<img style="float:right;" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/vega-260.jpg" alt="vega-260.jpg" width="260" height="252" />I got a bit sidetracked this weekend by the piracy issue. That first article I posted on Saturday provoked the biggest number of comments I've ever got here in one day -- from people outraged by book theft and from those trying to justify it (most of whom won't use the word 'theft' naturally).

I think it's pretty clear where I stand on this subject. Stealing is wrong. It's also about to get an awful lot easier. We will see a flood of new ereaders in 2010. Not just the much-hyped Apple tablet, but a host of new devices using either Google's phone-based he Android operating system or its <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5438716/google-and-htc-working-on-a-chrome-os-tablet?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29" target="_blank">netbook OS Chrome</a>. I have Android on my own phone. It's a great product and already has a fantastic ebook reader for use on Android phones -- <a href="http://www.aldiko.com/" target="_blank">Aldiko</a> - which hooks into some existing legal book libraries.

My money on the mass market for ebook devices during 2010 is on products based on Google software and don't tie customers to a single supplier. They will probably work out a lot cheaper than the equivalents from the big, monopolistic players. I wouldn't be surprised to see the stores stuffed with ereaders starting at the $200 mark or less by next Christmas. All, of course, capable of displaying ripped off ebooks as readily as they will legitimate ones. Those of us who work in the publishing business -- writers, publishers, agents et al -- have a unique opportunity here. We can see the tsunami before it hits and try to work out some way of minimising the damage, based on the experiences of the music and video industry. Here are a few suggestions to kick about....

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<ul>
	<li>Ebooks represent a new and potentially valuable book market that should ease at least some of the pain authors and the publishing industry is feeling at the moment.</li>
	<li>Book theft can never be stopped in its entirety. There are always people who will steal, and the nature of the digital world is going to make it even easier for them to do that in the future. Governments will doubtless try to intervene with some anti-piracy measures. It's pointless for companies and individuals to try to track down and punish the army of repeat thieves out there who will never, ever pay for anything.</li>
	<li>Most people are honest and decent and don't want to deprive creative workers of their income. They will buy ebooks provided they're sensibly priced and easy to purchase. Pricing isn't an issue in most large markets today. Delivery certainly is. Publishers need to deliver a variety of online sales outlets that let people buy books that aren't tied to specific hardware, without unnecessary technical restrictions and hassle, as easily as we buy on iTunes today.</li>
	<li>There is no easy technical solution that will stop piracy, and heavy-handed use of copy protection may well deter legitimate buyers and make them download ripped-off copies instead.</li>
</ul>
If the above is true then it seems to me clear where we should all be focusing our efforts. Not on chasing the recidivist book thieves out there, who just aren't worth the trouble, but in persuading decent book readers that it's in their interest as much as ours that they buy legitimate copies of our work. Whether you write full or part time you should be able to expect to receive recompense for your work. To those who claim writing is too important to be muddied by 'commercialism' all I can say is I will happily write for nothing the moment supermarkets hand out free food, bars buckshee beer, petrol stations giveaway gas, and the taxman writes me a letter that starts, 'Annual return? Forget it. We don't need the money'. Until then I'd just like you to pay the modest price on the cover.

The average human being gets this argument straight away. We just need to remind them of it when the ebook reader explosion begins, and to make it simpler for them to buy a legitimate copy than a ripped off one. This is something of concern to all of us in the business. Author organisations like ITW, RWA and MWA could, if they wanted, band together and get behind it. I'm sure the Society of Authors in the UK would come in too.

I'm no expert in these matters so I defer to wiser counsel. But I'd happily stick a button up here that said, maybe, 'Please Don't Steal My Book'. That could link to a simple web site run by a group of authors' organisations, perhaps with quotes from well-known writers, which sets out the facts about what writers really earn, how much we actually get from book sales, and why using ripped-off copies will, in the end, damage the interest of both writers <em>and</em> readers.

Any sane author wants people to read their work as ebooks. Opposing book theft doesn't make you a Luddite. We should encourage and welcome the birth of the digital book medium. But at the same time we need to make sure the public understands what's going on and appreciates the damage they do if they rip off stolen commercial material. If you want to read for free there are public libraries out there, a wealth of giveaway books (you can find two of mine on <a href="http://www.scribd.com/davidhewson" target="_blank">Scribd</a>) and thousands of out-of-copyright classics on places like <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/" target="_blank">Feedbooks</a>. There really is no excuse for anyone to steal.

The alternative is to sit back and moan as the livelihoods of writers begin to disappear from beneath them through nothing more than widespread digital pilfering orchestrated by people who hate books and delight in the damage they plan to wreak on the ecosystem of the great and varied world of books. Don't let these bastards win.