Blog

The uncomfortable truth revealed in Binet’s book is that readers should always have this guard up, and rarely do. Even though we know we are reading an historical novel, and authors ram that messag...  >

Elsewhere
Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do >

Other

< Back to Blog
2 Comments

Digital Piracy

May 21

I guess it was only a matter of time. Napster went from booming file-sharing songbase to reformed pay service, aXXo released commercial DVDs as free downloads and was chased and hounded by the Motion Picture Association of America, surfthechannel and youtube came about and are still going strong – uploading bite-sized clips of virtually any TV show you could care to watch for zilch, nada, nothing. And now it’s books – uploaded and read for free largely via file-sharing sites such as Wattpad and Scribd.

Despite the fact that websites like Scribd (whose vision is to ‘liberate the written word’) markets itself as a kind of self-publishing network where readers can upload and share ‘original writings and documents’, more often than not it results in books being released without permission. Digital copies of Harry Potter and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series (which is by far one of the most popular pirated books) abound. Also up there are novels by Stephen King, John Grisham and Ursula Le Guin, who was clearly stunned at the theft: ‘I thought, who do these people think they are. Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?’ Well clearly because it’s easy and because they can.

Books have enjoyed a brief immunity from the onslaught of digital sharing that hit first the music and then the film industry. This may have been for a variety of reasons. Unlike songs or movies, books were solid paper and glue (not something that could easily be converted into electronic files without perhaps taking the time to scan each individual page). Also, while you can listen to songs or watch films on your computer, reading an entire novel on-screen is less tempting.

Not so any longer. The idea of the ebook is only getting stronger and, like the iPod, things like Kindle are weaning people off hardcopy and onto the digital. If you can somehow get hold of the right PDF, you can then upload the file onto a site for others to download onto their ebook reader. One user commented on the page for J.K Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard ‘thx for posting it up ur like the robinhood of ebooks’.

The New York Times has reported that this kind of digital piracy is on the rise. While Scribd and Wattpad both maintain that they ‘immediately remove copyrighted material when we receive notices from copyright holders’, the fact is that books are often upload much faster than they can be taken down. John Wiley & Sons, who published textbooks as well as the Dummies series, employ three full-time staff just to search for pirated versions.

If you’re further curious, the NYT has also published this little piece by Peter Wayner on his experience of dealing with his books being pirated.

This issue has also generated some interest on the Meanjin site regarding Lynne Spender’s forthcoming essay on intellectual property in June. If you happen to be in Sydney this weekend, Spender will speak further on the issue as part of the CAL/Meanjin (free) lecture, details here.

JA

Pirate


 

Our Friends

Comments

by Paul
21 May 09 at 16:15

As the old media and infrastructure of literature gradually fade into a well-deserved insignificance (accompanied by the wailings and protestations of those who depend on them for both their egos and their livings) this will become the fundamental issue, correct attribution.

...
by Sukki
21 May 09 at 18:04

haha, wailings and protestations, we love you, Pauly-poo, most famous poet in Australia. where did they find that picture of you?

...

 

Only the comment field is required. Omitting the ID fields increases your risk of being mistaken for spam.