Thousands of books are pirated electronically, says an internet monitoring firm.
Envisional (www.envisional.com), the UK-based internet monitoring company, has announced that many best-selling titles of top authors, such as JK Rowling, John Grisham, Stephen King and Terry Pratchett, are available for free download over the web. Results from Envisional’s research showed that 7,267 pirated e-books could be freely accessed through newsgroups and Napster-like file-sharing networks such as gnutella. Envisional warns the publishing industry that the growing problem has the potential to impact upon the sector as hard as Napster hit the music industry. Envisional’s research found that science fiction and fantasy titles head the list of most pirated books, closely followed by technical computing books. Thousands of copies of horror author Stephen King’s novels, including latest release Dreamcatcher, as well as It, Misery and The Shining were all available at different locations online. Other authors hardest hit include Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling, with hundreds of copies of all four Harry Potter titles posted around the Internet. Terry Pratchett books were also popular targets, with nearly 200 copies discovered. There was also a growing trend towards popular thrillers, such as John Grisham’s legal dramas and Tom Clancy’s political yarns, with tens of copies of individual titles appearing on the Internet (See top ten most pirated authors below). The research found two main piracy methods for illegal e-books. Firstly, a minority are cracked copies of copyrighted e-books, such as Stephen King’s novella, Riding the Bullet (‘cracking’ involves disabling the copy-protection scheme placed on an e-book). Secondly, the vast majority of e-books available are traditional copyrighted paper books that have been scanned and converted into plain text or popular e-book formats, such as Adobe e-Book Reader or Microsoft Reader. Once downloaded, the illegal e-books can be printed out or read on a PC, pocket PC, or dedicated e-book reading device, just as if reading a paper book. Ben Coppin, chief operating officer of Envisional, said: ?The Internet is set to have the greatest effect upon the publishing industry since the invention of the printing press. Similar to the problem caused to the music industry by MP3s, the development of new e-book reader software will have a significant impact upon the publishing industry. These new technologies have freed book content from its traditional physical form, enabling the instant distribution of intellectual property across the globe. Releasing texts from their original format offers great opportunities for the sharing of information, but also creates a need for accurate monitoring to ensure intellectual property rights are protected.? Clare Griffiths, a lawyer at intellectual property specialists Briffa, explained: ?Copying e-books and downloading them is a straight-forward copyright infringement by the pirate and may also implicate subsequent on-line users. Even if users only read material on screen they are still making a copy onto the hard drive of their computer, which is enough to incur liability. By doing so, it is possible to infringe the rights of a range of people from the author, editor, type-setter, publisher, illustrator and e-book licensee. Where the pirates copy the publisher’s trade marks, further liability could be incurred for trademark infringement or passing-off. The quickest and cheapest way of tackling this piracy is by contacting the ISPs on which the infringing material is hosted. Once made aware of the situation, the ISP are obliged to take reasonable steps to block access to the site until the matter has been resolved. Where it becomes clear that the piracy has been on a scale to warrant further action, businesses can follow up with legal proceedings.? Envisional’s Asset Tracker is designed specifically to help businesses automatically monitor digital assets as they are distributed on the Internet, protecting and preventing loss of revenue. This breakthrough technology uses Envisional’s Discovery Engine – a tool for the monitoring and matching of web-based content against specific search criteria. The Asset Tracker offers businesses, such as publishers of music and books and supporting trade bodies, the information vital to identifying infringers or their ISPs, limiting the damage to their digital assets. E-mail [email protected] for information.
