piracy inside
What we can learn from pirates
Introduction
piracy inside
Timo Boezeman Digital Publisher for Arbeiderspers|A.W. Bruna Publishers
The largest Dutch commercial publisher
Twitter @boezeman
Blogs boekeman.blogspot.com (Dutch)
futurebook.net/blogs/timo-boezeman (English)
Who is the pirate?
piracy inside
@boezeman for #ibt12
piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
@boezeman for #ibt12
piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
@boezeman for #ibt12
piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
@boezeman for #ibt12
piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
Technology adoption lifecycle
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piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
@boezeman for #ibt12
piracy inside
Who is the pirate?
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What is piracy?
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Piracy ≠ theft
Theft removes the original Piracy makes a copy
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“The losses due to piracy are far outweighed by the benefits of the free
flow of information.”
Tim O’Reilly
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Of course it is!
But piracy is bad, right?!
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So we should fight it!
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“We should hunt them down, shut them off and put them on trial!”
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So we should fight it!
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“We should hunt them down, shut them off and put them on trial!”
No.
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Why do people pirate?
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Not because:
- They see publishers as greedy grabbers - They hate copyright
- They just don’t want to pay
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Why do people pirate?
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But because of three reasons:
- Large number of titles available - Low price
- Ease of use
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What you shouldn’t do
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Don’t think in terms of:
- Threats - Fears
- Lawsuits
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What you shouldn’t do
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So don’t go fighting piracy:
- You can’t stop it - It will cost you time and money
- It will hurt your image
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What you shouldn’t do
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And also don’t think that:
- Every download is a missed sale - Stop publishing e-books will stop piracy
- People want everything for free - The world is still divided in territories
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How you should see it
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Piracy is a sign that the world has changed (digitized).
That world is reality. It’s now!
Fighting against that world
is the dumbest thing you can do.
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piracy inside
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“My problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity.”
Cory Doctorow (blogger, journalist)
What you should do
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Think in terms of:
- Opportunities - Advantages
- Learning - Adaptation
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What you should do
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See piracy as something you can learn from:
- Complete title catalogue - In all desired file formats - Works on every device
- Without DRM or other hassle - In logical bundles
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What you should do
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So, rather:
- Focus for 100% on your potential buyers - See it as sampling, people being interested
- Take over control and spread it yourself - Launch your titles worldwide at the same time
- See it as something you can learn from
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What you should do
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The best way to deal with piracy is three-fold:
- Offer your titles in different editions/file formats (tastes) - Offer price variations from free to very expensive
- Get rid of all the hassle
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@boezeman for #ibt12
“Pirating can act as an introduction to an artist’s work.”
Paulo Coelho (Brazilian author)
Look at other industries
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What have they done wrong?
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Look at other industries
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What have they done wrong?
Don’t make those mistakes yourself
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Look at other industries
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What have they done right?
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Look at other industries
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What have they done right?
Try to translate that to the book world
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What did they do wrong?
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- Very slow reaction to a changing and digitizing world (where Napster and Kazaa where quick)
- Limited title catalogue - Device-dependent files
- DRM - High prices (to close to their physical equivalent)
- Delayed launching in other territories - Lawsuits (i.e. Metallica vs. Napster)
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What did they do right?
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- Come with a strong new business model (Spotify) - Complete title catalogue - Device-independent files
- No more DRM or complete ecosystems (iTunes) - Better pricing (thanks to iTunes and Spotify)
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How can we copy that?
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Almost everything can be copied to our world:
- Enlarge the title catalogue for as far as you can - Make your files compatible with all devices
- Leave out the DRM, or use social DRM/watermarking (which doesn’t annoy the consumer)
- Look for a better pricing, which reflects the feeling you have with digital (and this doesn’t mean free)
- Dare to experiment with new business models (freemium, streaming services like 24Symbols)
- Dare to launch worldwide simultaneously
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Do
Think in: opportunities, advantages and lessons learned Focus for 100% on potential buyers See piracy as sampling Take over control Offer a complete title catalogue Which works on every device Without any hassle Learn from piracy Launch worldwide the same time Experiment with new business models
Don’t
Think in: threats, fears, lawsuits Think that: piracy = missed sales Think people want everything for free Fight piracy Be slow Offer little titles Use DRM Price high Think in territories Frustrate your customers
Summed up
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“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”
Steve Jobs
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Any questions?
Thank you!
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