Why sharing ebooks is good for people – and good for publishers:
One of the joys of reading is being able to share your favourite books with friends, family and colleagues. As I am sure is the case for most people, in these circumstances I often go on to buy my own copy of a book I have been lent and like. In this respect, sharing books is not only an important social act of generosity, it's also one of the best forms of marketing, since it represents a recommendation from a trusted source, and a chance to try before you buy.
Things have changed recently, with the increasing popularity of ebooks. Many use Digital Rights Management (DRM) to make it hard for people to share books. More generally, publishers have pushed the line that unlike physical books, ebooks should never be shared. Their main reason for this assertion seems to be that it's simply too easy to share digital books by making a copy, and so people shouldn't do it, because, well, copyright. But this new injunction is really part and parcel of publishers' wider fear of – and hatred for – anything digital. That's because they know that it is impossible to stop digital material being copied, no matter what laws are passed, or DRM is applied.
The idea that ebooks by definition must never be shared was always wrong – books released under sensible licences can be shared without problems. It is also dangerous, because it leads to this kind of stupidity, noticed by the Twitter user @emeraalds when looking to buy a (physical) book, and reported here on The Mary Sue site (via mvario):
The copyright page, which is from a book called Zodiac Academy #1: The Awakening by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, reads, "This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it wasn't purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author."
In other words, the publishing industry's repeated insistence that ebooks must not be shared has spilled over into the world of physical books. To the credit of the authors in this particular case, when they found out about the notice, they explained that it was added during the publication process, and that: "It was not checked or approved by us and is not an accurate statement or reflection of our principles, or our view on libraries".
[...] An important case at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU's highest court, ruled that the First Sale Doctrine can also apply to digital goods. In the US, the situation is less clear-cut. But for reasons mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is actually in the publisher's interest to encourage the sharing of ebooks, since it represents a powerful marketing approach that will drive new sales. The copyright world's obsessions with control at any cost means that they are failing to enjoy these opportunities, and that authors are losing revenue as a result.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03, @10:35AM (4 children)
A long time ago, and I mean a long time, I purchased a lot of books. Mostly paperbooks. All the new and the old science fiction and fantasy. It was getting expensive. When I started to buy these types of books it was AU$8. It crept up to $9, and eventually got to $10 and then $11. My books overflowed my shelves. When I moved I had boxes and boxes of books.
Then I got a job in another state. Left a lot of stuff behind. Took memories and most of my books with me.
I stopped buying books.
Life just went on. Some time later, about 10 years, I looked at books again. By this time pdf and epub and text files were all over the place. P2P had blown up books. The local bookshop had paperback books for $17 to $20. Twice the price.
I just couldn't do it. I bought one here and there. Mostly I spent the next few years trawling second hand bookstores. I picked up a lot of old series. Sure, I had a hard drive full of electronic books, but holding a book in my hand was relaxing.
Once I started reading books on my phone, it was over. I rarely read another book ever again as an actual book. Even today I rarely read a physical book. I don't buy them either.
I am the target audience to buy electronic books. I will pay for it. I just don't want their crap software on my phone. I literally have hundreds of thousands of books. These people, publishers, authors, etc, are competing with 'free'.
That said, I have bought DRM free books. HumbleBundle has been good for DRM free books. I've purchased a number of bundles just to be seen as interested in their method of marketing. Kickstarter has been good as well [kickstarter.com].
The rest? You tell me. There's a bunch of books I am willing to pay money for to read on my phone. Sadly, the publishers want to lock me into their app, or their device, or be able to retract the sale any time they feel like it. No.
I went to a few courses where they no longer printed the manuals. They provided a link to a website. Login and get your books online via a JavaScript driven page. It worked for a whole year. Three years later I went back to one of those sites to find my account was disabled. Gone. Along with the course books. I needed those books then, as my job had changed. Gone.
Now I mostly read web comics, or fanfiction.net, or the news. I still have a large backlog of books to read, I just don't buy them in physical form, and I certainly won't install DRM on my phone. These publishers are missing out on sales. I can pay. I just won't join their walled garden.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03, @11:08AM (2 children)
Library Genesis [wikipedia.org] just works. And you're becoming a mini-librarian the more books you download and spread.
Share? You can keep the copy.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 03, @01:50PM (1 child)
I wouldn't endorse pirated content, if I was you. If just for the sake that pirated content is much more likely to include all kinds of viruses/malware. It's like advocating for a "free love" society. Sure, don't use any protection and have indiscriminate sex. That's how things like AIDs and various other miserable/life changing things get spread.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Funny) by Woodherd on Tuesday April 04, @10:29AM
I might! This sounds curiously like the arguments made against Free Software. Free Love? Besides, it is not like I am reading with everyone who has read this e-book in the past, sort of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03, @03:05PM
Kobo + Obok + Calibre. It's not great, but it works. It would be much easier if you just got an epub in the first place though. I mean I can buy mp3 files without drm, so why not epubs?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 03, @06:32PM (1 child)
Drug pushers are much smarter. The local pusher has always been willing to give freebies to new potential customers. Get the sucker hooked, and he'll be back again, and again, just as frequently as he can get the money for another hit.
I read voraciously for most of my life. New author? I'm not paying to see if he's any good at all. I borrow from somewhere, whether it be the library, a friend, a relative, or whatever. If I like the author, THEN I might spend some money on his books. Or not. The point is, I read the free stuff first, then I may or may not spend money later.
Jim Baen of Baen Books understood that, as well as many of Baen Book's authors.
https://prathambooks.org/baen-free-library/ [prathambooks.org]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday April 04, @02:25AM
Yeah, that's why when I release my series for sale through Amazon and the like, I'm seriously considering surreptitiously throwing the first book to the filesharing winds, because experience has taught me that readers either blow out of it by page two (not everyone is =my= reader), or complain that I kept them up til 4AM then bitch because there isn't more. So... a small cost to catch the ones who will salivate and pay for books 2 through 7.
Used to be if I wanted a good read, I'd just buy all the DAW yellow spines without troubling to look inside first. Then things changed, and more and more of the newer stuff does not interest me at all, not to mention the writing (and egads, the editing) are just not up to snuff, or reinvent the wheel, badly. So yeah, nowadays I don't buy blind. I can't expect my readers to do so either.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.