Protecting your Ebooks and IPR with Ebook DRM Security

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A grave issue that every author publishing digital works runs into today is ebook piracy. When users reproduce your copyrighted digital works without your authorization, it is regarded as ebook piracy. If you are a writer, publisher or author, you are more or less likely to be familiar with the concept of online piracy. But more importantly, you may be afraid of your ebooks being pirated, if you haven’t already become a victim. However, the fear of ebook piracy does not mean the end of your writing career.

Like you, scores of authors, publishers, content creators and every skilled worker involved in the content supply chain worries about the illegal downloading and distribution of ebooks and consequently, the loss in sales and revenue. Unfortunately, online piracy does not have just financial implications — it has grave emotional ones too. If you have been a victim, or know of authors and publishers who have been victims of pirated sites, the emotions of rage and violation can be palpable.

The issue of book piracy is not a new one. On the contrary, it has been around for decades. Replicated and counterfeited versions of print books are available, even to this day, across the world and often come up in the form of missing pages and fumbled text. But, today, ebook piracy, in particular, is a grave worry for every author and publisher. This is because the emergence of ebooks has simplified and made the process of copying and distributing books truly effortless and on a large scale.

Since ebooks are already in a digital format, it means there is no requirement for further publication or scanning of the copies. In many cases, online pirates upload many formats of a reproduction based on the master copy that they have illegally obtained. And despite the many regulations and rules put in place to safeguard content privacy, ebooks continue to be vulnerable to being pirated. Numerous pirated sites are shut down each day, but new ones emerge under new domain names in a matter of days.

A recent survey conducted by Nielsen revealed how ebook piracy cost US publishers more than $300 million in sales each year. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as authors too lose money which is unaccounted for. Hence, fighting against ebook piracy may appear like a futile game with no end in sight.

Here’s how you can be affected in the absence of adequate ebook security.

Loss in revenue. If writing books is your career, without any other sources of income to fall back on, then you would know how crucial it is not to miss out on every penny you earn through the sale of your books. But in the unfortunate case that you are a victim of a pirated site and your work lands up on a platform where users can download your work without cost, it could mean a significant loss in revenue. So, regardless of whether you continue to sell your ebooks on other platforms, every download that has been without purchase is a sale that you didn’t make.

Lose control over creative work. As a writer of original content, you are strongly protective of your content. You have the right to keep control over your intellectual property and have a say in how you would like your books to be distributed and where. But if your ebooks are pirated, you lose that control entirely.

Cancel sequels or series in line. If you are an author of serial fiction or novels, how your previous book has been successful could decide whether you can move to the next sequel, particularly if you have a contractual obligation to a conventional publisher. So, if your preceding book does not make money, it could mean that readers have inappreciable interest in your work, even if that’s not the case and your book is being downloaded illegally in large numbers. In such a scenario, you may have no other option but to relinquish the rest of your sequels.

Hence, as an author, it is imperative to protect your work and take the right steps at your end to prevent becoming a victim of ebook piracy. To meet this challenge, ebook DRM or digital rights management can protect ebooks from being copied and shared without your appropriate and exclusive permissions. By deploying ebook DRM, you can protect the contents of your ebooks from piracy and prevent copyright infringements. Ebook DRM uses encryption to ensure only authorized users (those that have paid) can access your ebooks – this prevents unauthorized readers from accessing them. In addition, ebook DRM controls how your ebooks are used by authorized users so that they cannot be saved to an unprotected format or easily copied.

As a proven and tested ebook security solution, ebookDRM offers you robust content security ensuring your creative works and adequately protected against ebook piracy and theft.

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