What actually is eBook piracy?
Portals are operated on the Internet that illegally offer pirated copies of eBooks free of charge or for small amounts of cents without having the necessary distribution rights from the author or publisher. Without these rights, offering eBooks is illegal and so is downloading them. But why are eBooks offered illegally at all? eBooks are not actually that expensive...
Firstly, eBooks do not have a large amount of data and can therefore be sent or downloaded very easily and quickly. This is no easier or more difficult on an illegal pirate platform than on Amazon, Thalia & Co. In contrast to novels, which are often only offered for a few euros, specialist books are much more expensive. Students in particular, who are often financially restricted, often have to buy several textbooks per semester and thus spend an amount in the three-digit range. It is also common among students to resell textbooks as soon as they are no longer needed, which is perfectly permissible for printed books. With eBooks, however, it is forbidden to pass them on, even for money.
Where are eBooks offered illegally?
The most common portals on which eBooks are offered illegally are
- download sites
- forums
- Paid sites
- file sharing
Some well-known sites are for example
How you can defend yourself
On the one hand, you can integrate copy protection (DRM) into your eBook. However, this is not always pleasant for readers (who have legally purchased your book from an online store), as not all eBook readers and tablets can display an eBook with copy protection without errors.
If you find your eBook on an illegal download site despite all precautions, you can take the following steps:
- Find out the hoster. If it is a domain with a .de ending, you can find the hoster via Denic. Otherwise, you can also do this via WhoIs.
- Click through the pirate site until you reach the download link and copy it to the clipboard.
- Now you can go to the page of the hoster. There you have to search for a takedown form. Fill it out, paste in the download link and ask for it to be deleted.
Does this actually help?
Yes, it really does help. According to international law, all hosters must offer a takedown in the event of copyright infringements.
It is also important to pirates that they can distribute eBooks quickly, simply and easily. So if you as the author and rights holder repeatedly rebel and trigger a takedown on a portal (which may well be necessary), your eBook will gradually disappear from the platforms. This is because it is too costly for the operators to keep putting your eBook online. You should therefore really consider taking on the work so that you don't lose any more sales in the future.
Hire an agency
If you don't have the time to search for illegal platforms and request deletions yourself, you can of course have a professional agency do it for you that specializes in tracking down such illegal offers. One such agency is CounterFights Anti-Piracy, which mainly fights product and brand piracy on the Internet. Their investigations focus on documenting the crime in a way that can be used in court and identifying the perpetrator(s) in order to enable the rights holder to bring civil or criminal proceedings. The big advantage for you:
If you publish your eBooks via Feiyr, they can be automatically listed on Counterfights.
Alternatively, you can of course always go to a specialist lawyer.