Re: What kinds of Books are pirated and made into EBooks?

Bill,

I almost thought your post was a joke!

The moral dimension of this is easy. If it isn't yours you have no right to take it - whatever 'it' is.

Distributing a resticted document to which you have no licence is tantamount to serious theft, and theoretically equates to forgery. 

Receiving such a document is, in effect, theft; doing so knowingly might even be conspiracy to defraud.

From there the arguments about the pressures on copyright because of unlawful behaviour are those of the greed society that has created so much trouble.

You ask 'who pirates?'; well you have admitted to it. And you answer these two questions on your own behalf: What do they pirate? What do they do with the pirated material?

Occasionally people pop up with the same tired versions of 'I can, so I will.'

You ask of the effects on the marketplace.  To which the only possible answer is 'How long is  piece of string'.

Your assumptions at the end are wrong, and your understanding of what you do appears to be faulty. Your self-justification is not one that any publisher, of any size, is likely to accept.

Stop stealing!

Joseph Harris - Debt Control Man
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
Author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
http://twitter.com/debtcontrolman 
SAQ - SAve the cheQue

From: "Bill C" <bczygan-/[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 4:55 AM
Subject: [ebook-community] What kinds of Books are pirated and made into EBooks?


>I ask this question because I wonder what the real effect is on the marketplace from pirating.
> Who pirates?
> What do they pirate?
> What do they do with the pirated material?
> What are the actual changes in the number of books bought as the result of the piracy.
> I'd be interested in some statistics from surveys on some of these questions. Even anecdotal evidence would be interesting.
> Let me give you some personal experience. 
> I obtain free EBooks whenever I can. I don't know if I'm like most EBook collectors, but this is what I do. I collect them. I collect them in any subject that interests me. They are about half and half, technical and fiction (Novels). They are probably half and half legal and not. I'm not concerned if they are legal or not. The technical ones I keep for reference and rarely read or even refer to them. The novels I collect mostly just to have, but have read a few. I am among the very few people who don't mind reading on a laptop or even on my cell phone. With one or two exceptions, I would not have bought any of the technical books as either print books or EBooks. The novels I would have bought as thrift shop books, if available. I would not have purchased any of the novels for bookstore 
 prices either in soft or hardback. Neither would I have purchased them as EBooks unless in maybe the 50 cent range with no DRM and with great presentation in the way of fonts, layout and visual, audio and even video added content. The one irritation I have is that more material is not available in EBook form. Typically, the things available are the popular items. Harry Potter and big fat Wiley reference books. Anything esoteric isn't available. I'm not interested in copying and distributing books or selling them. I do, however, count on others doing so. The only exceptions to this are owners and operators and service manuals for airplanes and other recreational craft that I do copy and share for free.
> So what does this mean for publishers? Using me as an example, I would suppose the following:
> If your work is not mass market, it won't be copied, and I won't be able or willing to collect it.
> If your work is mass market, it will be copied and I'll collect it, but I wouldn't have bought it anyway.
> I'm not in the market for any of your new printed book or EBook sales at present prices, so you're not losing any sales to me.
> How many people are like me?
> Of all the copied files, how many people would have bought a legal copy?
> How many get a copy and also buy one in print or EBook form?
> Comments?
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
> Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
> Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
> Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
> Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
> Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *
> 
> (* == yahoogroups.com)
> -------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 


------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    [email protected] 
    ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/