Tuesday 31 March 2009

From movies to music, the internet has served up a free buffet of interactive servers where we, as avid consumers, can download the latest blockbuster or number one album with no cost, to us at least.  Now it would appear that these ‘pirates’ are dipping their toes into the new born waters of e-books. With technology advancing beyond the means of control, authors now face a new threat of their work being pirated to the world without said authors consent. Many may take the Robin Hood analogy of ‘robbing from the rich to give to the poor’ but one has to consider that facts of the matter; theft is theft. People wouldn’t walk into their local Waterstones, WH Smith or Borders and put the latest Rankin novel into their pocket without paying. So why should we turn a blind eye to sites such as Scribd who initially are doing just that?

Rowling is just one such ‘victim’ of Scribd. Copies of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince were found for free downloading and printing without her consent. Her lawyer Christopher Little stated to The Times Online: “what you (TIMESONLINE) have identified are infringing listings which we were aware of and actioning”. A spokesperson for Scribd stated that they have a ‘notice and take down system’, which means that if an author complains they will take the illegal copy down from their web site: “If we get a request we usually respond in 24 hours.” Another ‘victim’ of this piracy was author of the Twilight Saga, Stephanie Meyer.  Her unfinished project, Midnight Sun, was posted illegally online by someone she knew (but who she does not care to name). The result of this was that Meyer had to legally post a legitimate copy herself on her web site. Meyer was so outraged that she did consider killing off her lead character in Midnight Sun – voiding the officially published Twilight Saga and refused to finish any other project until this was dealt with. However, Meyer realised that this would only punish her fans and not the pirates, who have since posted her audio books on YouTube.

I stated previously that people download their music with no cost to themselves but what about the authors and or publishers? People may believe that authors make a fortune from their book sales but the reality is that after all the costs have been met  there is actually little profit gained. Of course we do have authors such as Rowling and Meyer who have deservedly made a fair amount from their work but this is still not excuses for outright theft. We can enjoy the choice of reading our books on our e-readers, Nintendo DS’s or IPod’s without having to steal. We may want new platforms for publishing but we need anti-pirating software. Support your publisher and authors, buy and download your favourite books from legitimate sources or authors may take Meyers stance and strike – costing our culture more than the price of a book.

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