People have a tendency to think that because people have initially downloaded pirated e-books there is no loss with sales, as people were never going to pay for them anyway. On the other hand people also think if they have paid for the print, why should they have to pay again for the digital version. There are figures that suggest that one third of e-book owners have downloaded pirated copies (Turner A, 2013). It also seems that this type of piracy is becoming a more common than music piracy. Only 1 in 20 women over 35 admit to digital music piracy, yet 1 in 8 women over 35 admit to downloading an un-licensed e-book (Williams C, 2011). Maybe people feel as though it is not as big of an issue admitting to e-book piracy. So what are publishers doing to make this increasing world of e-book piracy come to an end? Well…
Publishers have come up with a way for them and/or the retailer to be able to track the e-books. They have also created a system which includes embedding watermarks throughout the digital e-book. These are described as extremely difficult to remove and are also invisible to consumers. Allowing the retailer without exposing any personal information track down who pirated the e-book. Other publishers are agreeing with previous comments mentioned and believe that piracy does not affect the company or author. Yet to protect their authors work they are instead trying to shut down the sources such as file sharing websites.
There are also other ideas such a tracking IP addresses and creating consequences. These ideas include reducing internet speed or even having the user re-directed to an anti-piracy webpage. This would raise more awareness on a topic that seems to get brushed under the rug as something that is not very damaging to the publishing industry. Do you think that people do not take piracy with e-book or any online digital publishing format seriously?
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References
Bacon, B. (2013). How to stop ebook pirates. Available: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/how-to-stop-ebook-pirates/. Last accessed 24th Oct 2014.
Ernesto. (2013). Piracy Doesn't Harm eBook Sales Says Publisher.Available: http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-doesnt-harm-ebook-sales-publisher-says-130820/. Last accessed 23rd Oct 2014.
Gokey, M. (2014). Digimarc and HarperCollins eBook piracy protection.Available: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/digimarc-harper-collins-ebooks-piracy-protection/. Last accessed 24th Oct 2014.
Meadows, C. (2011). Paul Carr calls e-book piracy a non-issue.Available: http://www.teleread.com/drm/paul-carr-calls-e-book-piracy-a-non-issue/. Last accessed 23rd Oct 2014.
Mitchell, S. (2012). Can ebooks beat the piracy threat?. Available: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/interviews/376435/can-ebooks-beat-the-piracy-threat. Last accessed 24th Oct 2014.
Turner, A. (2013). Why are eBooks overlooked in the piracy debate?.Available: http://www.hydrapinion.com/index.php/play/2013/05/03/why-are-ebooks-overlooked-in. Last accessed 23rd Oct 2014.
Williams, C. (2011). E-books drive older women to digital piracy.Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8518755/E-books-drive-older-women-to-digital-piracy.html. Last accessed 24th Oct 2014.