Ebook Piracy: How Can You Protect Your Ebook? -

 Updated: Oct 5, 2022

Perhaps you've worked for months or years, working on your ebook. Then you've released it, to immense excitement, out to the world. There have been some sales ... though maybe not as many as you'd have liked.

A few days later, you type in your ebook's title, hoping to find review or even tweets regarding it. However, to your surprise it turns up on websites where you can download your book at no cost.

Your ebook is being pirated. All your hard effort is now being offered to anyone who visits a questionable web site.

This is a difficult time for any author. The first reaction, naturally likely to be trying to find out ways to shut down the pirates. There's a chance you're concerned about the fact that the information you've obtained is only the beginning of the iceberg.

But what do you need to do about it? (And do you even need to do anything at all?) Here's everything you need to learn about protecting your book.

What Is Ebook Piracy?

Piracy of your book is released without your consent.

It could take a myriad of forms:

• The person who purchases the ebook Then they share it with friends or contacts. This may be unintentionally (they do not realize that they shouldn't be sharing it) or even deliberately.
• The ebook you've created is uploaded to the internet for people to download. This is what many authors are thinking about when they think of pirated ebooks. There are many websites on the internet, but (as we'll find out later!) they can often boast that they have an ebook available when they really aren't.
• Your book has been distributed by another person ... with or without your consent. They're taking all the profits. This is not so common like other types of piracy, however this has been proven to happen.

Other Types of Ebook Theft

A related problem is people copying your work and passing it off as their original work. This isn't what most people refer to as "piracy" but it can be very damaging. This is also a violation of the law since it violates your copyright.

A different possibility is that someone copies a part from your writing and incorporates it into their own, without your permission and without acknowledging you as the source. It is plagiarism.

In any of these cases, you do have legal safeguards. You may find however it's not necessary to go that to the extent. Simply telling people to stop and threating legal action might be enough.

Combating Ebook Piracy With DRM (Digital Rights Management)

So what can you do about the piracy of ebooks?

A popular option is to use DRM (Digital Rights Management) tools to protect your data. There are several methods to accomplish this for example, by preventing users from sharing or forwarding the ebook.

This can certainly deter piracy. This is particularly useful in stopping individuals from purchasing your book or forwarding it to acquaintances.

The drawbacks of DRM

Sadly, DRM isn't bulletproof. Determined pirates will be able overcome it one way or another. Whatever your eBook's security is, there's nothing that can stop someone openly reading it on one device , then transferring it on another. Naturally, this is a lengthy process which is why most pirates wouldn't be bothered.

A further issue associated in DRM is the fact that it could make life harder for your customersas well as groups that are against DRM due to this reason, like the Defective By Design. Legitimate customers who've paid for the ebook might find it harder to get access to and read it as they would like to. This is not what you'd like to happen because it can turn them off from buying your products in the future.

Hugh Howey, a bestselling self-published author of science fiction, describes his approach to DRM as follows:

I was hoping it would be as easy as hell for other people to access my books. That meant never putting DRM on my e-books. It is the protection provided by digital rights management that makes it difficult to change my books' content and copy them elsewhere and all the rest. I wanted to honor buyers rather than worrying about the pirate.

Utilizing DRM for Social DRM

Social DRM is a process that allows customers to have their ebook printed or watermarked using information including the buyer's email address as well as the dates of purchase. This can be done for PDF documents. It doesn't negatively affect the user, but it could discourage the piracy (as it is obvious who used the file).

How Can I Safeguard My work?

One way to easily make piracy harder - again and without impacting your customers in any way can be to limit the many times your ebook can be downloaded by the customer.

It also prevents users from sharing their download link with others.

It's best practice to allow users to download the book at least three times. If you allow them to download the ebook once, it could cause problems if they don't save the downloaded file or even if they wish to download it onto several different devices (instead of simply copying it across).

A good compromise between meeting the reader's demands and deterring pirates is to establish a limit of 5 downloads. This is the standard when you use .

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How to Handle a Situation When Someone Pirates Your Ebook

So what can you do in the event that someone gives away your ebook, depriving you of any revenue?

If someone pirates your work You can:

• Get in touch with them (if their site has contact numbers). In some instances, asking the pirates to take down your ebook could be sufficient. They might not be interested in any hassle with you in the future.
• Issue  Send a DMCA note to the web hosting company (you can find this through whois.net). DMCA is also known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There's no set formula to use for an DMCA notice of takedown, however it should contain certain elements.

It is possible to find email templates to use in this Google Doc, in both the event of contacting pirates themselves, and for issuing the DMCA notice.

How to Know if Your eBook is being pirated

Occasionally, authors find out about a pirated ebook because an unhappy reader contacts them to notify them.

However, most pirates won't be reported to you. If you'd like to find out the extent to which your eBook is copied, there are a few options:

1. Search for your book on Google

The title of your book along with"download "download" in Google and see what comes on the screen. You may find sites that have - or claim to have! - your book available.

Make sure you are aware of what you click on, though, and make sure you are using a good antivirus program and in use to safeguard you. Many pirate sites will be packed with questionable ads or even worse.

2. Set up Google Alerts

You can set up Google Alerts to be aware of the times when your work and you appear on websites. This is a excellent way to stay up to date with recent reviews or discussion of your book - it can also let you find the extent to which your work is being pirated.

3. Make use of tools such as Mention.com

Mention.com works similarly to Google Alerts. It includes advanced features such as the capability to receive daily recaps in addition to the ability to get emails if there's an abrupt increase in people mentioning the name of your book or author.

Frequently asked questions

Below are some of the questions people frequently ask about book piracy:

Do I Need to Copyright My Ebook?

No. In most countries, your book is copyrighted automatically once you've completed it. You don't need to take any steps to make it copyright. The majority of people place the copyright warning at the start or end the book, however this isn't a requirement.

There is a website that lists my ebook available for the download ... but do they really offer the book?

In most cases, probably not! There are many websites that list ebooks for free download however, they do not provide them. Instead, as Dave Chesson explains the purpose of these sites is to convince people to pay for a subscription to their site ..., or they're trying to spread malware and viruses.

Do I really need to spend my time fighting Piracy?

If you're a new writer ... probably not. You could spend all day trying to stamp out pirates, and this might not affect your book sales at all.

As this piece from the Alliance of Independent Authors provides:

"Chasing down pirates that most likely aren't infringing on your copyrights or hindering the profits of your business is inefficient. It's time and money more productively spent writing, editing, refining your marketing, polishing the book's descriptions or a hundred other activities that contribute in a more meaningful way to your prosperity."

One instance when it does make sense to tackle the piracy is when it's dominating search results. If pirates' sites appear to be ranked highly on Google when it comes to cases such as this one Tim Grahl's has shared, then you'll want to do something about it:

"My author friend was in a situation that the 3rd result in Google for the title of his book was a foreign website that allowed you to download the PDF of the book at no cost."

Do I have to be concerned about Ebook Piracy?

Also, if you're not an aspiring author, most likely not. The risk of being obscure is much greater chance for authors. If your books exist, they can't buy them.

Some people even think that the piracy market can benefit authors because it puts your book to many more readers ... some of whom may become paying readers.

If you're a seasoned author however, you might find that piracy is harming your book sales. YA author Maggie Stiefvater wrote about her experience with that via her page on Facebook and explained how book's print sales for the third book in her series did much better than the ebooks, and also how the pirated book hurt the following installment in the series.

Then [the publisher] told me that they were cutting the print run of The Raven King to less than half of the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. There's no hard feelings here, remember I was told by them, but the numbers in Blue Lily didn't justify printing any more copies.

Maggie Stiefvater was able demonstrate that pirated copies were hurting sales through publishing their own pirated version of the book's fourth edition, which was just the four first chapters of the book repeated. The printing run was has sold out and the ebook sales skyrocketing too (until real copies of the book started getting pirated).

The author Elizabeth Lennox related a similar experience with piracy resulting an obvious drop in sales:

At one point, I saw that my sales had been cut in half. I was shocked. We couldn't figure out what was going on until my husband informed me that he'd discovered my book in pirated sites. We then employed a lawyer who sent removal notices. The next day the sales started to climb back up.

In the end, book theft won't go disappearing. It's up to you to decide whether it's worth fighting it or not. For the majority of first-time authors the decision will make more sense to concentrate your efforts on marketing your ebook ... as well as creating the next.

If you're experiencing a significant drop in sales, though, or if the piracy websites are showing up very high on Google when searching for the name of your book or your author name Then it's an appropriate time to do something about it. Sending out DMCA notifications is the best method to address the issue Be aware that you can download templates for DMCAs that are simple to use on this Google Doc.