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E-books have revolutionized the publishing world. They
are easy to carry, have a global reach, and for some, can be easily pirated.
Yes, as publishers, agents, and writers; we are aware of the scenario, but we
cannot do much about it. What we can do, however, is learn more about it, so we
have compiled a list of the countries that are the most notorious for e-book
piracy.
Russia
Russia is a major player when it comes to e-book piracy.
Although the e-book market has almost doubled since 2012, piracy is still on the
rise. According to Eksmo, the largest publishing house of Russia, almost 95% of
all downloaded e-books are pirated. This amount costs almost $120M to the e-book
industry. The problem is so severe that a state agency launched a media
campaign to encourage readers to buy books instead of pirating them. More than
70% of e-books published in Russia are from local authors. This means that
piracy can be harmful to the country’s own resources.
Netherlands
According to a Dutch research company, Gfk, only 10% of the
e-books downloaded in the Netherlands are actually paid for. A large section of
the book-loving audience there prefers to share them with their friends or
simply download them from torrent sites. And this behavior is not even illegal
in the country. While uploading these books is illegal, downloading them is
not. This might be a reason why the Netherlands is big in e-book piracy.
USA
There are many book lovers in the United States, but not
all of them are willing to pay for what they enjoy. As a result, the industry
has lost $3B in the country. If we take an average, for each e-book published,
almost 10,000 copies are downloaded for free. Some popular genres among pirates
are technology and science, making such books lose as much as $1M in sales.
