Skip navigation

 Login or Register | Member Centre

Could the Kindle spark book piracy?

Mathew Ingram, December 3, 2007 at 12:07 PM EDT

Several weeks ago, Amazon introduced the latest in a long line of "e-book" readers, known as the Kindle. Available for $400, it comes equipped with an easy-to-read "E Ink" screen and a wireless connection that allows users to download books that they purchase from the online retailer. Kindle users can also upload their own files to the reader by e-mailing them to a special address associated with the device, or by using a USB cable.

Could this latter feature help the Kindle do for books what MP3 players did for music -- that is, provide a platform for copyright infringement on a vast scale? Michael Arrington, editor of the tech blog TechCrunch, seems to think it just might. In a recent article, he speculated that the Kindle could become the vehicle of choice for reading "pirated" e-books downloaded via BitTorrent, a popular peer-to-peer service.

Although it is primarily used for the swapping of music, movies and software, there are also books available using the P2P standard, including some versions of recent best-sellers such as the latest Harry Potter novel. Downloading them and emailing them to a Kindle is child's play, Arrington concludes, since the device automatically translates Word documents, PDFs and other file formats.

"Users may buy a book or two on Kindle, but many users will simply steal the content they want to read. Thanks to Amazon, that’s really easy to do on their slick new device," the TechCrunch editor writes. "Should users do this? No, and we do not encourage this. But will they? I think we all know the answer to that."

There are some hurdles when it comes to books that music doesn't face, of course. For one thing, books still primarily come in paper form, while music is already digitized on CD and is easy to "rip" and upload. Books either have to be scanned -- which is time-consuming -- or the e-book format they are in has to be cracked. And not everyone likes to read books multiple times, whereas people often keep music around on their MP3 players for months or even years.

All that said, however, it seems likely that books will be dragged kicking and screaming into the age of digital media just as everything else has, and the Kindle could be the vehicle doing the dragging.

  1. wawa dave from regina, Canada writes: I would rather see this type of reader that can read most types of book type files out there. Then just use some proprietary locked in cor-pirate buy theirs and theirs only format. Its what killed most other ebook reader before this.

    People have a choice in their lives to be honest or not.
    Locking them into some proprietary format will only ensure max profits for the company. Don,t we all just love being locked into some cor-pirate system of greed?
    I,m going to go buy one of these reader because they are more open minded then most.
  2. Mark Wells from Canada writes: The Tech Crunch blog is dead wrong. Kindle is far from the first e-book reader to hit the market, and the market for old fashioned paper books hasn't been hurt a bit. In fact, most companies that dipped their toes into the e-book market years ago have since pulled out. As for pirating... don't worry too much about that. On top of the issues pointed out by Mr. Ingram, early Kindle reviewers report that its translation of pdf files is either poor or unusable.
  3. edwardo plazinski from maple ridge, Canada writes: I don't think the rate of piracy will increase. The last 2 Harry Potter books were available, on line, hours after the official sales started. It didn't seem to affect J K Rowling's ability to make millions off of the books. Most people still prefer an actual book to the e-version otherwise e-books would have taken off a long time ago.
  4. Alex Yaxmos from Canada writes: People prefer books they can hold and read. It's also a part of being an individual to walk around with a book and have the cover proudly display for other people to see. The real use I have for a e-reader might be for reports and papers and assignments, but you still want the ability yo highlight and make notes. Don't think the e-readers will hurt the book industry until Mac decides to come out with one and everyone will just have to have one.
  5. David Demner from Vancouver, BC, Canada writes: Who tends to listen to music? Younger people. Who tends to read books? Older people. Who tends to have fewer ethical problems with stealing digital information? Younger people. I don't think publishers should be too worried...
  6. Jen G from Canada writes: My thoughts on this topic were a bit different. Let me start by saying that I rarely buy new books. More often than not I go to the library and borrow whatever catches my fancy (I won't start on the implications this kind of thing has for libraries!). Here is the interesting bit, if I don't get a book from a library it is because I have borrowed it from a friend. People like to borrow books and have been doing so for centuries. The author of that book, the publisher of that book, and all the other interests involved in the production of that bit of intellectual property don't get a penny when I borrow it from a friend (I must confess that if I love a book I buy it). I must be guilty of piracy because I have borrowed and lent books countless times. The commodification of information is reaching uncomfortable levels and I for one will happily jump on the creative commons bandwagon.
  7. David Matko from Canada writes: David Demner from Vancouver, BC, Canada writes: Who tends to listen to music? Younger people. Who tends to read books? Older people. Who tends to have fewer ethical problems with stealing digital information? Younger people. I don't think publishers should be too worried...

    Ummm...a little bit of a stereotypical old fart are you?

Join the Conversation, Leave a Comment

This conversation is semi-moderated What is moderation? | How do I report a comment?

You must be logged-in to submit a comment — login now!

Not registered with globeandmail.com? Register now. It is quick and free.

close

Alert us about this comment

Please let us know if this reader’s comment breaks the editor's rules and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.

Do not use this to complain about comments that don’t break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.

Back to Ingram 2.0

Back to top