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Pirated copies of Lost Symbol appear; Publishers surprised
October 5, 2009 | 7:05 am
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By Paul Biba
Articles in the New York Times and the Bookseller are reporting that pirated copies of Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol are appearing on the net. The interesting thing about the articles is that somehow the authors seem surprised by this.
Sorry, we live in a new age and books will follow the track that everything else has taken. I notice how that wonderful technology, DRM, has protected the books from being pirated. Not! All it has done is prevent legitimate buyers from purchasing their own copies – because buyers want to own their books, not to lease them. So in the end the publishing industry is loosing sales to pirates and to legitimate customers both. Way to go guys!
PS: I wonder how many copies of the pirated edition are from scanned books. Maybe publishers should stop putting out hard copy as well. This would really protect them.
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Comments:
LOL at your postscript! But… don’t give them new ideas!
The real tragedy here, the one that those cursed pirates don’t even think about, is this: How is Dan Brown going to EAT? They’ve stolen his livelihood.
I’m currently gathering support for a Dan Brown food drive. We’re looking for any canned and packaged goods that you can spare to help out the poor, destitute author.
When will these pirates ever acknowledge the lives they’re ruining?
Not everybody is interested in pirated editions. I avoid them. My wife said she wants the Lost Symbol when she goes on a business trip later this month and she’ll probably buy the Kindle edition. I could probably find a free pirate edition if I put any effort into it and Dan Brown wouldn’t miss out too much in his next statement from his publishers if I did, but stealing it in lieu of buying it will say a lot me, and if I want to read the book I should pay for it or get it though legitimate like the library.
Personally, I’d pass entirely on Dan Brown in any edition: paid, pirated, or library.
If you are going to talk about copyright, you should understand it.
All book content is leased. The publisher leases it from the writer, then the book buyer leases the content from the publisher.
A paper book can be resold legally because you are selling the paper, ink, and binding, not the content. A digital ebook can’t be resold, traded, or given away because the leased content doesn’t belong to anyone but the copyright holder.
And, sure, Dan Brown won’t be hurt by pirated editions, but what about writers who have their entire backlist up for grabs on these free sites? This is particularly harmful for authors who only sell books as ebooks. A vast majority of authors make a pittance from their writing, and it’s shameful to take most of that away.
The best way to combat piracy is to educate readers that stolen ebooks hurt them as much as the authors. A smart addict doesn’t sell out his supplier.