Book publishers in the past have worried that browsers will be able to cheat and download copyrighted e-book in full from Google‘s book side. But what if a book-industry-developed system has its own security holes?
In several hours Mathias Schindler could “download all the 303 pages of the bestselling book Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann” from an online German book warehouse. “The image quality is rather poor; however, you can read the text and I guess you could even OCR it.”
Mind you, there were interruptions during the three hours, prolonging the process. Beyond that, at least in Europe and the States, the three hours would presumably be worth more in average wages than the cost of the typical book. But what about the situation in developing countries? Already sleazy spammers may be about to set up anti-filter sweatshops to bypass captchas.
Used BookStore software from Macmillan arm
Significantly the BookStore software used by Volltextsuche Online (VTO, “full text search online”) and new Macmillan stores is from MPS. Holtzbrinck owns MPS via Macmillan.
VTO’s responded, saying the security hole was temporary, but another blogger, over at Google Blogoscoped, still has doubts about Macmillan’s fitness to provide heavy-duty tech services.
Free advice for Macmillan and others
My own take is that Holtzbrinck and fellow publishing conglomerates could compete against Google, but they might do better striking alliances with established technical companies rather than relying so much on low-priced work in India. In the case of MPS, Macmillan could and should remain in control but maybe involve a more tech-savvy partner.
As for the actual online warehouse or warehouses, the key would be competent integration of content with technology and the right business model. Google understands indexing but still doesn’t quite understand content—notice how it had to spend billions on YouTube rather than rely on its own video brand? So all is not lost with the BookStore crowd, but I’d say that some major rethinking is in order.
The risks of business models too dependent on E-Book Museums
Could it be that E-Book Museums—although useful for browsing—aren’t the only way to go? That VTO, Macmillan and the rest would be better off catering to consumers’ eagerness to own books for real? And that reasonably priced subscription models and cooperation with libraries could reduced the incentive for piracy? Suppose the book industry provided content-related services such as design and moderation of book-related forums and charged for access—while letting established technology partners set up the infrastructure, with ample feedback from the publishers. The right business models could make publishers infinitely more piracy-resistant than could technology alone.
Related: Print is Dead blog from Jeff Gomez, an Internet marketer for Holtzbrinck here on the Untied States. Based on statements in the blog, I suspect that his forthcoming book from Palgrave Macmillan book may well contain some rather clueful comments on the desirability of consumers’ being able to truly own content. In other words, within the belly of the Holtzbrinck beast, there exists someone already grappling with these very issues.
Photo credit: Creative Commons-licensed image by dalmond.
(Spotted via Publishers Lunch.)
Three hours to download all 303 pages is more time than would take to scan a hardcopy and print. Therefore, that digital book is possibly more secure than a copy in the library. There is no DRM or digital security that is foolproof. Good DRM doesn’t affect the user experience; however, it does make the user’s ability to violate copyright a bit of hassle. For example, copy and pasting a paragraph or even chapter is fine (especially if it bring bibilographic information with it; however, it should be difficult to copy and paste an entire book.
Thanks for your comments, Mike.
As noted, I think the main threat could come from developing countries with cheap labor–there would be more of a choice of items to pirate, since such places don’t abound with bookstores. But I do appreciate your point and totally agree with you that foolproof DRM doesn’t exist.
If publishers feel compelled to use protection, then they should simply aim to reduce leakage.
Good pricing and convenience will be the biggest detriments, and if publishers can truly grow a global book market, then prices should drop for everyone, further reducing the risk of piracy.
Thanks,
David
“Good DRM doesn’t affect the user experience”
Good DRM does exactly that, because that is what it is there for.
Something to think about though–
The point about three hours being longer than scanning books is interesting but one thing computers are good at is repeating. If the process could be programmed, the fact that it took three hours of computer time isn’t particularly relevant–just download while you’re sleeping. This is the model used for movie downloads, so it should work for books, too.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Three hours to download all 303 pages is more time than would take to scan a hardcopy and print. Therefore, that digital book is possibly more secure than a copy in the library.
But that book wouldn’t be in my local library, or in any library within a thousand kilometres of where I am. And searching for a library I could obtain it from could easily take three hours.
For the vast majority of books, what prevents piracy is not that they’re hard to copy, it’s that they’re difficult or impossible to find. Remove that limitation and piracy becomes a very attractive option.
Jon.