Pirates hijacking Print Books

Unfortunately for Book authors, the now have something in common with the music and film industry ~ all are targets of Web piracy.

Thanks to the popularity of E-Readers, unauthorized electronic editions of books are popping up all over the web. Literary Authors are now having their copyrights violated like filmmakers and musicians. The latter have had varying degrees of success in fighting these ongoing battles.

For a while now, determined readers have been able to sniff out errant digital copies of titles as varied as the “Harry Potter” series and best sellers by Stephen King and others. But some publishers say the problem has ballooned in recent months as an expanding appetite for e-books has spawned a bumper crop of pirated editions on Web sites like Scribd and Wattpad, and on file-sharing services like RapidShare and MediaFire.

John Wiley & Sons, a textbook publisher that also issues the “Dummies” series, employs three full-time staff members to search for unauthorized copies.
File sharing sites say they immediately remove illegally posted books once notified of them. The companies have also installed filters to identify copyrighted work when it is uploaded.

Book sales are down significantly, and publishers say it is difficult to determine whether electronic piracy is denting sales. Companies say there are ways to combat the illegal downloads, question is how much time do they want to invest in finding the culprits. And.. time is money.