Like music, movies and software, digital books have a piracy problem. E-books are being uploaded to file-sharing sites, torrents and what have you. When downloaded, someone may or may not make a profit, but if there is an exchange of money, the author of the book does not get his or get fair share. While a lot of people who download digital files know that the book publisher, music company, software publisher, etc, lose revenue via illegal downloads and file sharing, most don't care as they see these entities as big evil greedy corporations that make too much money to begin with. Others think that the "little guy" shouldn't have to pay for digital content and that only big companies should (those who trade illegal copies of Adobe Photoshop believe this is the way it should be).
Most people probably have at least a few pirated files on their hard drive. Even those of us who generally purchase our software, music, books and movies, have likely accepted copies of such content from well meaning friends who like to share. While sharing a few files with friends does not seem to be such a big deal, and may even help the artist by introducing their work to new fans who will then purchase more of their work, file sharing has become a big business and just about every piece of digital content published is now available for "free" on pirate sites. (Note - if you aren't required to pay a fee to become a member of such sites, you are likely downloading files containing malware).
If you enjoy books, movies, music, etc, then think twice about where you get your digital content from. When artists are not paid, many of them give it up and we all lose out. As reported in
The Trichordist,
"Not everyone aspires to work a day job, make music as a hobby and allow internet corporations to profit from their labor, illegally." This is basically what is happening. The artists, writers, etc are not making a dime from their work while others are profiting big time. (Read "
How Musicians are (not) Making Money and Who is..." for detailed information.
In
Digital Trends, Jeffrey Van Camp reports that the Dutch have found a solution for pirated e-books. This is not the type of solution I think most people want to see implemented. According to Van Camp, "Legally purchasing an ebook may soon make you responsible for anything that happens to it. Thanks to a new digital distribution agreement publishers are making with ebook platforms, all ebooks may soon come with a digital watermark that’s specifically linked to a person’s account, so if a copy of that book somehow ends up on a pirating or torrent website, they know who to blame. So yes, even if you don’t pirate a copyrighted book yourself, if something you buy somehow ends up being given away to others, you could be punished.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ebook-piracy-safer-than-purchase/#ixzz2cEdAA1kk
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Not good, is it? The best way to avoid extreme solutions such as this is to purchase your digital content from legitimate sites and stay away from pirate sites. I know everyone likes their digital content to be free, but take a few minutes and put yourself in the creator's shoes. How would you feel if all your hard work benefited everyone but yourself? How would you feel if you favorite band, writer, actor etc called it quits as he or she had to get a day job and no longer had time to create works for you to enjoy? Think about it that way rather than thinking its all corporate greed and therefore you are entitled to have it all for free.
