The third in a series of reports on piracy that began in 2009, Le MOTif zoomed in on comics, as this is the category of books that is pirated the most in France. Comic books make up 10-14% of France’s global book market, but the availability of comics in e-book format does not meet the readers’ needs — resulting in organized teams of pirates (up to 100) that have scanned 30-35,000 comics, of which 8-10,000 are accessible to a larger public, which might not know about specialized sites.

58% of the 50 best-selling comics are not available as e-books. The report notes that pirating teams are even able to scan and translate new mangas from Japan. It also points out that, strangely enough, even though the number of pirated comics is increasing, paper comic sales is also increasing. The books that sell the most are also pirated the most, and vice versa. Could there be something to the idea of piracy having a promotional effect? (Though, on the other hand, cause and effect could go the other way—pirates might just want most the the titles that sell the most.)

The article has a couple of points that puzzle me. For one thing, it says that “Pirated mangas are often streamed, whereas comic books are scanned.” I wonder if by “mangas” they mean animé? The idea of “streaming” a comic doesn’t make sense.

It also notes that pirated comics are “sold online until the legal version appears in France, at which point they are removed,” and puts their price at an average of $15, slightly below the price of the equivalent paper book. At least on this side of the Atlantic, I’ve never even heard of anyone selling pirated comic or manga scans; they’re all posted for free download on BitTorrent or cyberlocker sites.

One point that caught my attention was the suggestion that piracy is a response to unmet demand. This is something that folks like Gabe Newell of Valve have brought up before, and we see it play out in manga-related matters over here, too. For example, the manga and animé series Detective Conan had its first hundred or so issues and episodes translated and sold commercially over here (where it was known as Case Closed)—but the vast majority of the 800+ manga issues and 600+ TV episodes have not been translated and probably never will be. But fans translate and post them online for other fans to read or watch.

While it’s technically piracy, it’s the sort of “piracy” on which the entire anime fan community in the US was originally built—since technically-illegal fansubs were what launched demand for anime over here in the first place. And it seems doubtful that any company would see a 600-episode-and-still-going show as being worth the vast financial expenditures involved in translating, given that only the few most dedicated fans would even contemplate buying them all, let alone be able to afford them, so it’s probably going to continue to be an unmet demand.

There are an awful lot of animé and manga that have never been and probably never will be licensed for American translation and sale—too esoteric for the broader audiences over here for a licensee to be able to recoup its investment. And as long as there isn’t a way for fans to get them in English legitimately, they’ll continue to be pirate-fansubbed. (Small wonder that some animé studios are beginning to subtitle their domestic DVDs in English themselves!)

This seems to be the same thing the French comics community is finding out: if people can’t get the comics legitimately in the form they want, surprise! They’ll find a way to get it illegitimately.

A new publishing house is going to take current French books, translate them and present them in English in digital form.  Here is the press release:

Other European countries, including France and Luxembourg, have reduced their own VATs on e-books significantly. France has told its publishers it will pay any fines the EU imposes on them for flouting its VAT law.

The VAT drop in Luxembourg (to 3%) gives Amazon a fairly large competitive advantage, since that’s where Amazon’s European operation is based—so UK e-book buyers will only pay a 3% tax when they buy an e-book from Amazon, as opposed to the 20% they have to pay everyone based in the UK. The EU is going to change how VATs are handled so that buyers will pay the tax of their country rather than that of the vendor, but that change will not take effect until 2015.

When Parliament member Tom Blenkinsop asked the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer about reducing or eliminating VAT for e-books, the Chancellor said, essentially, that under EU agreements they did not have any choice about the VAT rates they charged. However, that is not stopping other European countries such as France and Luxembourg from acting to reduce e-book VAT rates.

So why the UK intransigence? If he was really awake the [exchequer secretary] might also have paid attention to a recent memo published by the EU that sought to clarify how VAT needed to be modified in member states following a consultation with those countries. The EU specifically stated that the review should take as a principle that "similar goods and services should be subject to the same VAT rate and progress in technology should be taken into account in this respect, so that the challenge of convergence between the on-line and the physical environment is addressed”. French Culture Minister Frédérique Mitterrand has already welcomed the communication and said in a statement that he applauded the comment in the 16-page document on fiscal neutrality.

Blenkinsop is not going to let the matter drop, Jones writes, and will continue pushing in Parliament for a reduced VAT rate. As the e-book market grows, reducing that rate means giving consumers more money to spend on e-books, and hence pass along to e-tailers, authors, and publishers. The bigger the market gets, the more important that move will become.

I hadn’t been aware that tax rates on e-books were so high in the UK. It kind of puts the squabbles over Amazon collecting state sales tax in a bit of perspective. Hopefully they will soon be able to get that brought down.

Received the following email from Aymeric Auberger about Europa-Apps.  From the website (which is in both English and French):

Europa-Apps is a publishing house dedicated to all the new digital platforms, in particular iPad and Smartphones. We want to design and produce new works, and invent more interactive, richer – and perhaps more enriching – reading moments, enabling people of all ages to discover new territories, to read, to enjoy themselves, to learn and to play, and above all to think and to dream!

In an email Aymeric tells me that their first app is My Kid and Me and it is meant for children between 2 and five years old:

For the first apps of this fun and educative collection, we were lucky to work with Soledad Bravi, a famous author and illustrator. Thousands of children and parents have already chosen her best-selling titles as their favorites (www.soledadbravi.com).

Check out the menu:

- Three previously unpublished stories merged into The Stories of rabbit, as well as The Games of rabbit, a number of games based on the characters and the atmosphere of the digital book.

- In association with l’école des loisirs, we have created a free adaptation of the noisy book: four original games that will be released under the name … the noisy book Games.

That’s the title of an article in Publishing Perspectives:

Yes, Paris has done its utmost to maintain and sustain its 20th-century book culture. City Hall has ordered the Seine-side bouquinistes to stop selling trinkets, publishers continue to be wary of agents, and French e-book adoption is slow — even though retailers are eager to capitalize on consumer curiosity.

French publishing is dominated by Paris and the old world ways therein. And despite — or perhaps in spite — of a growing and vocal youth movement advocating digital adoption, things are changing at the slowest . . . possible . . . pace.

The government just raised the tax rate on books from 5.5% to 7% (as of January 1, 2012). Will the tide turn towards digital, which promises lower price points and convenience? Perhaps, but only if they have e-books to read on their shiny new Kobo Touch readers, iPads and other devices.

More in the article.

From Intomobile:

France Telecom has teamed-up with France’s Ministry for National Education to offer subsidized iPad 2 to university students. Under this scheme, Orange (which is owned by France Telecom) will provide the 16GB iPad 2 Wi-Fi+3G for 1 EUR per day (30 EUR per month) to any student willing to commit on a two-year contract. As part of the deal, students get 1GB of mobile data per month, along with unlimited data for emails (attachments included) and unlimited data on Orange’s Wi-Fi Hotspot network. A 12-month option is also available, but it raises the monthly cost to 34 EUR, which is still acceptable.

More info in the article.

From an email:

Following the announcement of our new product, the Cybook Odyssey, we received many questions regarding the HSIS technology.

What is High Speed Ink System (HSIS)?

HSIS is an architecture developed by Bookeen and results from 2 years of research & development. This architecture is made of hardware and software components in order to boost electronic ink.

Cornerstones of HSIS which are incorporated within the Cybook Odyssey are:

- Optimized software stack and algorithms, developed with quality and performance in mind from the ground up. The main goals are to increase computing speed and refresh display rate thanks to a very sharp display management.

An E Ink Pearl touch display providing a best-in-class e-paper reading experience.

- A dedicated Cortex A8 processor, developed by Texas Instruments in partnership with Bookeen, which brings pure and efficient horsepower.

A consumer electronic product can be seen as a chain of hardware and software elements. As for any chain, it is as strong as its weak link. With HSIS, there’s no weak link: all links are robust and optimized. HSIS is the foundation for a perfectly balanced e-reader.

What does HSIS bring to the Cybook Odyssey?

- Comfort: an intuitive e-reading experience.

- Speed: a reactive and smooth user interface.

- Power efficiency: record battery life.

For example, the Cybook Odyssey is the first e-paper reader to provide rolling menus or a scrolling web browser. More features will be revealed in the forthcoming days.

How will HSIS evolve?

This architecture already allows e-reading devices to be built with different display sizes, with different bistable technologies (E Ink, SiPix,…), and with grayscale as well as color e-paper displays.

We take this opportunity to thank E Ink and Texas Instruments for these fruitful collaborations.

Based in Paris (France),the Bookeen team have been pioneers in the ebook industry since 1998 and have developed many e-reading solutions in over 13 years. We’re very proud to bring innovation to the market with our HSIS technology and through the launch of the Cybook Odyssey you will be able to experience it to its full capacity.  .

From the press release:

Kobo, a global leader in eReading with 5 million readers in over 100 countries worldwide, has expanded its international footprint by partnering with #1 book retailer in France, FNAC.   FNAC has chosen Kobo to deliver a superior eReading experience to their customers, leveraging the Kobo eReading platform, one of the largest global catalogues in the world, top rated apps for any device, and Kobo’s leading selection of eReaders.

Launching to market within the fourth quarter of 2011, in 81 stores in France and online with Fnac.com, this partnership will cement Kobo and FNAC as the popular eReading platform of choice within the French marketplace. For the launch FNAC will have eReading experts on hand, to give personalised in-store Kobo demonstrations and to introduce and educate their customers to eReading and Kobo.

“Partnering with leading bookseller in France, FNAC, brings Kobo closer to our vision of delivering the best eReading experience to more readers, on any device, in more countries around the world,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo, Inc. “We believe our launch into France as well as our upcoming entries into Spain, Italy and the Netherlands will be embraced by the European eReading community, as people start eReading, building their lifetime digital libraries, and reading freely across multiple devices.”

“A leading retailer of technology, leisure and cultural products, Fnac is also the number 1 book retailer in France, selling more than 50 million print books each year.” said Alexandre Bompard, CEO, FNAC . “Like Kobo, FNAC is passionate about reading and about the opportunity ebooks offer to the consumers. We are very excited to move a step forward and partner with Kobo, by bringing “Kobo by FNAC” innovative ereading solution to the French market. Our common objective is to offer a top notch solution and the largest ebook catalog in order to meet French customer expectations and lead the ebook market in France.”

LARGEST GLOBAL eBOOKSTORE

In addition to its global store, Kobo already offers stores in the US, Canada, Germany (localised), UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.  The Kobo store offers a selection of over 2.5 million eBooks, newspapers and magazines with bestselling titles, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and over a million free books.

Kobo’s European stores offer customers a rich assortment of local content, merchandised to the tastes and preferences of readers across Europe, Kobo has partnered with European publishers to offer a wide range of titles.  With this launch, FNAC will deliver a large content catalogue, making it the largest eBookstore in France – the new store will feature the latest releases and bestsellers from popular French authors.

Since its launch in 2009, Kobo has been dedicated to an open cloud-based platform, enabling users to read on any device, and with open standards that give users the freedom to build their lifetime libraries as they choose.

LEADING eREADING DEVICES AND FREE EREADING APPS

Kobo has developed a line of top selling eReaders, are distributed in leading booksellers, consumer electronics retailers and mass merchants around the world such as, Best Buy, Target, Indigo Books, Walmart, Collins, Whitcoull’s, and now expanding to retailers in the European market.

As part of the partnership Kobo will develop free eReading French language apps for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch® and Android™, and PlayBook™. The apps will bring a next-generation reading experience to users.  FNAC customers will be able to access their library and read across devices, French-language best sellers, the hottest new releases and classics.

In addition to delivering a complete ecosystem of content, apps, and eReaders  – Kobo will also offer a localized version of popular social program – Reading Life. under the Kobo by FNAC brand.  Reading Life is a leading, industry-first social experience that lets passionate readers track and share their love of reading.   With Reading Life, users can connect with friends or book clubs and discuss their favorite books on Facebook, they can track their statistics which provide a tally of their library and reading activity – an insightful way for users to learn about their reading habits. Plus, user can earn awards – just for spending time reading.

Along with the new store, Amazon is selling a French edition of its lowest-end non-touch Kindle (the one that sells for $109 ad-free in the US) for 99 Euros (US$133). The devices will ship on October 14th.

I notice that the French Kindle store has a number of works by French author Maurice Leblanc available quite cheaply. It’s almost enough to make me want to learn French.

(Found via Publishing Perspectives.)

A French publishers’ association and authors’ association also filed suit against Google at the same time as Hachette and fellow publisher La Martinère (which also settled) did, and have not said whether they also plan to drop their suit.

The deal took two months longer than it was supposed to, but both parties seem satisfied with its terms. A little strange, given how much acrimony there was in Europe over Google’s scanning projects not long ago.

The National Library of France announced Wednesday, July 6, launching an appeal to private partners for the digitization and enhancement of its collections. “Today is a historic step,” said President BNF, Bruno Racine, during a joint press conference in Paris with the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, and the Commissioner General for investment, René Ricol.

The BNF has identified 12 areas that can be scanned in partnership with private actors. These include ancient books from 1470 to 1700, a set of 300 000 French and 500 000 printed in the public domain, the French press from 1780 to 1940, the 78 rpm records and LPs, modern or medieval manuscripts, or photography and French cinema until World War II.

The total cost of digitization programs amount to 150 million euros (including public and private shares), representing more than 20 times the annual budget of about 7 million dedicated to scanning since 2007.

Read the Complete Article (via LeMonde, Mechanical Translation via Google)
Read the Official Announcement (Google Translation of French Doc; PDF)

Via INFOdocket

(Photo: Lauren Manning)