Electronic Publishing Business, Impact of Piracy on Industry Stakeholders - Essay Example

Electronic Publishing Business Report Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Name Date of Submission Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Piracy Issues 4 Impact of Piracy on Industry Stakeholders 6 Copyright Issues 7 Impact of Copyright Issues on Industry Stakeholders 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Abstract Digital publishing has been the trend in the publishing industry in the recent past. History shows that the first digital publishing was made in the 1980s. Despite the recent growth that has occurred in the electronic publishing industry, there are quite a number of issues that are of great concern to the industry players today, including piracy and copyright issues. The objective of this discourse is describing two major issues, Piracy and copyright issues that are currently impacting the publishing industry. In so doing, the document will outline the how these issues impact the different stakeholders in the digital publishing industry. Electronic Publishing Business Report Introduction Digital publishing has been the trend in the publishing industry in the recent past. History shows that the first digital publishing was made in the 1980s. Today, there are millions of books, journals, and other contents that have been published electronically, thanks to the recent technological advancements. In fact, digital publishing has rendered the traditional publishing almost irrelevant in this digital age. Today, most of the information are relayed and received electronically. For instance, today, students can easily get content on the internet, including articles, blogs and e-books without much hustle. The growth of the digital publishing industry saw the industry make billions of dollars. Despite the growth that the industry has enjoyed recently, industry players are increasingly getting worried about the future of digital publishing because of the many challenges that the industry players are facing currently. The objective of this discourse is describing two major issues, Piracy and copyright issues that are currently impacting the publishing industry. In so doing, the document will outline the how these issues impact the different stakeholders in the digital publishing industry. Piracy Issues The digital publishing industry has recorded immense growth over the past few decades due to technological advancements that have made it possible for publishers to release their contents digitally to consumers. For instance, Amazon annual report indicates that the company has witnessed immense growth since it started digital publishing. However, Amazon and other industry players, including the authors of digital contents are worried about the future of this industry because of the increasing incidences of piracy. Evidence shows that piracy has been on the increase and has extended from the music and Television to ebook that is currently suffering huge losses because of the rising cases of piracy. Cantatore (2014, p. 201) define piracy as the copying of someone's work and using it for personal gains without the consent of the original publisher. Unlike in the past, when piracy was difficult, piracy has become quite easy for pirates due to the technological advancements that have occurred in the recent past. Matt Frisch of the CNN reports of a recent incident in which Amazon ebook was pirated just 24 hours after the release of a much publicized digital book. Frisch (2010, p. 1) reveals that, few hours after the release of the "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown in September 2009 and sold by Amazon.com, several pirated copies of the book were already available on the file-sharing sites among them being BiTorrent and Rapidshare. In a matter of days, over 100,000 copies of the book had been downloaded from these sites for free. Industry experts argue that ebook piracy and the piracy of other digital publications are exploding. Albert Greco, a digital publishing industry experts and marketing professor at Fordham University is concerned that piracy is likely to worsen in the coming years in the digital publishing due to the increased advancements in technologies that make it easy for pirates to steal the digital publications with ease. A recently sponsored by Digimac Guardian (2013) found that approximately 3 million persons are conducting an online search daily on illegal downloads of the leading 90 books available on Amazon leading to a loss of revenue to the tune of about $3 billion every year. Impact of Piracy on Industry Stakeholders The increased cases of piracy of digital publication are impacting negatively on different stakeholders in the industry, including publishers, authors and consumers of the digital publications. For publishers, the greatest impact of piracy is that it has resulted in a slump in the growth of the industry. Industry players attribute this to the fact that increased incidences of piracy has scared may authors from publishing their digital contents for fear of piracy. Additionally, the number of illegal downloads of digital publications is estimated to result in the loss of about $3 billion in revenue annually, which impacts negatively on the growth of the industry. In fact, Frisch (2010, p. 1) reveals that piracy of the book "The Lost Symbol" has increased the fear among the publishers of the book to the extent that they are no longer willing to continue discussing the subject in order not to encourage more illegal downloads. The second industry stakeholder that has been impacted by the increased piracy incidences in the digital publishing industry is the authors. The increased cases of piracy of digitalized publications are that it causes loss of revenue for the authors, rendering the authors poorer. Instead of enjoying the fruits of their hard work, it is the pirates who enjoy these fruits. For instance, in "The Lost Symbol" case, it was noted that even before the author could sell many of the books only, several copies of the novel had found its way into the file-sharing sites, allowing people to download several copies of the book for free. Accordingly, this resulted in the losses of millions of dollars for the author of the book. In fact, currently, many authors are not willing to digitalize their books or other contents for fear of being pirated even before they make sales. Some authors, such as J.K. Rowling has declined to make her latest Harry Potter book available in the ebook store for fear of piracy and is instead preferring readers to buy her books in print (Frisch 2010, p. 1). The last major stakeholders that are impacted by the piracy issues in the digital industry are the readers, which are the consumers of the publications. Currently, most readers prefer to read books, journals, and any other content digitally because of the ease of accessibility. Unfortunately, the piracy issue is making it difficult for readers to continue enjoying digital reading because authors and publishers are no longer willing to make their books and other digital publications contents available in the digital form for fear of publication. For instance, when J.K. Rowling refused to make the Happy Potter book available online for fear of piracy, the major losers were those willing to buy the book online (Iglezakis 2010, p. 517). In fact, some publishers are currently forced to delay digitalizing ebooks and other contents by ensuring that many copies are sold online first before making them available online. Accordingly, this implies that readers who want to buy the book online upon release are forced to keep waiting for long, which inconveniences the majority. This is because they are forced to buy the book in print, which may not be available in some part of the country, especially in remote areas. Therefore, it becomes apparent that piracy is a big issue in a digital publication that needs to be solved to save the industry from collapse. Copyright Issues The other issue that is of great concern to electronic publishers has to do with the copyright laws. The industry is covered by the copyright laws that give authors, creators and composers rights over their works. In this regard, once a work has been created, it immediately becomes the property of whoever created it whether it has been published on not. The copyright law is important to industry players since it guards against stealing and piracy that has been a threat to the industry. Unfortunately, the industry players, including authors and publishers are concerned about the many distributions and licensing restrictions imposed by the copyright laws. In fact, some industry expert claims that the copyright law in its current status does not fit well the digital age. According to Clarke (1998), the shortcomings associated with the copyright laws emanates from the fact that the law was designed for the traditional publication, but has not been amended to factor in the changes that has occurred on the digital edge. In fact, publishers are concerned that the copyright law presents a huge legal challenge to them because of the difficulty in understanding, using and avoiding violating the copyright law. Among the issues that electronic publishers have with the copyright law has to do with author grant, copyright procedure, copyright license and protecting against violation. In fact, the difficulty associated with the copyright law as it relates to the digital publishing has seen many publishers face lawsuits that have proved very costly to them. One such powerful case that confirms the reality of the publishers was the case of The New York Times v. Tasini, 533 U.S. 483 (2001) in which the court ruled that reuse of an article belonging to a Freelancer amounts to a violation of the Copyright law. The other was the Random House v. Rosetta Books, 150 F. Supp.2d 613 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) in which the court ruled that publishing a work in the form of a book does not give the publisher the right to publish an electronic book (Starr 2009, p. 237). Impact of Copyright Issues on Industry Stakeholders The complexity of the Copyright Law, as it applies to electronic publishing, has impacted negatively on a number of stakeholders. The difficulty in understanding the Copyright Act has seen many publishers face legal suits that prove costly to publishers (Starr 2009, p. 237). Authors are also impacted by the copyright issue in the sense that it creates many conflicts because them and the publishers of their works which is costly to them. Conclusion In conclusion, digital publishing has become very common in the present day society, replacing traditional publishing thanks to the technological advancements. Nevertheless, the industry is facing a number of challenges that might affect its growth in the coming years. Some of these issues include piracy and copyright issues. As such, it would be proper for the industry regulators and the government to help the industry players overcome these issues to ensure the success of the industry that currently contributes significantly to the growth and development of the country's economy. References Digimarc Guardian 2013, Protecting publishers and their authors from digital piracy, viewed 4 April 2015 http://www.digimarc.com/docs/default-source/digimarc-guardian/dmrc-sb-guardian-overview.pdf?sfvrsn=12 Cantatore, F 2014, Authors, copyright, and publishing in the digital era. IGI Global, London. Clarke, R., 1998, Key issues in electronic commerce and electronic publishing, Viewed 4 April 2015 http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/Issues98.html Frisch, M 2010, Digital piracy hits the e-book industry, CNN, 1 January, viewed 4 April 2015 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/01/ebook.piracy/ Iglezakis, I 2010, E-publishing and digital libraries: Legal and Organizational Issues: Legal and Organizational Issues. IGI Global, London. Starr, S 2009, “The next generation of electronic journals: prospects and problems,” J Med Libr Assoc, vol. 97, no. 4, pp. 237. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.97.4.001 Read More