Sharing E-Books
October 18, 2010 by Lillie
A commenter on a previous post said he preferred print books because when he finished reading, he could pass the book on to a friend or a library, whereas e-books cannot be shared.
Passing e-books on to others does present a challenge. The difference is that when you give a copy of a print book to the library, you no longer have a copy of the book. If you give a copy of an e-book, you still have the copy on your hard drive so rather than sharing one copy of the book you have created a new copy.
I don’t agree with draconian DRM (digital rights management) processes that don’t allow e-books to be shared. Instead, I prefer to just remind readers that if they create and distribute additional copies of the books, they are cheating the authors.
On the other hand, I have no objection to readers having more than one copy of an e-book for their own or family use. There’s no reason someone can’t have different formats to read on their computer, an e-book reader (or more than one if they or family members have more than one), and a phone. That is like taking a print book from the living room to the bedroom to the den and reading in different locations.
In fact, when I create e-books for my publisher or my clients, I always create several different electronic formats and put them together in a single zip file. When a customer places an order, they download the zip file and can read whichever format(s) they want. Smashwords allows you to download any and all formats you want when you purchase an e-book and you can return and download again if you need to. Unfortunately, proprietary formats like the Kindle and Sony can be read only on specific devices.
It’s primarily the large traditional publishers who put DRM on their e-books. Most independent and self-publishers make their books easily available but simply ask readers not to make duplicate copies of their books. Most small publishers price e-books reasonably, and you can find lots of free e-books, especially public domain books. So you don’t have to spend a lot of money to read a lot of e-books.
As in the case of sharing music, the sharing of books requires to res respect some copyright norms. Although these copyright issues aren’t very well delimited, I think that they should be respected. Someone has worked for writing a book and by copying it you practically steal it.
Jenny,
I think a lot of people don’t realize how much effort it takes to write a book and how little most authors make. They hear about the JK Rowlings of the world and think all authors make zillions of dollars so a few dollars won’t make any difference. But many small press authors make nothing more than pocket change, and copying and distributing e-books cheats them out of even that little bit of money. Not that it’s right to steal from the rich, but many people think their little bit is so small it won’t matter.
Hi Lillie
This is a very interesting subject that I have thought about for a while as a prospective author. The danger with digital books is that they go the way of MP3 audio files which have destroyed the music industry. I think some DRM is neccessary but not an overpowering degree. otherwise all authors (apart from JKR, DB etc) will suffer.
Ste
Ste,
As a reader/customer, I hate DRM and know how much resistance there is to it in the marketplace. In effect, it treats every buyer as if you expect them to be a thief. I prefer to trust people’s integrity; I think most piracy on an individual basis is generally out of ignorance rather than maliciousness. So I think education is the best deterrent.
On the other hand, I’m all for getting tough with people who enable others–such as file-sharing sites.
It’s great to receive or share ebooks I have read. But I prefer the hardbound or softbound books, whether it is non-fiction or fiction, to have a personalize effects.
Eleazar,
It’s good to have a choice. I never read print, but I know some folks never read e-books. I’m glad we can each choose the format we like.
I have worked in the retail market for over 35 years, and many of these jobs were based on repeat customers. In my last business I maintained around 280 customers that I serviced once a week. I can tell you that most people are dishonest on this type of an issue. I have raised two wonderful daughters, and taught them both the importance of integrity and honesty. Before they left home I taught them that most people are dishonest and they had to watch out for themselves and check to make sure people weren’t cheating them. They have left home years ago, but at first were very surprised to find out how many people are dishonest.
John,
That’s a sad commentary. I know there are a lot of dishonest people in the world, but I don’t believe it’s the majority.
Hi Lillie, I think that while it would be great if we could trust people to use their own judgement when it comes to the sharing of e-books, it would be naive to assume that most people will be honest (just like what has happened with music files). Authors already recieve such little money from the sale of their work that I think it’s important to protect their interests as much as the readers. I don’t know if this already happens but perhaps by allowing users to share the first chapter freely this would enable readers to decide whether the e-book is worth purchasing for them?
Sharon,
Most authors and publishers (at least the independent publishers) offer free samples of one to three chapters. Smashwords lets the author set the amount of the book that is offered free—and 20% to 50% is common.
I agree with you Lilie that having a copy of an E-book for your own or for your family is just like that you just bring your book in any part of your house. But of course, we know that if we pass a copy of it to your friends, it is already unethical. It is not already right to share a copy of the E-books to others because they might also share it to their other friends also. And yes, I agree also with you Jenny that we should respect the copyrights of the books for it is the effort of the author and we, readers, are using it for our convenience. So, I think that it’s enough that we can have the benefits of their books and stop taking advantage of their rights.
Lovelyn,
I don’t think most people stop to realize what it costs authors when their work is stolen, and they don’t consider it stealing. Yet that is what it is.
For me, E-Books are better compare to written books. Just like what you had explained above, once you gave it your friends you will no longer have a copy of it unless you purchase a new one. I also believe that when you share a copy of it, it should be within the family members only or a trusted friends. There are some people who would say that they will not distribute it but they did. We all know that it is against the intellectual property of an author, stolen their works. We should not be too optimistic of sharing it ,always give the benefit of the doubt.
TrishaJane,
I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt and not burden everyone with draconian security because some people are dishonest.
I only buy e-books in PDF format. Because it gives me enough freedom. Similar as with digital music. Music in MP3 format is “more useful” to me than some DRM protected music, because it can be used on many different devices without problem.
Mike,
Interesting–I avoid PDF as much as possible as I have to convert it to read on the Kindle. I am working on getting the latest version of Kindle, which does handle PDF.