Pretty much every site that sells digital content has a problem with piracy, but most try to cope with the problem. Here’s a new list:Īnd that was in just a few minutes just imagine what a thorough search will find. Update: Google killed some of those accounts in response to this post. What we have here are multiple accounts which have picked an authors name and uploaded obviously pirated books under that name, effectively creating a pirate ebookstore.Ī friend on Twitter spent a few minutes searching through Google Play Books and found no fewer than ten different “authors” and “publishers”: To be clear, I’m not talking pirates who have republished a book or two under their own name, or ones who snuck in a pirated copy of Ringworld Google’s problems aren’t that small. The pirated ebooks in Google Play Books were clearly inferior copies with missing formatting, generic or outdated covers, and other problems, but were as complete as the copies in the Kindle Store.Īll these books are being sold out in the open, for $2.11 each, in what would best be described as the pirate’s own personal ebookstore. And to add insult to injury, they are all encumbered with DRM.Īnd Google isn’t doing anything about it, nor is Google doing anything to deal with the many other pirates who have set up shop in Google Play Books. The books had been stolen from indie authors and publisher, including HarperCollins, Baen Books, Penguin Random House, Dell Magazines ( Ellory Queen Mystery Magazine), and Tor-Forge Books.Īnd just to be sure, I bought 4 copies at random and compared them to the copies in the Kindle Store (I’m out about $30). Claiming to be the author, that pirate has uploaded and is selling no fewer than one hundred ebooks, all of which are obviously pirated copies: On Sunday I came across a tweeted link to an industrious ebook pirate who had set up shop in Google Play Books. And Google has responded.Īnd to be clear, we’re not just talking about an excess of pirated ebooks Google Play Books’ policies are enabling industrial-scale ebook piracy operations. Update: I have published a second installment. The ad network is allowing large-scale commercial ebook piracy to infest Google Play Books. Google definitely falls into the latter category. Some sites such as Amazon routinely (and sometimes aggressively) police their catalog for pirated content, while others have a more l aissez-faire attitude.
Piracy is endemic to almost every retail site which sells digital content.
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