I’ve been pirated!

I have a bunch of ego searches set up for things like my name and links back to this blog. One of those searches is for my name on Twitter. Last week, this result appeared:

“ Interesting” I thought, especially since there was no e-book version of that title I was aware of. So, I clicked the link and found this:

Turns out someone took the time to completely scan and create a PDF of my 2006 book. The site shown above is like a torrent tracker in that it doesn’t host the files, just points to them. According to the site they will remove any pointers at the request of a copyright holder. So, I of course downloaded each of the three copies it pointed to. (Hey, it’s my book, I’m not breaking the law by doing so am I?)

Turns out all three copies are the same, just hosted on different servers. And, I must admit, it’s a really good electronic copy too. Here’s a screenshot of the cover…

…of the copyright page. (Nothing like being a little ironic.)

Looking at the document’s properties I must also say that the quality of the metadata in this file is much better than most PDFs I’ve ever downloaded. (Did they really have to create the file using a Mac? ;-)

Since this first find, I’ve seen two other Tweets pointing to the downloadable version of my book and in all three cases I’ve replied to the tweets and received no responses back.

I’ve has mixed feelings this whole thing. On the one hand, they’re giving away my content for free without my permission. On the other, someone thought my book was worthy of the time and effort it must have taken to scan and convert 289 pages of content. Really, how many other “librarian” titles have you seen pirated? (Then again you may notice that I’m not giving out the URL to the download sites either.)

So, in the end I guess I’m not all that upset. It’s actually kind of flattering. I’m also starting to wonder how I can leverage this into sales of the second edition that I’ll be starting work on hopefully soon. In the end, given how I get most of my TV these days, to complain would be mighty hypocritical of me at least.

Piracy: D.O.I.T.

Chuck D on Piracy

Via The Pirate's Dilemma

Get The Pirate's Dilemma for free

Matt Mason has officially released his latest book The Pirates Dilemma for free online.

Why would an author give away a book for free? Obviously it makes a lot of sense given the arguments in this particular book, but it’s true for all authors that piracy isn’t a threat, it’s an opportunity...

By treating the electronic version of a book as information rather than property, and circulating it as widely as possible, many authors such as Paulo Coelho and Cory Doctorow actually end up selling more copies of the physical version. Pirate copies of The Pirate’s Dilemma are out there online anyway, and they don’t seem to have harmed sales. My guess is they are helping. To be honest, I was flattered that the book got pirated in the first place.

Get it at http://thepiratesdilemma.com/download-the-book. (If he'd released it under a CC license I'd be adding it to the NLC's online collection. Alas not.)

Understanding Anti-Piracy Enforcement

TorrentFreak has a great post explaining some of the most common misconceptions about anti-piracy enforcement today. They are:

1. There have been very few actual legal cases, as yet, that have involved torrents.
2. The majority of copyright cases are CIVIL, not criminal
3. What most people think of as being the law, often isn’t.
4. The RIAA and the MPAA never get involved in anti piracy evidence collection directly.
5. Most of the time, people are going from what someone they have met on a forum had read in an IRC channel.

Each of these are addresses in detail on TorrentFreak.

Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice

Here's another article, this time from the UK, which shows that if people had an easy-to-use legal alternative, they'd happily pay for most content.

On top of the availability issue, 68% of the respondents who have downloaded copyrighted content indicate that the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.

Study: Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice | TorrentFreak