The posts I put up here about book theft last weekend generated a lot of interest. It's clear authors feel ripped off by people who distribute copyright digital books around the web and those who take them for free. It's also clear -- and I hadn't appreciated this -- that many of those who steal digital books think they're doing nothing wrong. If you go <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach-tm.jpgblog/2010/01/01/the-biggest-threat-to-writing-is-book-theft/" target="_blank">through the comments here</a> you'll see any number of frankly pathetic excuses for behaviour that any normal human being knows instinctively is just plain stealing.

What truly amazed me is how some of the people involved in distributing stolen works don't just try to justify their theft but pretend they're stealing things for 'the right reasons'. It's not about money at all. It's an altruistic protest against commercialism, a way of spreading books to people who couldn't otherwise afford them, or harmless sharing of things you wouldn't buy anyway just for fun.

It's all one big fat lie. Here's the truth. The thieves who are building up the illicit libraries of stolen digital work that make widespread book theft possible are doing it because they hope to make easy money. Want the proof?

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Let's take a look at just one site for ebook thieves out there -- <a href="http://ebook30.com/" target="_blank">ebook30.com.</a> This site was only created in December 2008 yet it seems to be a repository for links to thousands of books and magazines ranging from fiction to computer titles and biographies, and computer games too -- most of them stolen.

It's not hard to work out that something's not quite right about ebook30.com. There's no 'about page', no explanation of what the site is for. In order to acquire books through it you seem to have to register but there's no indication what, if anything this costs, or what is involved.

So who are ebook30.com? Don't know. The ownership of the site runs through an agency that hides the identity of those behind it. This is a perfectly normal practice -- you'll find it applied to davidhewson.com too because I don't want my private address and phone number made public for obvious reasons. But at least you know who I am and you can contact me easily through a form on this site. Nowhere on ebook30 is there a contact form or the slightest indication who runs it or from where. Some records seem to indicate it originates in the Netherlands. Interestingly of the two stolen ebooks of mine they list one is a Dutch edition. At Alexa someone from Vietnam claims they created it (which would make sense -- basing a piracy site in the EU is asking for trouble). But without going out and employing someone it would be very difficult indeed to guess who's behind this thing.

if they're giving away links to stolen books for free why are they running it? Take a look around and you can surely see: ads. They leap at you at every opportunity -- links to genuine companies, to books on eBay, casinos, financial companies. The site is clearly set up to generate money from web advertising. How much? Well, it's the Internet, isn't it? Who are you going to believe?

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach.png"><img style="float:right;padding-left:4px;" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/us-reach-tm.jpg" alt="US reach.png" width="200" height="282" /></a>There's an <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/ebook30.com" target="_blank">interesting audience breakdown at Quantcast</a> which focuses on US site reach. You can see it summarised on the right. This suggests that 45 per cent of US visitors are college graduates and the majority, 39 per cent, claim to earn more than $100,000 a year -- enough to spend five or six dollars on buying a book instead of stealing it. How do they know this? How accurate are these figures? Search me. As I said, it's the Internet.

How much are the thieves who run eBook30.com making? Again, depends who you believe. According to <a href="http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.ebook30.com" target="_blank">websiteoutlook</a> the popularity of the site, 333,131 daily page views, should bring in an ad revenue of $1001.39 <em>every day.</em> A lot more than many authors will make in a couple of weeks by writing books, not stealing them. The trouble is websiteoutlook seems much like ebook30.com -- a site with lots of ads and no obvious purpose. No contact names, no addresses. Just a lot of information about web traffic pulled from genuine research organisations like Alexa and then turned into estimates. According to them ebook30 now has an estimated worth of $731,014, which would surely make someone in Vietnam very happy if it were true.

On the other hand if you go to <a href="http://www.cubestat.com/www.ebook30.com" target="_blank">Cubestat</a> -- another site ranking place that seems to be run by no one and is full of ads -- you're told that ebook30's daily ad revenues are just $62 and it's estimated worth $45,573.90, which still doesn't seem bad for something a year old and based entirely on theft.

Not that it matters. Look at the hard numbers on which most seem to agree. Ebook30 is big -- Google has indexed 24,700 pages there -- and attracts a lot of visitors. <a href="http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ebook30.com" target="_blank">According to Alexa</a> its reach of Internet users has increased 75 per cent over the last three months and the growth over the last six months is really quite impressive/depressing. Depending on who you believe the site gets between 150,000 and 190,000 visitors a month -- most of whom are there to get something for free. If most visitors nab just one illicit title that's a hell of a lot of stolen books. Are we supposed to believe there's really not one lost sale in there?

And one assumes that traffic is going to grow and grow as ereaders go mainstream and get cheaper. Take a look at how the site's traffic has been moving already.

<img src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/screen-shot-2010-01-08-at-10-15-39.png" alt="Screen shot 2010-01-08 at 10.15.39.png" width="395" height="250" />

Before the ebook thieves leap in and try to tear this apart let me say here and now that, traffic aside, the money numbers quoted here are questionable. But it doesn't matter whether the thieves behind ebook30 are making $70 a day or $1000. The point is those ads and the fact the site has no rationale, no public identity, no purpose whatsoever except to point people towards stolen books and grab some income along the way. <em>T</em><em>he reason </em><em>they are dealing in stolen books is to make money.</em>

Just as those who read stolen ebooks are doing it to avoid paying for something that doesn't belong to them. End of story.

If you're thinking about grabbing a ripped-off book from a place like this please don't. Authors depend on readers for their support. There's also the small matter of your own personal security. Do you really want to hand over your personal details to a web site so determined to hide who runs it and why?

If they've no qualms about stealing from us it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to start wondering how soon they might think about stealing from you.