XV e-Book Piracy: Is Your Download Legitimate?

As the popularity of e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle continues to rise, so does the publishing industry’s nightmare: e-book piracy. Formerly limited to the efforts of a determined few willing to ferret out mostly nerdy textbook titles from the Internet’s dark alleys and read them on a PC, the problem is ballooning as e-readers gain popularity and the appetite for mainstream e-books grows, publishers say.

“We are now seeing large volumes of e-books being pirated on everything from file-sharing networks to Websites,” says Ed McCoyd of the Association of American Publishers, a trade organization representing major U.S. book publishers.

A check of e-books available for illicit download confirms that technical titles no longer dominate e-book piracy. The list includes such best-selling authors as Janet Evanovich, Jobi Grisham, and James Patterson. PCWorld found that one third of Publishers Weekl’s top 15 best-selling fiction books could be had through a growing array of peer-to-peer networks, book-swapping sites, and file-sharing services. The availability of best sellers is just the start. PCWorld discovered virtual bookshelves stuffed with pirated e-book titles ranging from copyrighted popular fiction and non-fiction to college textbooks and how-to e-books. All are downloadable and ready to view on the user’s e-reader of choice, be it the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Header, or Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

“We know e-book piracy is a problem, and we are taking the issue very seriously,” says Paul Aiken, executive director of The Authors Guild, an advocacy group for writers. “We’ve seen the music and film industry deal with this, and it stands reason we will grapple with it too.” Aiken says that though he is concerned about the growing availability of e-book tides on the Internet, he is not convinced that the number of people who are actually downloading those digital files is increasing as rapidly.

Compared with music piracy, illicit e-books are not nearly as widespread or as easy to acquire. Pirates must be determined to track down specific e-book titles. Further, some pirated e-book files (usually available as PDFs) are poorly reproduced, and some consist of scanned page images – rather than of actual text.

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, from embracing the e-book format – surely a loss for readers. The fear is that e-book files protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology could be hacked anyway. However, refusing to take advantage of the e-book format can some»times backfire and itself drive piracy, according to consumer technology analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.

For a relatively small sum of money, pirates can convert any hard-copy book into an unprotected text file, even if a legitimate electronic book is newer created, Enderle says. “This fear of electronic piracy is actually fueling the piracy movement,” he concludes.

That’s what happened with Rowling’s works. Rowling’s publisher, Scholastic Books, doesn’t currently offer any Harry Potter titles in e-book format; but hackers have scanned all of the books and turned them into PDF files that are viewable on any e-reader.

“If electronic books can’t be had legitimately, others will step in and fill the need; and once a pirate industry is established, it probably won’t go away easily,” says Eaderle. He thinks that publishers should follow the music industry’s lead and make more e-book titles available.

While publishing e-books protected by DRM may seem like as obvious solution to piracy, the idea has faced criticism from within the publishing industry and from consumers. First, publishers are weary of reports that the DRM technology used in the Kindle and the Sony Reader has been hacked, says Nick Bogaty, art expert in DRM technology for Adobe. Second, consumers are hesitant to purchase digital books with an inflexible DRM that ties an e-book to a limited number of e-readers.

Critics say that the two providers of DRM-protected e-books, Amazon and Adobe, are stunting the e-book industry’s progress. For instance, Amazon’s Kindle uses its own DRM-restricted AZW e-book format. People who buy an e-book on their Kindle cannot transfer it to a competing e-book reader from another company for reading.

DRM issues get thornier when device makers, such as Amazon, start negotiating exclusive e-publishing rights for their product. Amazon signed a deal with best-selling business writer Stephen R. Covey to publish several of his books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership, exclusively for the Kindle. The company has also negotiated exclusive rights for Kindle e-books from author Stephen King and for a biography of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The idea of exclusive e-book rights tied to devices might seem as annoying as being allowed to play a new CD only on a certain brand of CD players. But Ian Fried, viсе president of Amazon Kindle, has stated that Kindle consumers don’t mind its DRM. That could change, however, as a predicted flood of rival e-readers hits the market this year and Kindle owners consider jumping ship – only to discover that they can’t take their e-books with them. Remember the backlash against DRM-protected content in Apple’s tunes store?

Adobe, whose DRM technology is used by Sony and Barnes & Noble, is yielding to critics, who say that its antipiracy technology is too restrictive. Adobe is loosening the grip of its DRM, allowing users to share e-books with friends and to read books on up to 12 different devices (6 desktop and 6 handheld).

Author Marcia Layton Turner says she is less concerned about piracy and more interested in making her books available via the e-book format. Turner says that the potential of new e-book revenue is reason enough to jump on the e-book bandwagon, despite the risk of piracy. “I’d rather sell twice as many books and lose a few sales due to stealing than to miss out on those additional sales altogether,” Turner says.

And many other authors agree: The problem of piracy takes a backseat to the challenge of getting people to read books in the first place.

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