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The Problem of E-book Piracy

Executive Summary
Due to the growing market for e-books and e-readers the publishing industry has had to adapt to
the changing interest of its consumers by offering more of their titles in a digital format. The
publishing industrys increased digital presence has led to increased piracy though. Currently, the
publishing industry is primarily using data rights management (DRM) technology to protect their
e-books and this technology is falling short. However, the investment in the development of
more complex DRM technologies and the widespread use of the Copyright Infringement Portal
may prove to be a valuable strategy in combating the piracy rate and at the very least an industry
wide tool for finding, removing, and tracking down infringing content on the internet.
Introduction
The publishing industry has been forced to undergo some drastic changes during the past several
years. With the emergence and increasing popularity of e-books and e-readers, many publishers
are realizing the importance of a digital presence. With this new endeavor comes a number of
challenges, with one of the most prominent and troublesome being piracy. According to
information from the Association of American Publishers, U.S. publishers have lost anywhere
from $80 million to $100 million annually to piracy alone in recent years, also stating that this
estimate is probably too conservative. The relative ease with which e-books can be illegally
shared is alarming. Some of the most common pirating methods include peer-to-peer file sharing
and online reading sites (Springen 20-21).
Previously, publishers have relied heavily on digital rights management (DRM) as a
means of defense against piracy. DRM is technology that allows rights holders to control how
digital content is used and accessed by placing restrictions on the file itself, giving otherwise
easily copied digital content exclusivity by protecting the file or requiring its use on a specific
device only. DRM is typically regarded negatively by consumers because it is seen as restrictive
rather than enabling (Trivedi 931). DRM has proved largely ineffective and breaking DRM locks
has become one of the more popular e-book pirating methods, proving this method of protection
inadequate in preventing piracy.

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Background
In order to understand the problem with using DRM to protect against piracy it is important to
understand what DRM is and understand the difference between the two types: technical
protection and social DRM.
1. Technical Protection: Publishers use digital rights management (DRM), particularly its
technical protections, as a very important part of their defense against piracy. Book
retailers including Amazon, Microsoft, Sony, and Apple all use DRM to protect their
digital content (Trivedi 928). As stated before, DRM is technology that allows rights
holders to control how digital content is used and accessed by placing restrictions on the
file itself, giving otherwise easily copied digital content exclusivity by protecting the file
or requiring its use on a specific device only. To understand DRM, it is important to
understand the storage and transmission security of e-books. First, each title is encrypted
once with a single key. When delivered, the content encryption key is encrypted again
with a specific key that relates back to the particular e-reader device, and then this
encrypted content key is stored on the customers so-called bookshelf in a secure
database (Carreiro 225). It is this type of technical protection that does not allow
consumers to share their digital content in any capacity, even reasonably, and it is because
of this that DRM has earned such a negative reputation among consumers.
2. Social DRM: Social DRM is very different from technical protections. Social DRM, also
known as digital watermarking, is a way to permanently embed certain information into
files. In relation to e-books, social DRM embeds the name, along with other identifying
information, of the purchaser into a PDF of the e-book without any technical protections.
Unlike technical protections, social DRM does not limit the user to only one device and
they are free to reasonably share their e-books with whomever they choose (Rosenblatt
4). While social DRM is received better by consumers, its main problem is that it does
not prohibit piracy. Social DRM only makes it possible for publishers to trace illegal
copies of their e-books back to its source, and even then there is no way of knowing
whether the original owner is the one that shared the content illegally. Someone the
original owner shared with could have shared the content illegally. Regardless, by the
time the source has been found it is already too late and thousands of copies could
already be in circulation (Blankfield and Stevenson 86).

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Of the two types of DRM it is the technical protections that are the most used by publishers for
their e-books. Despite these precautions, DRM has had little effect on deterring piracy and
breaking DRM locks has recently become a popular means of pirating. In fact, there are few if
any DRM technologies that have not been cracked (Trivedi 936). In many cases, breaking a
DRM lock is as simple as a search on the internet and once the locks are broken, that content is
free to circulate around the internet. (Springen 21). In order to remove infringing content from
the internet, publishers often have to turn to piracy-protection companies. Piracy-protection
companies, like Muso and Digimarc, search the internet for illegal e-books belonging to their
clients and then work to have them removed. In 2014, Muso removed over 580,000 files for its
publishing clients (Springen 21).
Proposal
I believe that investing in the development of more complex DRM protection measures in
combination with widespread use of the Publishers Association Copyright Infringement Portal is
the most promising solution to the problem of e-book piracy. While the Copyright Infringement
Portal does not prevent piracy, it is a proactive approach to removing infringing content from the
internet and keeping track of the websites promoting such content.
It is apparent that the use of current DRM technologies in the publishing industry is not
doing enough to protect its digital content. I propose that publishers coordinate their efforts
through the Association of American Publishers in order to begin investing in the development of
software companies through an industry-wide approach to create stronger, more complex DRM
technologies. In the meantime, publishers should retain their current DRM protection.
The second part of this proposal focuses on the Copyright Infringement Portal and the following
is a description of this service and how it works.
The Publishers Association Copyright Infringement Portal was launched in February of
2009 by The Publishers Association, the representative of the UKs publishing industry, The
Copyright Infringement Portal is a web-based portal that allows copyright owners and their
authorized agents, mainly publishers, to request the removal of material that infringes on
[their] copyright (Blankfield and Stevenson 80). The Copyright Infringement Portal works by
issuing takedown notices to webmasters and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) requesting the
removal of infringing content that has been found on their websites. Once an author or publisher

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has found infringing material on a website they log onto the Copyright Infringement Portal and
enter the uniform resource locator (URL). From there the system identifies who the takedown
notice needs to be sent to, their email address, and what jurisdiction the notice needs to be sent
to. The system then sends a takedown notice after populating a standard Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) legal notice with the relevant information, asking the website to
expeditiously remove the infringing content (Blankfield and Stevenson 81). In order to make
sure that the infringing content is removed, the Copyright Infringement Portal will regularly
checks to ensure that the content has been removed and remains removed. The Copyright
Infringement Portal offers many benefits to publishers, including providing an easy and
efficient way to issue and monitor responses to takedown notices; and sharing information
about infringements, takedown requests, and responses across the industry (Wise 206).
The Copyright Infringement Portal also has a search facility called CIPSearch. This
allows publishers to enter in their titles for the system to search for on a regular basis. Once a
publishers has entered the title, author, and ISBN information into the system, CIPSearch scans
the Internet for infringement hits. The number of titles that have been entered into this system
number over 3,400 and is continuously growing. This kind of proactive approach is especially
useful for smaller publishers that do not have the time or resources to conduct their own searches
or seek out larger piracy-protection companies (Blankfield and Stevenson 82).
Discussion
The combination of investing in the development of more complex DRM protection measures
with the widespread use of the Copyright Infringement Portal will hopefully address and lessen
some of the problems the publishing industry is facing. The adoption of this solution will provide
the work to improve the security of e-books as well as a means of finding and taking down
infringing material from the internet.
While current DRM protection measures are commonly broken and do little to deter
piracy, they do offer a protection barrier. Keeping these security measures until more complex
DRM technology can be developed will function in possibly deterring some piracy, although it
will probably not detract that much since DRM locks are in fact so see easy to break. They
certainly will not discourage the determined, experienced hacker. It is also important to consider
the consumers negative feelings regarding DRM, but as one scholar states There is an obvious

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tradeoff between the costs, financial and relationship . . . (Tian 111). Because DRM prohibits
users from sharing their digital content they view it as controlling and restrictive, and generally
do not support such technologies, but publishers must protect their digital content.
Additionally, the widespread use of the Copyright Infringement Portal will not stop
piracy, but it will provide publishers with a relatively easy way to find infringing content on the
internet and have it removed. By providing one, centralized portal through which publishers can
find infringing content would provide an easy, efficient, and unified way to combat piracy across
the publishing industry. The use of the Copyright Infringement Portal will prove to be a valuable
tool for publishers while waiting for DRM technology to progress. Even with the development of
new technologies there is no way of preventing piracy completely, proving the prolonged
usefulness of the Copyright Infringement Portal.
Future Work
If the solution of investing in more complex DRM technical measures and the widespread use of
the Copyright Infringement Portal was adopted, piracy would still very much be a problem for
the publishing industry. I do not claim that the proposed solution will put an end to e-book
piracy, but rather it will provide a starting point for the publishing industry to begin combating
piracy through a coordinated effort. How the publishing industry will choose to invest in the
development of DRM technologies as an industry-wide effort will largely be left up to them. It
was suggested in the proposal that efforts could be coordinated the Association of American
Publishers, but how the publishing industry chooses to do this could vary. Additionally, the
widespread use of the Copyright Infringement Portal will provide publishers with a useful tool
with which to track down and remove infringing content from the internet while working toward
the development of technologies that will hopefully decrease the piracy rate itself.

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Works Cited
Blankfield, Sarah, and Iain Stevenson. "Towards A Digital Spine: The Technological Methods
That UK And US Publishers Are Using To Tackle The Growing Challenge Of E-Book
Piracy." Publishing Research Quarterly 28.2 (2012): 79-92. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Carreiro, Erin. "Electronic Books: How Digital Devices And Supplementary New Technologies
Are Changing The Face Of The Publishing Industry." Publishing Research
Quarterly 26.4 (2010): 219-235. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
Rosenblatt, Bill. "Steganography Revisited: Watermarking Comes In From The Cold." Seybold
Report: Analyzing Publishing Technologies 3.5 (2003): 3. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 28 Nov. 2014.
Springen, Karen. "The Piracy Problem." Publishers Weekly 261.29 (2014): 20-23. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Tian, Xuemei, and Bill Martin. "Business Model Sustainability In Book Publishing." Publishing
Research Quarterly 28.2 (2012): 100-115. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec.
2014.
Trivedi, Priti. "Writing The Wrong: What The E-Book Industry Can Learn From Digital Music's
Mistakes With Drm." Journal Of Law & Policy 18.2 (2010): 925-966.Academic Search
Complete. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.
Wise, Alicia. "An Industry Copyright Infringement Portal To Combat Online Piracy." Publishing
Research Quarterly 25.4 (2009): 205-207. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov.
2014.