BookOS Accused of eBook Piracy

June 22, 2013 By Sovan Mandal 22 Comments

The issue of ebook piracy, or digital piracy in any form, is the topic of many debates all over the world. Within these discussions, it is generally concluded that those aiding in piracy are considered equal partners in the crime. One such site that does not have a clean record is BookOS.org, which many accuse of having a large number of pirated ebooks in its collection. The site, which claims itself to be the largest ebook library in the world, is also reported to have been down once, though it seems it’s back to business as usual.

Needless to say, the author community is up in arms against the site and they have a valid reason to do so. If their works are pirated and sold or doled out for free, the authors are deprived of their livelihood. Authors typically are paid a percentage (which can be up to 40%) of the sale from their ebook or agree to a flat fee from the publisher which will remain fixed regardless of the number of books sold. The latter is generally applicable to the more renowned authors, and while they are less prone to suffer from piracy as far as their livelihood is concerned, those that depend on royalties are the ones that suffer losses if their works end up being pirated.

Now imagine their surprise as authors discover their ebooks listed at bookos.org without their knowledge or consent. Bookos.org does have a provision for authors to have the links to their books removed, if they report it, although there have been many instances of ebooks coming back online again. A Facebook campaign called “Shut BookOS Down“ is also underway, though it only has a paltry 62 likes. The Facebook crusade seems to be working, however, due to constant pestering, which has forced BookOS to vastly limit its Facebook presence. In any case, BookOS still has managed to garner over 18k likes.

As for the users, they don’t have anything to complain as long as they have their books delivered completely free. It can be hard to remain ethical, especially when it can be about saving a few hundred dollars. Opinions are divided throughout, and some believe it’s only a book that is priced too high that runs the risk of being pirated. Tor Books UK, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy, ran an experiment in which they stripped all copy protection from their books for a year. They claim this did not lead to any remarkable increase in piracy for any of their titles.

However, in the end, what must kept in mind is that the author community runs the risk of being eroded in the digital age, where piracy is widely accepted. When a pirate website has more Likes than the site trying to shut it down, we have problems. When it comes to the success of BookOS, who is responsible for shutting it down? The publishers? Authors? Users? Pirate websites like this thrive when users refuse to pay for content, and in the end, authors suffer the most.

Sovan Mandal

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email

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Peter Wesley
Gentlemen;
Over my long lifetime, I have bought literally tens of thousands of books, ultimately painstakingly collecting most, or all of the stuff I most love to read. However, having developed macular degeneration, I find I can no longer read my printed treasures…the sole and only reason for my existence! The only way I can continue to read at all is to download the books from bookos and blow them up REALLY BIG on my 48″ IMac. The various lending libraries and public domain sites just do not contain the things I want to read. I am on Social Security and simply cannot begin to afford to repurchase even a tiny fraction of my printed library in the new electronic format from some mega-corporate succubus like Amazon…besides, I already bought the books once!
I personally know of several dozen other persons in this situation in my tiny town of 10,000 souls alone. It stands to reason, then, that there must be many thousands of us throughout the world, who utterly depend upon this service for their only remaining source of pleasure and here you are doing your level best to fuck it up for all of us.
Most of the authors I cherish are long dead and, I can assure you, not missing the added revenue too much at all. If I were amongst this hallowed group of departed scribes, I would just be happy that someone still gave a damn about my work!
Do the expansive legally blind reading community a real big favor and get the hell off our backs right now, why don’t you! Thanks in advance for going away.
Dr. Peter Remington Wesley
Late of CSULB and U of O
pipi
Va te faire foutre lash cul
saawweee
culture is free. long live book os
SAM
I think authors of IT books blow the price to such an extend that books are not affordable to common men, read that students. Also non availability of such books in third world countries add to the success of BookOS. I think Authors and publishers should release two different versions so that their work does not end in some pirate site.
janiepants
tell that to my damn mortgage company. Maybe you’d like your pay check swiped too?
janiepants
People only respond when you put your hands in their pockets. Time for lawsuits.
poorreader
I feel guilty when I download books from BookOS.org, I know authors and I have friends who are authors and I definitely don’t feel good depriving them of their livelihood. But at the present time, I’m on SSDI and I just can’t afford to pay for the books I like to read. I have bought and paid for so many books at full price in the past and I would now if I could. I just can’t right now. So I pirate books or I don’t read. And the latter is the more unthinkable to me.
Jean Boneau
Get a job then.
janiepants
just what I expect: an ignorant response on the web. Luckily, I still make good money as an author. (I put in my time when I had to hold down a 9-5 and pursue writing. I did my first 20-25 books that way before landing my first six-figure contract that allowed me to write full time. Hard. Hard work.) But it doesn’t make it less right to spend months writing on a project-which is tedious work- and then for this new generation to think they’re just entitled to it just because.
Jean Boneau
And where did you get the idea that you can own ideas?
janiepants
An novel is not an idea. An idea is: I’d like to do a story about X andY. A novel is a development of whole worlds, backstory, motivation and a way of telling a story. Then re-writing it several times to get it just right. It’s the emotion of having to go through rejection and critics and everything else. It’s work. Hard work. It’s the difference of you saying, “I’d like to build a house.”-That’s an idea. But the person that buys the land, the lumber, the concrete and then engage in the building it himself by hand. And then just when you’re finished someone just move their stuff in without payment or anything–just turn to you and say, you’re the not the only one who thought about having a house. Get over it.
Antinatter
I think it’s a fair estimate that most downloaders of pirated material would never buy the material: it’s either too expensive or they’ve been burned after being inveigled by unscrupulous advertising hype or they don’t really care enough for the material to buy it or they are cheats. So while losses to authors and publishing houses undoubtedly do happen, most probably flatter themselves by exaggerating. Piracy hasn’t anything like brought the music or film industry down and it won’t the publishers.
Trudo
Name one book you wrote that I should consider worth my time and/or money.
Trudo
PS:
If you wrote some trashy harlequin romance novel, you’ve lost all rights to preach about this. Those kinds of people only earn money from horny grandmothers who don’t get laid anymore. Pure filth. Not to mention, the aforementioned target audience is likely so technologically illiterate that the authors are still cashing out on their crappy, text based pornography.
alexamador
Are
you serious? You say you´ve got six-figure contracts for writing books
and you don´t want some kid to get a free ebook in the internet? How does that
hurt a millionaire like you? And please,
don’t be offended but you say you’re a novelist and write “an novel” instead
of “a novel”?
janiepants
First of all, if you think six figures equal a million dollars, you need to go back to school and study math a little harder. Yes. It was just a six figures for 3 books. Since that series was with me and another author, that cut the money down to 50K a piece for 3 books. That equals a little over 16K.(a book-subject to be paid as you turn them in. So about one a year) Now pay your agent 15%. (which they cut that check to them the same time they cut yours) That brings you down to a little over 14K. and then there are taxes. (I believe this is poverty wages when consider it take anywhere 6-8 months to write a good book) So let’s put my Ballin’ money aside and look at what I have to do to make sure that my sales are enough to payback the advance. A standard trade book goes for about $15.00 Your standard contract- an author makes about 10-12% per book. I make $1.80 per book sold. (.90 split in half) We will need to sell over 30K to break even and to be able to be considered for another contract. Today’s market, it is veeerry hard to hit those numbers. With less and less book stores and box stores having less and less shelf space.
And the number are waaay smaller if you’re selling in mass market books.
Mass market goes for like $6.99 and the author makes like 6-8%
So when suddenly (in the last 5 years) people are taking a third of sales hit because people think they are entitled to your work for free…you have the situation we have where publishers are cutting books they buy. Book sellers cutting back on the books they order. And a quality writers dropping out of the game.
janiepants
I write in four different genres. And I’m not about to tell you who I am so then I can have people cyber trash me for fun.
janiepants
Authors have no control what so ever over prices (not the ones with publishing houses. We are the low people on the pole–just like writers for televisions and movies. Plus, once you sell rights to a publishing house they control in which form it comes out. (print versus ebook versus audio)
janiepants
a lot of times I’m texting from my phone on here–so no grammar police on a social site please.
Druss
all of this discussion however is based on the stereotype no one is willing to pay for books. bookos was no stranger to me either because I don’t like to carry around books with me when I am mobile. So I buy the hardcover books and try to get my hands on the ebook while I don’t have the money to pay twice. I’d be glad if we finally reach the stage where the ebooks comes with the hardcover book, amazon could easily provide access to the kindle versions for example.
Still a long way to go.
Trueblue
I’m sensing that you might not be a very good author. If you felt as though you proved yourself you wouldn’t be ashamed of telling people who you are. Don’t worry, I won’t bother to pirate any of your books. Never know when I’m gonna need that extra 15 mb of disk space. It’s expensive and valuable.
Anonyowl
I am a young educated person, now finishing a masters degree, speak 3 languages, I am well respected at my work field. Altogether I am capable to and try to benefit the human race. I was not born wealthy and for the most part of my life I didn’t have sufficient funds. I have read hundreds of books, and that, I have to say, has helped me immensely to grow as a person and an intellectual. When I can I gladly buy a new bI have bought many books, still the bigger portion of the books I have read I found online. When