Re: ebook security

Community members:     I am a new member and I am a novice at this, but I have to ask -- where do copyright laws play into all of this pirate activity?

Helen
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: Howard B <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:32:26 
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ebook-community] ebook security

Greetings all --

Publishing only a printed and bound copy is not a significant deterrent to
piracy.

I have two technical books that are available only printed and only from my
websites.  They have a limited audience, but within that audience they are
extremely popular.  There are dozens of pirate sites that offer pdf
downloadable copies of my books -- some free, some for pay, some want an
exchange of some other document or computer program.  If I can believe the
download statistics on those sites, some of them are selling more copies
than I am.  Some of the sites are asking as much for a pirate pdf copy as I
ask for the printed copy.  Some pirates are making significantly more money
from my books than I am.

Some of the pdf copies are high quality.  It appears that the binding has
been removed and the pages fed through a high resolution scanner.

Occasionally one of the pirate copies will be posted on a civilized site
hosted in a civilized country.  In those cases, I can contact the host and
ask them to remove the copyrighted content, which they usually do.  More
often, it is not possible to identify the host.  Or if I can, and then do
contact them, my request is ignored.

One friend says I should not worry.  He thinks the people who download
pirate copies would probably not be buyers of the printed version, and some
of them may decide the book is worth having a printed copy and buy one,
resulting in a net gain for me.  He is also fond of telling me that any
publicity is good, even if it comes at a price of lost sales.  I wish there
was a way to determine if he is correct.

I am (or maybe was) in the process of writing a third volume that is closely
related to the first two.  I am now wondering if I should bother.

Suggestions for dealing with this problem are welcome.

Thanks,
Howard
www.blueowlpress.com


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