shiver-me-timbers

Sometimes I’m a little surprised by the things in this business that surprise me. That can be a good thing. It means I’m still learning. It’s the things I learn that throw me for a loop occasionally.

I had a rather strange conversation with an e-pubbed friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) a few weeks back. With the help of good ol’ Google Alerts, my writing friend discovered that a particular pirate site (which shall remain nameless) was generously offering—

Not one…not two…
But SIX of her e-books for free download.
Her most RECENT books, I might add.

Naturally, needing whatever money she could earn, she sent in the obligatory take-down notices. She also notified her publisher and included a list of many other e-books by that publisher she saw for download there.

I’m going to paraphrase the response from a VIP at that house to (hopefully) save my buddy a little grief. She forwarded the email to me, and it went something like this:
“Ah, well, thanks for the heads-up. We could try to contact them, but dealing with this site can be a little dicey.”

:shock: Um…er… :shock:

In what is apparently my naiveté, I was a little surprised at the attitude. The list of pirated books was not only lengthy, but included some well-known authors, and the illegal downloads would have amounted to SERIOUSLY big bucks.

And let’s be honest. Most of the copyright infringement notices sent out by authors are frequently ignored. And I don’t personally know many authors who can afford legal muscle to handle this crap. I know several who won’t even bother sending notices, saying it isn’t worth the time.

Naturally, no one expects publishers to spend all their resources dealing with it either (although statutory damages for copyright infringement can amount to over $150,000 for each act).
But has it really come to something close to intimidation? Indifference?

As much revenue as authors are losing, publishing houses must be losing more to the sites that refuse to be reasonable. And some of these houses do have the muscle.
Have we all just come to regard extreme piracy as something to suck up?

p.s.~~
…after six weeks of her weekly notifications, the site finally removed my friend’s ebooks. they have since been reposted…