Every time a new book of mine comes out, I get myself worked up about piracy. I've been tweeting about it this time, but there are nuances that require a longer form. The title of this post is a reference to Google's suggestions to people searching for my book:
Maybe if enough people link to this post, then those search suggestions will bring would-be pirates to this page instead of to the ebook piracy sites :-) [Update: Hooray, as of tonight, for each of the search suggestions pictured above, this blog post is ranked higher than any ebook download site! Sweet symbolic victory!]
So, in no particular order, but in more than 140 characters, here are some of my thoughts about book piracy.
I'm well-aware of Tim O'Reilly's public statements about piracy. And I agree with some of them. Obscurity is a worse problem than piracy, for example. And I know that some authors have been successful at selling books even while making them free (and legal) for download. I know that some genre fiction authors have been successful by self-publishing ebooks for 99¢. (I don't know that world well enough to link to any of those authors, though.) For most of these authors, however, "success" means "I'm making more money selling books for 99¢ than I did when I sold them for $3.99". There are only a few lucky authors who can actually make a living and support a family by selling 99¢ ebooks. I don't think self-published 99¢ ebooks is the way forward for technical books.
For 15 years I've been one of those lucky authors who has been able to support himself and his family almost entirely on book royalties. But the publishing industry has been in decline and my royalties checks have decreased more-or-less steadily since the dot-com bust, and I've now decided that I need to look for a salaried job. This is kind of the end of an era for me. (So if I sound whiny, keep in mind what is at stake for me. And if I can't whine on my own blog, where can I whine? :-)
I do not know whether or to what extent piracy is responsible for my declining income. I suspect that the internet and the transition from print books to ebooks has more to do with it than piracy does. But I also suspect that piracy has a non-trivial impact, too.
But beyond the non-quantifiable financial impacts, I can report that, to me, the piracy of my books is profoundly discouraging. When my Ruby book came out in 2008 I was sad to discover that pirated copies were available within a week or so of the book's release. When my jQuery pocket reference came out earlier this year, I was shocked to discover that Google was giving the ebook download sites higher placement than reviews of the book. And now JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is out. I don't have a copy of it yet, but illegal copies are free for anyone who wants one. And Google will suggest those illegal downloads to anyone who tries to research the book (see the screenshot). I've worked really hard on this book, and I've got to say that this just feels like a kick in the gut.
I was trying to be provocative when I tweeted the question "Does Google enable piracy?" But I do think it is a valid question. If Google indexes sites like ebookee that link directly to download sites and makes it easy to find the pirated content you want and even offers suggestions on what to search for, I think there is a case to be made that they're encouraging piracy. And an important part of this is that the ease of finding illegal ebooks has removed any stigma involved. Malware sites get flagged "may harm your computer". Porn images get filtered by default in Google image search. But illegal copies of ebooks? They're just out in the open--it must be okay to download them.
I know that electronic piracy cannot be defeated. And I don't think we should (or can) lock everything down with draconian DRM. But I also think that a laissez-faire attitude toward piracy ("well, it is better than obscurity" or "its going to be pirated anyway, so you might as well just make it free") is the wrong answer. Even if publishers cannot win against pirates, they should at least fight for a stalemate rather than accept defeat.
Here are some small steps that might help:
- Google could filter its search suggestions so that they do not actively suggest piracy. I suspect that Google already filters the suggestions offered when someone enters the name of a porn star, for example. Google already has a database of copyrighted books (Google Books) so they could easily filter the suggestions offered when someone searches for a book title.
- Google could flag (without filtering) search results that are likely links to pirated content. Google already flags some results with "this site may harm your computer". Why not flag pirate sites: "Downloading content from this site may result in legal action by the copyright holder" or "Downloads from this site may be illegal". Or nice and simple: "this site may harm your karma".
I'll close by quoting the sidebar I titled "A Note about Piracy" in the preface of my new book:
If you are reading a digital version of this book that you (or your employer) did not pay for (or borrow from someone who did) then you probably have an illegally pirated copy. Writing the 6th edition of this book was a full-time job, and it took more than a year. The only way I get paid for that time is when readers actually buy the book. And the only way I can afford to work on a 7th edition is if I get paid for the 6th.
I do not condone piracy, but if you have a pirated copy, go ahead and read a couple of chapters. I think that you'll find that this is a valuable source of information about JavaScript, better organized and of higher quality than what you can find freely (and legally) available on the Web. If you agree that this is a valuable source of information, then please pay for that value by purchasing a legal copy (either digital or print) of the book. On the other hand, if you find that this book is no more valuable than the free information on the web, then please discard your pirated copy and use those free information sources.
Update: Thanks everyone for the kind words and the thoughtful comments! I've replied to most of your comments tonight, but I really have to get serious about writing my jsconf presentation, so I may not be able to reply to any more for a couple of days.
Update: More great comments! I'm really wishing I had a threaded comment system on this blog. Its never been an issue before
@__DavidFlanagan
