Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

From Slashdot:
Developer 2D Boy has written that they are seeing an 82% piracy rate for everyone’s favorite DRM-free physics puzzler, World of Goo . . . The article also features a fascinating comparison with the piracy rate of another game that was shipped complete with DRM, at 92%. 

In a decision that will have far reaching effects into the publishing world if upheld, Judge Davis in the RIAA case versus Thomas found that RIAA’s verdict of $222,000, was improperly given. The jury instruction did not properly state the law. The decision (pdf) came down to the meaning of distribution:

Each party asserts that the Court should adopt the plain meaning of the term “distribution;” however, they disagree on what that plain meaning is. Thomas and her supporters argue that the plain meaning of the statute compels the conclusion that merely making a work available to the public does not constitute a distribution. Instead, a distribution only occurs when a defendant actually transfers to the public the possession or ownership of copies or phonorecords of a work. Plaintiffs and their supporters assert that making a work available for distribution is sufficient.

In this case, Thomas made copies of music available for distribution by placing them in a folder on her computer where others on the internet could access them. The court ultimately found that distribution requires some affirmative act of dissemination. The judge carefully considers every possible angle including comparable criminal statutes, other language within …

This falls into the “how did I miss this article” category. News Corp has been accused of hiring hackers to spy on rival Dish network “in a scheme to deprive a competitors of hundreds of millions of dollars. The big news was that in testimony, a computer hacker admitted that he had been paid on a regular basis for 10 years by HarperCollins but that he wasn’t hired to hack into Dish network, but beef up security of the DirecTV service.

Christopher Tarnovsky is considered to be one of the two best hackers in the world. As MobileRead Alexander Turcic wrote “Irony knows no bounds.”

Via MobileRead.

A Cheltenham man was arrested last week for linking to infringing television material on a website called “TV-links”. The charges were purportedly for “offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the Internet” and began with an investigation by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). TV-links was a website where users could post links to content hosted elsewhere around the ‘net.

The idea that linkage could somehow be infringing is pretty disturbing. No actual law has been cited as having been violated other than the idea that the website and poster were encouraging a culture of infringement.

Via Channel Register.

One step forward and two steps back can describe Penguin’s path toward digital media. Last month, eMusic launched a DRM free audiobook program. Penguin Audio was participating to the tune of 150 titles. This month, its withdrawn from the program due to “concerns about digital piracy.” Penguin doesn’t state that there has been piracy only concerns.

"At this moment we're not going to have our titles on eMusic or with anyone else who sells non-DRM until the landscape shakes out and we feel very comfortable and confident that our titles will not be pirated," said Dick Heffernan, publisher of Penguin Audio.

Random House publishing hasn’t found any pirated eMusic and has found the eMusic sales “really encouraging.”

According to the Times article, eMusic is selling more than 500 audiobooks per day which is double its forecasted sales.

The fact is that there will always be pirates and no amount of DRM is going to stop it. It might stall sales though.

Via NY Times.

Science Fiction Writer’s Association Dissolves Anti E Piracy Committee

If you aren’t a member of the SFWA or a regular reader of that community, you might have missed out on an important development that took place over the last week. The SFWA sent out take down notices under the auspices of the DMCA (the act used by the RIAA to target music downloaders) to various sites on the ‘net. Most of the take down notices were improperly executed because the SFWA had not had authorization from the copyright holders to send out the notices.

Cory Doctorow was one of the victims of the notices because he has been a long advocate of giving his work away for free. He had reader email calling him a hypocrite for encouraging the copying of his work on the one hand and ostensibly giving SFWA authority to order a take down of his work on the other. Doctorow called SFWA on this and many other writers and bloggers took up the clarion call against the SFWA’s unauthorized action.

In response (and a knee jerk one at that), the SFWA disbanded the anti epiracy committee. I think we’ll …

The final version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is on the internet for anyone to view, if you are good enough to google it. The book has been photographed, two pages at a time, by someone (I assume a bookseller or a distributor). There are slideshows and photographs that reveal the deaths and the ending (for the record, it is nothing like the previous spoiler). edited to add: link seems to be down. Having seen some of the photos, it looks like the real deal to me. So if you want to be spoiled, the answer to the Harry Potter question is out there despite excessive and extreme security attempts.

The trucks Bloomsbury will use are fitted with satellite tracking systems costing up to 1,000 pounds each, which will reveal whether any of the vehicles deviate from their intended route. The books are on sealed pallets fitted with alarms to prevent tampering.

Torrent Link

P.S. If you click and are spoiled, don’t blame me. Blame your poor impulse control.

In a completely believable (to me) claim, a computer hacker has said that he hacked into Bloomsbury Publishing and stole a digital copy of the final Harry Potter book. The Hacker posts a brief (3 sentence) summary of the ending of the book and reveals who was killed. Link here. Don’t click and then come back and complain about being spoiled, if it is indeed true.

Via VNUnet.

JK Rowling is famously known amonst online book circles as the highest profile author to refuse to allow digitization of her books. This has not deterred individuals from offering a home brew ebook version of every title in the Harry Potter series. In fact, Book 6 was released at midnight and online reports told of the ebook version available less than twelve hours later. Recently, the High Court of Delhi required eBay to halt four auctions on eBay India of illegal ebook versions of Potter’s book.

If one can get past the piracy issue, it is important to understand that there were purchasers of this illegal ebook version. Which means that there is a market for the ebok version and rather than the market being filled by a legitimate source, authorized by Rowling, the market is filled with illegal versions for which Rowling will receive no royalties.

The argument some have made is that piracy is the very reason that Rowling and others like her refuse the digitization form of their books. The fundamental fallacy in that argument is the idea that not having ebook versions prevents piracy. It is obviously …