pirated book publishers.
As to sales, Paulo Coelho is a good example. He mines the piracy data to see if there’s a burgeoning interest for his books in a particular country or market. If so, he either works to get his book out in print or translate it in that market.
I think piracy has become more acute with ebooks, not because ebooks are easily pirated but because ebooks are easily visible. So, for example, if I’m living in South Africa and I speak English, but I want to read Nora Roberts, and Nora Roberts is only published in North America, I might have to wait through a four-year cycle to get her latest book. That lead time made sense when it was about ink on paper. But if it’s an ebook, as a reader, I want to read it today — I love Nora Roberts, and I’d pay for her latest book, but I can’t get it here because there’s no service that will sell me an ebook in South Africa. That’s when piracy starts to occur. Readers say: “I would have paid for it, but they wouldn’t give it to me. They frustrated my demand.”
I don’t like the idea of piracy – cool name or not, it’s theft – but I agree that publishers are creating the problem by selling regionally in a global marketplace. It’s hard for consumers to understand why they can see the book for sale on their screen but can’t buy it because of where their computer resides.
It seems to me that to offset the negative attitude by eBook readers re DRM, there is a way to make it easier to share books without having the book pirated. The system I suggest is that a program be set up by each publisher that if I wish to share an eBook or someone, due to our discussion, to read one of the eBooks I’ve read, that either of us could pay a small fee to get a one-time unlock code for the book and then I could send it to the other person to read on their reader. That fee would be divided is some ratio between publisher and author.
This same format/program could be used by libraries so if they paid a licence for a copy for each branch and so many lending, additional ones would call for a fee. This would solve 2 problems libraries and book readers face with both pBooks and eBooks — that if the book becomes very popular, the library has to create a waiting list . . . which by the time one’s name comes up, there reader is not interested in reading the book.
The second thing it would do is free up a considerable amount of money libraries have tied up in eBooks that do not have a demand.
Again, as with loaning eBooks between two people, the fee a library would pay for additional eBook over the original contract, would go to ;publishers and authors.
And, of course, the need for piracy would decrease as the eBooks would be available for a very reasonable fee.
Alan if I want to lend an eBook, that I bought and paid for in full, to my mother or my wide or my brother or my friend .. I have absolutely no intention of paying twice for the privilege.
(had to refresh Captcha 8 times to find one I could read !!!! ffs …..)