Wired.com on Harry Potter e-book piracy

Alexander Turcic · 07-21-2005, 11:27 AM

Based on Colin's scoop on the illegal home-brew e-book of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Wired.com has a follow-up explaining that the Russian website used by the scanner team to host the ripped e-book received 80,000 hits (before it was shut down by Rowling's merciless lawyers, I assume).

The article also mentions MobileRead as a place where e-book "enthusiasts" can talk about the "miniscule" (quote Nick Bogaty from Open eBook Forum) e-book market. Of course, if publishers and authors alike continue to refuse the release of bestseller e-books, its market will always remain just a drop in the ocean.

gadgetguru · 07-22-2005, 03:20 AM

'miniscule?' Those people should know that everything was once miniscule...the internet, legal music download, DVDs... it's just that the big player are trying to limit the medium's (ebook) growth by not providing it with quality titles... and despite that some statistics had it growing at 40% per year...harly miniscule growth rates. It's myopic people like them that promotes piracy... My guess is that 90% or more of people will support legal means if it is available.

It's good that there are sites like Mobileread that balances the slanted views from those moneyed corporate people.

rlauzon · 07-22-2005, 08:02 AM

They are correct.

The market for full price, DRMed eBooks is miniscule.

If they are going to DRM an eBook, we want it to be at a throwaway price. If we don't like the book, are done with it, etc. we have to throw it away because the DRM prevents us from reselling the ebook (like we can do with a physical book).

That "throwaway" price is almost (if not) free. So there is no market for them.

macrotor · 07-22-2005, 01:12 PM

Heh, my wife and I were just discussing this after trying to shop for some books by Dorothy L. Sayers. $16 for an eReader book!!! Alan Dean Foster has posted many nice books at reasonable prices that I have happily purchased, but I honestly think that some publishers are posting eBooks at ridiculous prices in the honest hopes that they will NOT sell.

Then they can publicly state, "We ventured into digital publishing but it was proven to be a small market."

It gives them a good excuse to ignore it. eBooks will be hard to push until the managers of the de-facto publishers retire and are replaced with some fresh blood that is willing to explore new mediums and take some chances. Rowling's publisher is simply too "big" to get with the times.

....Apple is now posting videos on iTunes. The iPod has been proven to be a reasonable eBook reader. Think they would be willing to add eBooks to iTunes and help the medium take hold?

- Jim

07-21-2005, 11:27 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,171 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Wired.com on Harry Potter e-book piracy Based on Colin's scoop on the illegal home-brew e-book of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Wired.com has a follow-up explaining that the Russian website used by the scanner team to host the ripped e-book received 80,000 hits (before it was shut down by Rowling's merciless lawyers, I assume). The article also mentions MobileRead as a place where e-book "enthusiasts" can talk about the "miniscule" (quote Nick Bogaty from Open eBook Forum) e-book market. Of course, if publishers and authors alike continue to refuse the release of bestseller e-books, its market will always remain just a drop in the ocean.

07-22-2005, 08:02 AM	#3
rlauzon Wizard Posts: 1,018 Karma: 67827 Join Date: Jan 2005 Device: PocketBook Era	Yes, miniscule They are correct. The market for full price, DRMed eBooks is miniscule. If they are going to DRM an eBook, we want it to be at a throwaway price. If we don't like the book, are done with it, etc. we have to throw it away because the DRM prevents us from reselling the ebook (like we can do with a physical book). That "throwaway" price is almost (if not) free. So there is no market for them.

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07-22-2005, 03:20 AM	#2
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	'miniscule?' Those people should know that everything was once miniscule...the internet, legal music download, DVDs... it's just that the big player are trying to limit the medium's (ebook) growth by not providing it with quality titles... and despite that some statistics had it growing at 40% per year...harly miniscule growth rates. It's myopic people like them that promotes piracy... My guess is that 90% or more of people will support legal means if it is available. It's good that there are sites like Mobileread that balances the slanted views from those moneyed corporate people.

07-22-2005, 01:12 PM	#4
macrotor Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 2418 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Fremont, CA, USA Device: Tungsten\|C with Nokia6200	Heh, my wife and I were just discussing this after trying to shop for some books by Dorothy L. Sayers. $16 for an eReader book!!! Alan Dean Foster has posted many nice books at reasonable prices that I have happily purchased, but I honestly think that some publishers are posting eBooks at ridiculous prices in the honest hopes that they will NOT sell. Then they can publicly state, "We ventured into digital publishing but it was proven to be a small market." It gives them a good excuse to ignore it. eBooks will be hard to push until the managers of the de-facto publishers retire and are replaced with some fresh blood that is willing to explore new mediums and take some chances. Rowling's publisher is simply too "big" to get with the times. ....Apple is now posting videos on iTunes. The iPod has been proven to be a reasonable eBook reader. Think they would be willing to add eBooks to iTunes and help the medium take hold? - Jim

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