book piracy examined further

I can't have a conversation with a book publisher these days without e-books, electronic price-points, and the issues of online piracy and illicit file-sharing entering into the discussion. If anyone doubts this industry is actively trying to offer their wares to digital consumers as seamlessly and freely (free as in "free of unreasonable constraints") as possible, they should sit down for a chat with an actual publisher.

But for a small segment of society, it seems, honest attempts at innovation and business adaptation can never move quickly enough, and some products can never be free enough (free as "hey, look what I just found -- since no-one is right here beside me claiming ownership, this thing must belong to me").

Thanks to QuillBlog and IP lawyer Barry Sookman for the link to these "Confessions of a Book Pirate."

Some snippets:

"I do not pretend that uploading or downloading unpurchased electronic books is morally correct, but I do think it is more of a grey area than some of your readers may."...

"In truth, I think it is clear that morally, the act of pirating a product is, in fact, the moral equivalent of stealing… although that nagging question of what the person who has been stolen from is missing still lingers. Realistically and financially, however, I feel the impact of e-piracy is overrated, at least in terms of ebooks."...

"I’ve debated doing some newer authors and books, but I would need to protect myself better and resolve the moral dilemma of actually causing noticeable financial harm to the author whose work I love enough to spend so much time working on getting a nice e-copy if I were to do so."

Please note: I personally disagree with all of the shaky moral and ethical rationales presented by piracy advocates. I link to this "confessions" article as information only.

As the writing and publishing industry spreads itself more and more into the digital marketplace, the lost sales and financial harm resulting from book piracy will presumably become more "noticeable."

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As noted in an earlier posting, Canadian books and magazines are battling a trade deficit in the area of one billion loonies. To put that into perspective, if you were to take Canada's print material trade deficit, in loonies, and start stacking them horizontally at the foot of Yonge Street in Toronto, you'd still be stacking by the time you reached Dryden, Ontario, some 1700 km to the northwest.


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How can you as a Canadian cultural consumer reduce this ridiculous horizontal-stacking load? Simple, buy more Canadian books and magazines. The lower right-hand menus on this very blog (scroll, scroll, keep scrolling... there you are) provide you with an entire province-load of book and magazine links to choose from. Get clicking, get reading.

And when you're ready to crack the wallet, Magazines Canada has an amazing deal for you. Each and every title in the Buy 2 Get 1 Free promo is Canadian, and many of the Ontario arts and culture magazines linked to here are part of the deal.

Fight the cultural trade deficit even more effectively -- keep the first two subscriptions for yourself, and send the third one to a friend or relative outside Canada. I have no idea if that actually makes sense economically, but how can it hurt?

Suddenly I feel like the Slap-Chop guy.

goodbye to Paul Quarrington

(photo courtesy Paul Quarrington's website)

Canadian novelist and singer/songwriter Paul Quarrington died this morning in Toronto. He was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last year, and had since been making a remarkably brave and public declaration of his love for life.

Two summers ago, I found myself on the same reading bill with Paul at the Prince Edward County Author's Festival. It was a great pleasure to meet him, to listen to him read and to hear his music.

Fellow singer/songwriter Dan Hill was a great friend of Paul Quarrington's. Just last night, I spoke with Mr. Hill about Paul. If you go to YouTube, there are a number of video tributes to Paul, including this saucy one from Dan Hill:



And finally, the man himself, on stage where he belonged:

book piracy -- a tale of two worlds

The Guardian online is running a photo essay about physical book piracy in Peru. The photos remind me of the book vendors I frequented in Eastern Europe when I toured the region in 1994. One fellow in Bucharest was using the steps of a bullet-scarred university building to stack his wares, many of which had the look and feel of cheap, quick, rip-off copies of North American bestsellers -- though it was admittedly hard to tell, because five years out of the revolution the free publishing industry in Romania was still in its infancy.

As this essay suggests, the effects of (and motivations for) physical book piracy can seem complex -- access and affordability for the poorest of the poor, increased audience for writers -- but the bottom line remains intellectual property is being trespassed upon and abused.

Meanwhile over here in the digital world, book authors and publishers are trying to figure out how to secure their "treasure" while watching what appears to be an advancing fleet of pirate vessels. IP law-guy, Barry Sookman points us to a recent study showing what appears to be an epidemic of online book piracy. The study was conducted by an online piracy monitor called Attributor, and it estimates that piracy represents approximately 10% of current U.S book sales, or roughly $3 billion (USD).

Consider the potential effects for Canadian writers and publishers worldwide. According to a recent Hill Strategies analysis of Statistics Canada data, our current international trade in homegrown books is approximately $395 million. We are currently experiencing a book trade deficit of approximately $1 billion.

BTW, books, magazines and other printed materials appear to be the clear leaders in terms of Canadian cultural exports (and imports) outstripping even film and video. Granted, video games stats were not collected.

the stars keep on shining, within and about

Poet P.K. Page has left "this great beloved world and all the creatures in it."



Thanks to the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, the Harbourfront Reading Series and CBC.ca for this video.