Books — Original Vs. Pirated (Physical and Digital)
I have recently joined a book reading group. It is a small and closed group with known and well-read people. A small group that infects you with the enthusiasm towards reading. Their passion and love for the act is commendable. Each one with abundant knowledge about books and authors, and a lot more experience to their kitty. As a routine, I was pondering over many topics to write for the day. Thanks to the group Purva Book Club, which has now given me a solid topic to write about. Something that I have been thinking of writing for many years.
During my long stint as a writer and editor, I encountered a lot of issues with books getting copied or passed on, both digitally and physically too. Being an avid reader, I always preferred to buy books and never the pirated ones. Remember those days (I guess we can still find such shops on many main streets of our city) where they sell these pirated copies for 50s and 100s — dead cheap. It used to irk me for it never gave me that smell of a new published book and never made me feel good about holding it. I admit of my ignorance of not knowing why book publishing laws are as important as any music, film or any other work as well. Now, an incident with the book group inspired me to write this piece.
The book reading group decides a genre, a month and further discusses the options for titles and authors. Once they arrive at a book, later comes the availability of the books in physical and digital form. While there are many kinds of readers ranging from physical book only to pdf on the phone readers, the matter starts to become serious. At this stage, in my excitement I went and downloaded a book — which was pirated and not a free copy. Feeling a little proud of having been the first to get a copy online, I shared it with the group. What I failed to notice was that the pdf was a pirated copy until one member pointed it out. Soon with the realization, I apologized profusely for my act and let the matter be. (I take this opportunity to mention that I do download PDFs for free online and after reading the book, I do transfer some money to the author if he or she holds a website with valid details for money transfer). However, what came of this incident is the sheer love for books and strong attitude to uphold the culture of reading books that are bought and not pirated.
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While there are many slips between the cup and the lip, I did learn one thing. Recheck the copy or the link for pirated or free version. Whilst, free versions are mostly provided by the publisher or the copyright owner of the book itself, pirated is like the footpath seller. In one of the article I chanced upon, the author says that downloading pirated books is like walking into the library in this generation. He also quotes another famous writer Tim O’Reilly — the founder of O’Reilly Media and the person who popularized the terms open source and Web 2.0.
It says, “Let’s say my goal is to sell 10,000 copies of something. And let’s say that if by putting DRM in it I sell 10,000 copies and I make my money, and if by having no DRM 100,000 copies go into circulation and I still sell 10,000 copies. Which of those is the better outcome?
I think having 100,000 [books] in circulation and selling 10,000 is way better than having just the 10,000 that are paid for and nobody else benefits. People who don’t pay you generally wouldn’t have paid you anyway. We’re delighted when people who can’t afford our books don’t pay us for them, if they go out and do something useful with that information.”
Although O’Reilly’s thoughts seem more radical for today, am sure the reading population increases giving more opportunities to publishing companies and authors to churn out good content, which is available cost effectively. As I journey on to reading more books with my fellow bibliophiles, my effort will remain to avoid many pirated copies with care. However, with a lot of opportunities piracy will only go on to become the lending library. Yet, there is no harm in standing for what we believe in, in this changing tides.
Ref: https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/23/book-piracy-a-non-issue/
