answer to Bill's original questions...had to find his original post

Who pirates?

There are two types of pirates. One doesn't know it's wrong, and we try to
educate them. The other knows it's wrong and doesn't care. There are also
incidental sharing types, but I'll get back to those and they fall under the
header of don't know it's wrong, largely, with a small portion that feel
it's no different than libraries or UBS.

Incidental sharing is not a good thing. I have no problem with e-book
library systems (REAL ones) or with Kindle and Nook "sharing features,"
which work under the same principle, as long as the book was purchased
initially. I really don't have a problem with Mary letting Jo read a
particularly good e-book she purchased either. But, if Jo assumes she can do
the same and lends it to two friends and her two friends (who know nothing
about e-books) do the same... Assuming two hands to two hands and a 25% loss
on people not passing a book along, do you know how many passes it takes to
get to more than 10,000 illegal copies? 13. And that's not counting the
major piracy sites that share books with thousands at a shot.

A funny (if any of this could be called amusing...ironic is more like it)
anecdote I can share? On one pirate forum site, they had a discussion about
what they did for a living...the pirates did. You'd like to THINK they
didn't have the money to get books...single mother of three...starving
college student... No. Most of the ones taking part were earning above
$75,000 per year and owned something like a Kindle to read on. Moreover,
many of them worked in tech fields and should KNOW BETTER than to do this.
That's galling. They can pay $400 for a reader but not $5 for a book?
Rolling eyes.

What do they pirate?

The more responsible ones only share material that is OOP and rare finds, to
begin with. Most aren't responsible pirates, and no piracy is inherently
legal or responsible. They aren't just pirating fiction work, though that's
the lion's share of it, that I find daily. Many are pirating non-fiction and
resource material, as well.

What do they do with the pirated material?

Someone else already answered this. Some actually read it. Some are
collectors. Some just like the thrill of breaking DRM and sharing. It's a
wimp's version of an adrenaline rush.

What are the actual changes in the number of books bought as the result of
the
piracy.

Cannot answer that. As someone noted, they don't give me a non-royalty
report.

I'd be interested in some statistics from surveys on some of these
questions.

The only statistics I can give you is how prevalent it is, based on a recent
survey done. It was reported in Publishers' Lunch, but it is no longer
available online. The pertinent information was...

<<
On the hot-button topic of piracy, Verso's survey found that "over 28
percent of e-reader owners have used unregulated file-sharing services, such
as RapidShare, Megaupload and Hot File to download at least one e-book
within the last twelve months, and 6 percent have used such services to
download ten or more titles during this interval. (Sixty-four percent did
not download any ebooks from such services.)
Their survey also indicates that "questionable downloading, while affecting
all age and gender brackets, is concentrated disproportionately among
younger male readers. Among males aged 18-34, over 45 percent report
engaging in such downloading activity within the past twelve months. Nearly
13 percent have downloaded ten or more e-books from file-sharing services,
more than twice the level of the survey population as a whole." McKeown will
have much more data and analysis to share in his DBW presentation.
>>

Even anecdotal evidence would be interesting.

How about finding more than 1000 entries for my own books in less than one
month? And I can't assume that they were only downloaded once each, either.
How about finding a single vendor illegally reselling blocks of 37
individual titles of mine and knowing she's sold at LEAST 400 copies of
that...and that was NOT included in the 1000 entries comment. Yes, it's
hurting us. I can't say how much.

Let me give you some personal experience.
I'm glad I missed the original post while I was on the road. Even now,
rested and ready after reading the responses of others, I want to tear into
you. You don't care. That's the typical entitlement crap I deal with often.
You don't care, because it doesn't hurt YOU. That's pretty pathetic and
shows a lack of morals, a lack of personal responsibility, and a decided
lack of empathy and respect for others...as well as a weakness in the work
ethic. It's not uncommon among pirates. I should be used to it, but I'm not.


I'm also not a fan of the civil disobedience type of pirates. If you don't
like the laws, change them the RIGHT way. I advocate for changes in
copyright law personally. They don't always make sense for the digital
environment (even Millennium), but they are currently all we have. I have a
class I teach on this subject...just taught it to middle and high school
students this past weekend, actually. There are 7 core types of pirates that
know it's wrong and don't care. These two are simply the ones that irk me
the most. Third runner up? The Robin Hood types.

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.

Are you dense? Of course it is. NO work is unable to be copied. It's just
copied in different ways. And once it's in e-book format, you have no clue
how it started out its life, save the fact that Harry Potter started out as
either mass market or hard bound, since she's never sanctioned legal e-book
versions of the books. e-Books might have been secured or unsecured. Print
books might have been mass market, trade, or hard bound...POD or
offset...printed singularly, small run, or large run. The authors may be
with NY, indie, or S/S/V.

If your work is mass market, it will be copied and I'll collect it, but I
wouldn't have bought it anyway.

No kidding.

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 about the thousands of others that are being shared with? That's a weak
argument and just another excuse to boot.

Not to mention that the misinformation given about e-book pricing is
astounding to me. I don't care if Baen can pre-sale an e-book at $15 or if
the NY conglomerates are stupid enough to try and follow suit with things
that are not pre-sale. MY books are available for $5-7 in novel length and
as little as $1 for shorts. Lumping all e-book pricing together is
appalling. Indies have had 15 years in the market to find a balance with
their readers.

According to the polling I am currently running on what readers are willing
to pay for a novel-length fiction e-book, the numbers are coming in
(unsurprising to anyone in indie press) as...

Less than $5, no matter who the author/publisher is- 8%
$5-7, no matter who the author/publisher is- 37%
$7-10, no matter who the author/publisher is- 22%
more than $10, no matter who the author/publisher is- $2
less than $5 for a lesser known author/publisher and more for one familiar
to the reader- 10%
$5-7 for a lesser known author/publisher and more for one familiar to the
reader- 15%
$7-10 for a lesser known author/publisher and more for one familiar to the
reader- 3%

Also, MY books are almost universally without DRM. The exception is Kindle,
because if you want to play in their pond, you play by their rules. Kindle
may be content blocking sales to some nations, but MINE are available
worldwide (save a couple countries that block certain web sites...and you
can reach resellers like Fictionwise even there, in most cases) from day
one.

According to the polling I'm currently running on readers' feelings about
DRM... And they can choose more than one, so don't think I can't do math
here.

It's horrible. I won't buy books that have DRM.- 20%
I'd prefer books without it, but I buy books with it, if that's my only
option.- 50%
I'd pay more for books without DRM.- 22%
It doesn't bother me. I buy DRM books all the time.- 18%

How many people are like me?

Too many out there blithely making excuses for infringement of author's
copyright and depriving an author of royalties. Just my opinion, but you've
posted yours. Since piracy doesn't hurt you and does hurt me, I'm definitely
going to let you know what mine is.

Of all the copied files, how many people would have bought a legal copy?

No one can know, but here's the trick. Now they won't. Thanks for ruining
people's income.

How many get a copy and also buy one in print or EBook form?

None or so close to none as to be negligible. I've seen how many pirated
copies I have to deal with in a month (just the ones I FIND...not every
pirated copy) and how many sell. If I had even 10% of those in SALES...5% of
that in sales...I would be out of debt. But I'm not, because of pirates. If
I had 1% in sales, I could take my family on a lavish vacation every year.
Just 1% of what the pirates syphon off of my sales.

Brenna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- 
http://www.brennalyons.com    http://www.facebook.com/brenna.lyons
2-time EPIC's e-Book Award WINNER! "Powers or no, the Kielan are their own
worst enemies, caught up in systematic, stagnated tradition, lost to the
hypocrisy of classism, and defenseless despite their psi powers. Time
Currents is a tale that I won’t soon forget." Patrice F. for Joyfully
Reviewed


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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