Copyright books
Copyright and books are two items we are not used to see in a relevant context. Nobody really goes to the copy shop and copies the whole thing, or do they? Is copyright for the books outdated and why is it still relevant and important to the publishers and authors alike?
When the last book in the Harry Potter series was about to be released, a worldwide craze befell the fans and interested people alike. Everyone wanted to get their hands on a book, if possible before the release date. Bear in mind that the book is copyright protected and illegal copying of the book, in any form, is punishable by law.
In order to have the book in all relevant stores in time for the release date, and also in sufficient quantities, the publishing company shipped the books under a fake name to the stores, which knew about the trick, to keep the arrival a secret. Useless, because someone used the mobile phone with a high resolution camera to photograph, yes, photograph, not copy, every single page of the book. The photos were compiled in a pdf file and released by a cracking group days before the actual release.
The scandal was perfect. The violation of the secrecy agreement the book stores were required to honor lead to removal of the books from the store. Misinformation regarding the authenticity was started by the author herself; a worldwide hunt for the copyright violator rendered no arrests. Nevertheless, the book sales skyrocketed and are currently approaching the 50 million units mark.
The same book got translated into a dozen languages, days after the release of the English original, most of them had no permission to do any such move. This was again a violation of the copyright, but police forces seized most of the bootlegs, after being tipped off by the publishers and several arrests were made, thousands of illegal copies were burned.
The copyright protection for books is much easier to understand and enforce, then the copyright laws regulating music and movies. You either own the book which is the official release, or you have a counterfeit. With music and films, that is not easy.
You may buy an mp3, but you cannot share it. You may copy it to your portable player from your computer, but you may not give it to your family to listen to it. You may make a security copy of your DVD, but you may not give it to your best friend to watch or copy, even if he throws it in the garbage, after watching.
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