Re: The Seven Types Of Pirate

In your previous post you divided piracy into personal and mass piracy.  My comments were mainly directed at personal piracy, sharing a book with a friend or copying it to a different device.  I don't think I had that distinction clearly in mind when I made my comments so that wasn't stated.

With respect to mass piracy, buying a book and uploading it to a torrent site or downloading a book from a torrent site instead of buying a copy, I think we can all agree that it's a no-no.  It's cheating.

It's true that much of what I said would be given as justification by some pirates.  Others would say they love beating the system.  Others just like getting free stuff.  Probably most don't even think about it.

The fact is, though, that most of the e-books most of us want most of the time are encrypted so it's of little consequence that the majority of e-books are not.  I remember elementary and high school teachers telling me that the English language was mostly derived from Latin.  Many years later I learned that, while it's true that most words in the dictionary, which includes huge numbers of medical, scientific and legal terms, are from Latin, the vast majority of the words we use in conversation and in most of the books we read most of the time, are Germanic in origin.  So English is a Germanic language.  And e-books have DRM.

When I said that publishers promote piracy I wasn't implying that they justify mass piracy, I was saying that they encourage it and makes pirates FEEL justified.

I grew up with the idea that sharing books is a good thing and unwillingness to share books is a bad and selfish thing.  Most people grow up with that same idea.  Publishers need to take that into account.  I have no idea how they might do that, but until they do they won't make a dent in piracy.  They'll just inconvenience their customers.

Barry


--- On Mon, 10/11/10, Brenna Lyons <[email protected]> wrote:

> From: Brenna Lyons <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [ebook-community] The Seven Types Of Pirate
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Monday, October 11, 2010, 9:59 AM
> On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 8:39 AM, Barry
> <barryem-/[email protected]>
> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Publishers never will figure out how to deal with
> piracy until they figure
> > out that they're part of it.  They build
> restrictions into e-books that they
> > can't enforce and that don't exist in paper books and
> then they're upset
> > when they're ignored.  Piracy is a moral issue to
> book providers.  It's a
> > convenience issue to the public.
> > It should be obvious by now that the public thinks if
> they've bought a book
> > they have a moral right to have it in a different
> format and to lend it to
> > their friends.  Publishers can cite reasons why
> that doesn't work in a
> > digital world all they like.  Readers don't
> care.
> >
> 
> 
> And your entire argument is a broad brushed mimic of what a
> pirate says. No
> offense, but it's true. It's all BS when dealing with most
> publishers and
> authors out there. Keep in mind there are only 6 NY
> conglomerates (most of
> which are foreign owned) and 70,000+ small and medium sized
> presses and
> self-publishers in the US ALONE...who knows how many
> worldwide?! While I
> won't argue that you are accurately portraying most NY
> conglomerate presses,
> let's look at your complaints for a minute...honestly look
> at them, keeping
> in mind that most books released these days come from indie
> press and not
> conglomerate.
> 
> Most of your indie presses do NOT use DRM. Therefore, you
> can do more with
> our books than with a print book. You can make backups,
> move it from machine
> to machine, copy and paste without typing like you would
> with a paper
> book... Almost all the lovely benefits inherent in print
> books PLUS some
> print doesn't give you.
> 
> Most indies support legitimate sharing sites, and no sane
> indie author I
> know begrudges readers access to their own ebooks or
> incidental sharing with
> a few friends. We DO begrudge first sale doctrine (which
> doesn't apply to
> ebooks anyway) and mass sharing. BIG distinction there. And
> it's not
> unbelievable that we would have concerns there, considering
> ebooks have no
> built-in wear and tear like paper does. Books printed in
> the last few
> decades do not have the sort of longevity books printed 50
> or 100 years ago
> do. Give them a few dozen reads and the newer books fall
> apart. eBooks can
> be passed along indefinitely with no wear and tear
> whatsoever.
> 
> Most indie authors I know offer free reads to readers. How
> accomodating of
> us. The only limitations (besides attribution and NOT
> reselling those free
> reads) are of the distribution channel's making. For
> instance, Amazon won't
> let us load free reads on DTP for Kindle. We have to offer
> our Mobi/PRC free
> reads on places like ARe and Smashwords instead and send
> readers there for
> them. If you want to complain to someone curbing your
> reading, please do
> complain to Amazon. I'd love to have readers telling them
> they are screwed
> up.
> 
> Even the availability and pricing concerns are NY items and
> not an indie
> item.
> 
> But pirates will sit there and give these as reasons for
> infringing on my
> work, when I'm NOT the one hacking them off. It's just
> another excuse they
> use. If they really meant it, they would put their money
> where their mouths
> are and buy books that don't do what offends them and only
> pirate those that
> do. But they don't do that, which means it's just another
> excuse. Your
> average indie is bending over backward to avoid the things
> NY conglomerate
> is doing wrong, and while readers that pay for books
> appreciate it, pirates
> never will.
> 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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