Illegal ebooks!

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Just a winge!!
I find there are numerous websites offering my books as free "downloads"
THIS IS ILLEGAL.
Springer are fighting a loosing battles to stop this piracy, but it pains me to see it. Makes you wonder if all the research, time and effort that goes into preparing and publishing a book - doesn't seem worthwhile!!!

[bojan]

At least, someone reads them... wasn't that the intention ? .

Now seriously, how much of that cake Springer gets, and how much goes to you?
I believe THIS is what does make the effort a bit not-worthwhile.. if books are generally cheaper, more people would pay for them

[lepton3 (Ivan)]

I can sympathize Ken.

The suggestion that you should price your work cheaper and more people would pay only seems to work for "popular" works i.e. those with a widespread audience.

For specialized subjects appealing to limited audiences, I think you won't recover your effort of creation without pricing it at a point where many will just pirate it rather than pay.

I've heard of a number of authors of technical books stating they are giving up writing as there is not sufficient return. It's a real shame.

-Ivan

[pvelez (Pete)]

Ken

I've read your work - some parts several times. I'm glad I bought my copy.

It's a shame that technology, which has the capacity to spread knowledge so quickly and effectively, also makes theft so easy.

Pete

[bojan]

Originally Posted by lepton3

..
For specialized subjects appealing to limited audiences, I think you won't recover your effort of creation without pricing it at a point where many will just pirate it rather than pay.

I've heard of a number of authors of technical books stating they are giving up writing as there is not sufficient return. It's a real shame.

-Ivan

It is just a market, nothing more or less.
The audience is very small, and because of that financial benefit is unlikely or even impossible in such circumstances..

Personally, I believe that generally the pirating does not affect the final financial result much - if someone doesn't want to pay for something, he/she wont pay and that's it. But if something is offered or "offered" for free, at least there is a chance the word and knowledge is spread a bit further.. and this could also be considered as a positive outcome, right? (and, who can tell the downloaded material is used at all, especially for commercial purposes?)

Having said all that, I am not advocating for illegal downloads.. I am just trying to offer the plausible explanation for the observed facts (illegal downloading).

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

The first "pirate" eBook copies were on the net before the first printing!
Apparently some universities have a bulk arrangement to get electronic copies before the physical books are available and "someone" just uploads the files, no control, no checks!!

[Colin_Fraser]

Originally Posted by bojan

At least, someone reads them... wasn't that the intention ? .

Now seriously, how much of that cake Springer gets, and how much goes to you?
I believe THIS is what does make the effort a bit not-worthwhile.. if books are generally cheaper, more people would pay for them

That's about as shallow as suggesting that if they make cars cheaper, less people will steal them. The perceived high price of an item is not justification for stealing. Theft is theft.

[bojan]

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

That's about as shallow as suggesting that if they make cars cheaper, less people will steal them. The perceived high price of an item is not justification for stealing. Theft is theft.

I never said theft is not a theft, you should read posts of other people more carefully before pronounce them (people or their posts) "shallow"
I only suggested (implicitly) the price of the book may be too high.

[Max Vondel (Peter)]

Piracy=Theft

[Colin_Fraser]

Originally Posted by bojan

I never said theft is not a theft, you should read posts of other people more carefully before pronounce them (people or their posts) "shallow"
I only suggested (implicitly) the price of the book may be too high.

if something is offered or "offered" for free, at least there is a chance the word and knowledge is spread a bit further.. and this could also be considered as a positive outcome, right

If a thief steals your property and distributes it amongst his fellow thieves, how can you consider this a positive outcome for the author

[bojan]

I suggest you read what I wrote earlier a bit more carefully.

Originally Posted by bojan

Having said all that, I am not advocating for illegal downloads.. I am just trying to offer the plausible explanation for the observed facts (illegal downloading).

[Colin_Fraser]

I am just trying to offer the plausible explanation for the observed facts (illegal downloading).

The only plausible explanation for stealing is they are a thief and the only observed fact about illegal downloading is that it is stealing.

[bojan]

Originally Posted by Colin_Fraser

The only plausible explanation for stealing is they are a thief and the only observed fact about illegal downloading is that it is stealing.

I totally agree.

[Auspom (Scott)]

i am in no way advocating theft, but it seems to me that it's the website offering the book as a free download that have something to answer for. perhaps the downloader doesn't even know its illegal. Regardless, i feel for you Merlin66. It must be hard seeing your hard work given away or stolen.
Scott

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Believe me, all those people who upload the illegal copies of books to their website KNOW it's against the law. They just keep doing it!
(eBookee is one of the worst....)

[casstony]

I imagine (perhaps wrongly?) that most people who want a technical book would pay to own the hard copy since it's used as a reference, unlike a novel which is read once and discarded.

[HCR32 (Peter)]

It's a digital world ppl most things are digitally recorded meaning it's going to probably be pirated at some stage. Think about how many people in this world would be unemployed if crime didn't exist. The risk of some publisher losing out seems to be the safer option then a countrys economic integrity collapsing . Makes me think sometimes how the world goes round.

[sil (Steve)]

There are even establishments that provide books that people can actually read all the way through and they don't have to buy them! Go burn some libraries! Honestly the whole piracy thing has been done to death for decades and any attempts at discussion or debate on the subject descends fast. Do we need this topic to degrade IIS?

Merlin. I feel your anger and frustration...been there myself in other mediums. Still got thousands owing to me I'll never see. It's a painful learning curve and I don't blame people not bothering to pursue possible income avenues as a result. You're the only one who can decide how to proceed from where you are...do you look at continuing selling your ebooks but with a contract/protection arrangement more to your liking or do you throw it in altogether? What you choose to do is your business and I hope you find a more positive experience as a result.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

One major issue/ problem I see...if there's no return of the investment of time and monies in researching and writing a book, then there could possibly be many less technical books written, less knowledge made available and less eBooks to pirate.
( If I wanted to "publish for free" then I'd establish a Website...were anyone can download/ copy/ paste the work...)

[bojan]

The business model should have included the possible risks and their mitigation.
Besides, books are written to spread the knowledge IMO.
The existence of knowledge will generate the interest in applications. This is where the real money is.
So, not everything is lost ...