Increase in e-books brings piracy problems for publishers

The increase in electronic books on PittCat+ provides students with an alternative to searching… The increase in electronic books on PittCat+ provides students with an alternative to searching the stacks at the Hillman Library, but the books are causing some problems for libraries, publishers and distributors.   

Pitt’s University Library System has increased its journal access more than 200 percent since it began purchasing electronic resources about 15 years ago. But the increase in availability of e-books has brought new dilemmas for publishers and libraries, including how to price the books and how to combat piracy.

Multiple students can access e-books simultaneously by logging into sremote.pitt.edu, but some publishers have begun to set limits on how many students can gain access at one time.

The publisher HarperCollins implemented a policy in 2010 that requires libraries to repurchase e-books after every 26 lends. A statement from March 1 of that year said that the company was concerned with selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity because it would lead to a decrease in book sales and hurt the industry in a number of other ways.

“[It] would undermine the emerging e-book ecosystem, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors,” the statement said.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has about 500 HarperCollins e-books in its collection, but after the 2010 change in the publishing company’s policy, Sarah Beasley, the library’s coordinator of e-resources, said that they will no longer purchase from the company.  

“Before we invest more money, we are waiting to see where they are going with the policy,” she said.

Pitt also carries HarperCollins e-books, but Rush Miller, the director of Pitt’s University Library System, did not know exactly how many of the company’s e-books Pitt currently has available.

When it comes to the cost that libraries pay for e-books, distributors, publishers and the libraries will not comment on specific prices.

Paul B. Kohberger Jr., the head of Pitt’s Technical Services, said in an email that due to licensing considerations, which is included in the contractual agreement between publishers and libraries, he could not provide specific costs or discounts for electronic resources.

David Burleigh, director of marketing at Overdrive, a global distributor of e-books for more than 1,000 publishers, said that he would not disclose the prices libraries have to pay for e-books because “publicly we don’t talk about pricing strategies.”

Erin Crum, the vice president of corporate communications for HarperCollins Publishers, said in an email that, “The e-book price is typically 20 percent lower than the physical book and the e-book price matches to the current format in the market,” but would not give a specific title or price.

In addition to pricing questions, publishers said they are also facing more piracy issues as a result of the increase in e-book popularity.

Andi Sporkin, vice president of communications at the Association of American Publishers, said that combating piracy has become financially straining on publishing companies.

“I’m not saying piracy didn’t exist 10 years ago, but the Internet has made it a global business,” she said.

Sporkin added that a survey by Association of American Publishers showed that eight publishers had collectively spent nearly $800,000 to cover monitoring services provided by third parties in the last two years.

“Some publishers additionally have committed one or more in-house staff — in some cases hiring additional staff — to deal with piracy,” Sporkin said in an email. “These are costs that were unanticipated five years ago … these are costs that are related to the digital format.”

Despite these publishing industry issues, Miller said he believes e-books are a strong investment. But he did acknowledge the current confusion in the publishing marketplace.

“There are lots of models and lots of platforms, and they are not consistent,” Miller said. “The difficulties is that with different policies and different platforms it’s easy to be confused.”

Miller said that in the long run, the cost was “probably lower” for an e-book but did not give specific numbers. He said that the lower cost stems from the lack of cataloging costs and costs of replacing damaged or misplaced books. And when e-journals first came out, the library saved 10 percent of the

original print edition by subscribing to the electronic version.

“It allowed us to buy more content with the same amount of money,” he said.