Why Authors Shouldn't Sign On With Publishers Focused On 'Fighting Piracy'
from the they're-not-looking-out-for-your-best-interests dept
Copycense points us to a blog post by Timo Boezeman on a book publishing blog, in which he points out that "fighting piracy is the dumbest thing you can do," as a publisher. There isn't necessarily much new there for regular readers of this site, but it is a nice succinct summary of the issues.In many ways, it comes down to the simple equation of which is more important: your overall revenue or stopping piracy. For some reason, many in various legacy industries have trouble separating those two questions, and often think that it's the same question. They assume (incorrectly) that "stopping piracy" automatically increases revenue, and that allowing infringement to continue automatically decreases revenue. But that's not the case. There are all sorts of other variables and unintended consequences. That's the point that Boezeman is making:
Not only does it cost you time and money (and hardly shows results, again learn from the music industry), it can cost you your image. This might be a difficult one to grasp. Especially if you do not want/dare to look at other industries that have already dealt with this before. The reason people illegally download is not always because they want something for free. Common reasons are: convenience (in a file format of your choice to use on a device of your choice), speed (why wait for it to become available here if you can already get it elsewhere? It feels unfair, and more important: the consumer doesn’t want to wait) or availability (see the Harry Potter example, as mentioned on FutureBook two weeks ago).Of course, this raises a separate issue. If you're an author, do you want to work with a publisher who's going to focus on "stopping piracy," or one who's going to focus on maximizing revenue for you? Again, if you can't separate the two, you may assume that they're one and the same. But if you recognize these are two different things, suddenly the publishers who focus so much on "stopping piracy," appear to be publishers who probably aren't that good at maximizing your revenue.
If these are the reasons for people to download illegally, then how can it make sense for publishers to start actively fighting them. Because the most important fact is: they want your product! It’s up to you (as a content creator/provider) to ensure that consumers can buy your products in the simplest way, as quickly as possible, for a good (reasonable) price and without any fuss (no DRM, no unnecessary copyright notices and usable on a device of their own choice).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: business models, infringement, publishers
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
Also, regarding the comment just below mine - I can attest to that as well. I'm the author of a blog, and I constantly try to find new ways to promote my articles, typically among link aggregation sites. I'm always happy when people link to my posts and comment on them too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
Sounds like a Die Hard remake done by the porn industry ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
Think about it, many of the children stricken with brain trauma were once as normal as any child you may see on a regular basis. How would you feel if they were referred to as a "retard" because of the accepted use of the word "freetard".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
If you don't like that? Simply don't associate with me or do/say the things that lead me to calling you retarded.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
"With all due respect, if you are mentally abnormal to the point where you are not as smart as the mean of other people, you ARE retarded and I am not going to apologize for calling you that, because it is solely the truth."
because half of the population are not "retards" or the current term "developmentally disabled." You have to be several standard deviations below the mean IQ to be a "retard" or "developmentally disabled." Only 1 or 2 percent of the population is "retarded." (If I remember my old psych books, there was some debate over was it an IQ or 60 or 70.
Also you have to be totally ignorant or insulting not to use the less insulting term when you can.
I would suggest spending some more time in school unless you want people to think you are borderline mentally disabled making statements like half the population is retarded.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
I got to that point and thought, oh god he is going to saracstically slam the record labels or other big content. The next line had me drooling waiting for "it".
"They have it hard enough without people such as yourself spreading the acceptability of slurs that we've spent the better part of the 90s fighting to antiquate."
Then the let down ...
"Calling someone a retard, is the same as calling them "the n word"."
Boy was I disappointed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Obscurity is the real enemy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A free download is free advertising.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Does He Want Publishers to Fight or Not?
Aren't these the things he wants?
Does he want publishers to simply accept illegal downloading (as in, not fight it), or does he want them to provide better service to potential customers?
Maybe he should work on his analogies, especially since he's an author. Technically no one is literally "fighting" pirates (though that would hellaciously entertaining), they're all just trying to maximize profits and eliminate free access to their content being provided by third parties.
It seems like he's just trying to jam buzz points and quotes into a blog so that it will be picked up and reposted... wait... I get it now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Does He Want Publishers to Fight or Not?
the fact that it has the result those 'fighting' piracy Claim to be aiming for is neither here nor there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
These two distince 'intellectual' properties being:
1. Sale & Distribution rights.
2. Lawsuit rights.
These "lawsuit rights" being marketable commodities that could freely be bought and sold - or even perhaps compiled and packaged into corporations, with shares sold to investors.
This way, professional patent trolls could purchase the right to sue companies for infringement, while still allowing the original inventor the future option of employing the patent in a product or selling it to another company in the future.
Likewise, copyright trolls could buy the right to sue bittorrent swarms, while leaving the original author all other rights.
I realize that this is not an entirely new concept, but I wonder if this sort of legal/financial instrument might not be commoditized and mass-marketed in the future.
I would certainly hope not, but anytime there's money to be made (in this case a potential gold mine) it's usually a safe bet that it will happen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is there a rason for publishers today?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Shut yo mouth
I think some of the people you work with are smarter than you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]