Okie dokie.
First things first. I need to address something very serious. It’s something that hasn’t affected me personally, yet. However, it’s affected some authors that I know and I’m pissed FOR them.
It’s in regards to the blatant stealing of their work. There are various sharing sites on the web, that are allowing criminals to upload copies of ebooks. Once they are uploaded to these sites, anyone can go on and download them for free. I understand the whole free thing, really I do. BUT, this content belongs to someone and if you want it, you need to pay that someone for it. It’s criminal. It’s illegal and very, very wrong.
It’s no different then breaking into the authors home and stealing a copy of their manuscript. At the end of the day the readers who greedily downloads from this site is only hurting themselves. Because if an author isn’t selling books, she won’t get the next contract. So she won’t write and there will be nothing to read. How sad would that be?????
If you by chance come across one of these sites…please red flag any material you know is copywrited…..and report the site to the author and publishers. A quick email is all it takes.
Now…onto some good news. We all as authors and readers know how bad things have gotten in the publishing world along with every other industry that is out there. These are not great economic times that we’re living in. One of the main reasons the publishing industry is failing, and failing badly is the practice of bookstores being able to return books not sold to the publisher for credit. I’m not going to go into detail about how the equation works exactly, suffice it to say it’s bad business.
Today, HarpersStudio has announced that Borders will order books at a deeper discount, and they will be unreturnable. About freaking time…..Yeah HarperStudio and Borders!…….change needs to happen folks and it will be baby steps that move us forward. I hope this is a trend that will continue.
Have a great day all!
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Hi Jules! You’re absolutely right…baby steps eventually get us where we need to go. And supporting other authors by *paying* for their work is a huge part of that!
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Wow–I’ve never run across one of those sites, and while I initially was shocked, in retrospect, I’m not at all shocked. People are *always* looking for a bargain…and often don’t consider how they got that bargain.
And actually, I’m not entirely certain that I’m totally concerned (stay with me, now!). Because one must also consider the used bookstores, people selling their personal copies of books in online stores/auctions (amazon, for one), and people passing on their copies of books to other people. I pass on copies to friends so they can read them and get hooked on an author, or books in general! And they don’t pay for that book, although I originally did.
So, by that argument, is it now okay for those who paid for an ebook and then posted it on their website for free download? (Ducking from thrown shoes, I cry: I’m not sure, I’m just posing the questions!)
And I do, very much so, mostly buy my print books used because I cannot afford *all* the books I wants (grin) at their full price. Am I putting money into *someone’s* pocket when I do that? Yes. Am I putting money in the author’s or the publisher’s pocket when I do that? Probably not. Is this practice illegal? Not in the slightest. Is it an indication that something’s wrong with the book publishing indication? No, not when you’re allowed to buy just about anything used without sending some of those second/third/twentieth-time around profits back to the original creator.
Now, I was a book editor for three years at a small independent press, and I love independent bookstores. Do I understand the importance of paying full-price, preferably at an independent seller, for books? Yes. Do I also understand that I have a(n insatiable) love for books and unfortunately need to feed that love by the cheapest means possible? Yes.
So, there you have it. What’s really legal? What’s of no concern? And wherein are those lovely gray areas?
This is all just food for thought. I think you bring up an interesting trend…and it would great to see further dialogue around it. Thanks!
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The difference between a print book and an ebook is precisely why there’s a difference in the law.
A used paper book can be traded once at a time. An uploaded ebook can be downloaded over and over and over and over and over and over again. Into infinity. And there’s no real degradation in the physical product. The average one of these sites can have upwards of 400 downloads of any given book in a SINGLE DAY. I can’t trade a paper book 400 times a day.
As for gray areas, this isn’t one. It’s actually really illegal to upload an ebook to a free download site without the permission of the rights holder. Not gray at all. Illegal.
When a reader purchases an ebook, they purchase certain use rights. Those use rights do not include the right to upload 400 copies a day to a bunch of random strangers online. This isn’t just trading a copy to a friend, that is not what these sites do. These sites damage publishing in general. They make it more difficult for mid list authors to get new contracts because more and more often the box stores won’t carry anything less than best sellers. When midlisters can’t get new contracts readers get less variety.
As an author who writes for small pubs and NY who is now seeing her books in digital for both – this is of huge concern to me.
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I think Lauren did a great job in answering your question Julie. I’d be right pissed if someone had downloaded my work for free. With the industry moving towards more and more ebooks…from small presses to the larger houses I see this problem getting more and more prominent. Something has to be done, I’m just not sure what. As the new technology evolves, with the sony reader and the kindle and those devices become more affordable, of course more people and especially the tech savvy kids will be reading ebooks….but if authors aren’t making money….bottom line is they won’t get the contracts and they won’t write. We all, as authors, love to write….but this is a business and authors need to be paid for their work, plain and simple.
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Awesome…this is the sort of dialogue I like to see and be part of. I will be the first to acknowledge that as a barely-published writer myself, I have not had to personally deal with the issues surrounding this still-new frontier of epubbing.
Especially in the currently dour publishing climate, this topic becomes more and more important to discuss. Interestingly enough, I do not seem to yet hear panic from the mostly-electronic publishers (such as Samhain, Ellora’s Cave, just to name a few) as is coming out of the more traditionally tree-based book publishers in NY. Obviously, as an more and more ecologically aware society, people have been interested in virtual technology for publishing books vs. the kill-the-virgin-forest approach that is so traditional. As a book lover and also staunch land conservationist, I myself struggle between my visceral love for tangible books, and my desire to help out planet a little more by ordering ebooks. (Note I said ordering! I myself do indeed pay for my ebooks. <g>) As a writer, I 100% agree with both Juliana and Lauren that we need to be paid for our work.
Again, Juliana, great topic that will likely only gain more momentum over time…it will be very interesting to see what happens eventually.
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I’m curious to see how this plays out…I think that the sad thing is, a lot of these authors with Ellora’s or Loose Id, and Harlequin as well…don’t know…I think Lauren was either notified or stumbled across this particular site. I went and had a peek and saw a lot of Harlequin authors and several who share the same agent as I. Totally illegal and wrong.
Ideally, it would be amazing if a file was encrypted so that it was only allowed to be downloaded once…and from "the proper source" and after that….it would be corrupted…..I am not tech savvy at all…but I think if we can send a robot to Mars, we should be able to figure this out??!~! No?
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I just read an article somewhere about such ebook encryption technology…let me see if I can find it or something similar. Wouldn’t be surprised if something is out there already, in beta form…
And now of course you have me curious about the illegal site in question…need to search for that too.
I too believe that reporting such things is about the only way to eventually get better legislation around such issues…
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that would be way cool if you could find the link Julie….
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I’ll add my two cents to the argument. I think books being "shared" as in physical books does help increase readership. Loyal readers will want a hard copy eventually, and they’ll pay for it.
With an ebook there’s no difference at all between what is offered through the publisher, and what is given away. Instead of one tangible thing traveling around, new copies are created every new download. This leaves the people who downloaded the story with no incentive to ever pay for what they have, even if they like it, and ebook authors have no other means of distribution.
I think one of the things we can do is come together as a community of readers and writers and decide all together that this is bad behavior that hurts us all. We’re a small and tight knit group. Word spreads fast. If you’re uploading illegal material, watch out. It would take three days for the word to get out to every author you’re stealing from and the hurt to rain down on your head. It just isn’t a very fiscally sound move.
And I’m still baffled about what people uploading things get out of it.
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Haven’t found it yet–the perils of far too much Internet browsing, which results in my being unable to recall exactly where I read something.
However, two more great articles on the subject can be found at http://bittenbybooks.com/?p… and at http://www.anyabast.com/200…
And the actual copyright law can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/ti…
Frankly, the inherent perils now make me very leery to ever e-publish myself. Sigh… Always a battle somewhere. But at the same time, it is rather fascinating to be alive now, when such things as regulations around e-pirating are still being firmly created. Whodda thunk it just 20 years ago? Glad I’m not a legislator!
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I agree Jess…we need to watch out for each other….kinda like the Bradford Babes.
And Julie, I still think that in the years to come ebooks are going to just keep gaining in popularity….even know the large NY houses are releasing more and more titles in eformat. It’s just that the technology police need to catch up!