What is YOUR Opinion on *Piracy* on Books?

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What is YOUR Opinion on *Piracy* on Books?, Photostats/E-Books/Illegal Printed Books

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firedauz

Apr 19 2009, 02:17 PM

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These are just examples:

1. Photostats:
I can guess this usually occurs to students, whereby the price of such books or materials of original quality would be quite expensive. So how do they solve this? Just photostat the original book content. By right, this is illegal, since it borders on copyright issues as well as disrespecting the nature of the book author(s) who had been writing materials for the benefits of the students themselves.

2. E-Books:
Not all e-books are legal. Hence, by just a few simple keywords, you can find the entire book content of Harry Potter's novels or the next Indiana Jones's movie script. Going by the matter, Harry Potter's books are not even that expensive if you are a fan, and Indy's next movie script is not even supposed to be read if you are the series's follower. You can't really say "because I am their hardcore fan, I *MUST* READ IT!" because that is just wrong.

3. Illegally Printed Materials in Books & Magazines:
This is usually common in magazines, comics & mangas. How often do you find at any local book shop, whereby they are selling Doreamon mangas that were printed and translated into BM/English/Chinese, but it was not even legally authorized by the owners back in Japan? How do we know it was illegally printed? Check out the front intro of the book, they will just put in the name of the company printing it and translating it, but no authorization from anyone! The best thing yet, some of us had been buying it because: (1) they are cheap, and (2) if its in Japanese, we won't understand it. Those companies knows this, so they abuse the system of where the Japanese will not go to length and search all book shops in Malaysia and sue them, AND because they know that the locals in Malaysia will BUY them.

These are 3 examples, but I'm sure there are more like illegal reading via podcast, etc.

What do you think?

dishwasher

Apr 19 2009, 03:44 PM

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I think the same argument applies to all forms of piracy, be it music, video or books.

1) If you need it, buy it. If you cannot afford it, go for the alternatives. Freeware, wikipedia, library etc.

2) You do not 'need' entertainment. If you don't watch Rocky 10, or read Harry Potter and the Chamberpot, you won't die.

milleu

Apr 21 2009, 12:24 PM

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yeah but the price is deterring people to stop. and it's such a pity because book should be cheaper you know to encourage people to buy.

and the library maybe has not been updating their collection as regular as they should.

for me, I don't care really where people get the book as long as they read it. I personally buy book for my own personal collection...but there are people that can't afford it.

and downloading it, it's not a bad idea...and for a reader if you like it you'll get it.

lunalovegood

Apr 22 2009, 12:40 PM

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if i want a book i just buy it, if i cant afford it, i'll wait until i can, but if i cant find it in any of the local bookstores, i'll either wait or forget about it and when i found it somewhere again if i feel like buying i'll just buy. i've downloaded some e-books, but i dont even finished reading them because it hurts my eyes to read from the screen and sometimes there are even typos in those ebooks, they are different than the original books. so it gets annoying at some point. i just simply like the feel of a book in my hands, lying down reading them at leisure.

feyhime

Apr 22 2009, 02:28 PM

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I personally thinks that people who complains so much about price is fickle minded. Who's asking you to buy book every week/day? I am sure it's not that hard to save say RM50± per month (if you can eat 2-3 meals of fast food every month you have no excuse not being able to save that amount of money).

Photocopying... Most student do this isn't it? Not enough money (no income) + library has limited copies. I think as long as you are not selling them for profit, it's okay.

I am not sure about e-books as I don't read them. I don't like starring at the skrin for a 500+ pages book. (Unless it's some journal or papers with less than 20 pages, that's still okay. I read them between my break time in office.) And I love the fact that I can bring my book anywhere and read it in betweens my travelling/free time.

Bootleg printings has so much translation error and printing quality, makes me wonder why people are willing to spend money on it.

jiawei23

Apr 23 2009, 03:00 PM

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today is World Book and Copyright Day!!!!! No piracy!!!

temptation1314

Apr 23 2009, 04:58 PM

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Some college photostated those books and sell to student. They are making money using the illegal way.

icyfawkes

Apr 23 2009, 05:07 PM

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what i dun like is those fake manga books...they are printed on A4 paper and the print smears,and the total series printed is double the original

for example: if Naruto is 55 episodes,fakes might have up to 100+ episodes,they are cheating and earning more than real books without consumers knowing that they are scammed in broad daylight

id rather go to the trouble to get real comics from Taiwan with good paper quality and in a far cheaper price while supporting the author directly...

feyhime

Apr 24 2009, 09:19 AM

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QUOTE(temptation1314 @ Apr 23 2009, 04:58 PM)

Some college photostated those books and sell to student. They are making money using the illegal way.

Okay that's totally screwed up! And we wondered why our people aren't buying books! How on earth are they going to learn if higher learning institutions aren't setting up good examples?!

QUOTE(icyfawkes @ Apr 23 2009, 05:07 PM)

what i dun like is those fake manga books...they are printed on A4 paper and the print smears,and the total series printed is double the original

for example: if Naruto is 55 episodes,fakes might have up to 100+ episodes,they are cheating and earning more than real books without consumers knowing that they are scammed in broad daylight

id rather go to the trouble to get real comics from Taiwan with good paper quality and in a far cheaper price while supporting the author directly...

Yeap. And not to forget they charged RM6 and above for one book while the proper copyright printer sell it much cheaper and in better quality.

ahjames

Apr 24 2009, 11:29 AM

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well it doesnt help that Lone Wolf and Cub original reprints cost a farking USD10 (not yet count shipping).

i just cannot afford that.

cos i only buy ori all d time.

Kidicarus

Apr 28 2009, 03:43 PM

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Actually, copyright law as we know it today exists because of the printed press. It came into existence to protect the right of publishers and to an extent a form a censorship.

For Malaysians, at this point of time, i don't think copyright laws should apply to foreign works/books. If that is what it takes to get more Malaysians reading, then i'm not so worried that JK Rowling is getting a few thousand dollars less. Heck the money is going overseas anyway. May i add that i do buy all my books, and that this is my personal opinion.

For academic purposes, i have photocopied whole text books in the past but this was in Malaysian Colleges. I know for certain that photocopiers in libraries in the UK actually do pay some sort of license which is included in the cost of photocopying.

seedohbehlei

Apr 28 2009, 11:06 PM

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Piracy is a sensitive topic, regardless of the media being pirated.

There are always 2 sides to a coin.

It's all about respect towards the intellectual property of the author of the book, at the root.

The pricing should be the first thing to be considered, though.

In the end, it's all a matter of choice. If you think it's worth it to buy the original material at the stipulated price, then just splurge on it. Don't be influenced by other people who could get their hands on the same thing via other means. If you think the pricing is not right, but you still want the thing (the book, in this case), then think hard before you photostat or download the pirated e-book version or buy a pirated version. Does your conscience tell you that the author does not deserve the royalty you're paying for his/her original material? Or you don't like the idea that somebody in the middle will pocket most of the cash you're paying instead of the author himself/herself? Or you don't even care about these things at all (you just wanted that darn book, and will get it by any means necessary, even if you got it for free)?

The act of piracy is against the law, though. So, still, do the right thing is the best bet, in my opinion. And I believe if a lot of people start to boycott an over-priced book, eventually the publisher would lower the price anyway.

This post has been edited by seedohbehlei: Apr 28 2009, 11:12 PM

Massa

Apr 30 2009, 12:28 PM

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Agree with seedohbehlei.

Btw , we can always borrow from our friends , relatives etc. Like I always do if I can't afford to buy a book.
And library is always one good place to borrow books though.

milleu

Apr 30 2009, 05:42 PM

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it's not fickle minded when you say a book that between 50-100 is expensive..

and i go through a book in a few hours, a few days maximum.

so yes, book is expensive to me.

so i have reduce my book consumption by getting it once a week or two weeks. which is really sad considering if our government really try to encourage reading they will realize that there are people like me who do buy book every week and 50 every week is burning my pocket.

haidan123

Jun 21 2009, 11:14 PM

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QUOTE(feyhime @ Apr 22 2009, 02:28 PM)

I personally thinks that people who complains so much about price is fickle minded. Who's asking you to buy book every week/day? I am sure it's not that hard to save say RM50± per month (if you can eat 2-3 meals of fast food every month you have no excuse not being able to save that amount of money).

Photocopying... Most student do this isn't it? Not enough money (no income) + library has limited copies. I think as long as you are not selling them for profit, it's okay.

I am not sure about e-books as I don't read them. I don't like starring at the skrin for a 500+ pages book. (Unless it's some journal or papers with less than 20 pages, that's still okay. I read them between my break time in office.) And I love the fact that I can bring my book anywhere and read it in betweens my travelling/free time.

Bootleg printings has so much translation error and printing quality, makes me wonder why people are willing to spend money on it.

Totally agree~

And btw, there are alot of warehouse sales around hence theres no excuse on books being too expensive.If u cant afford to buy one, go to the libraries or to the Shop where they rent books.It would cost u less than RM10 for sure.

milleu

Jun 22 2009, 02:09 PM

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Unfortunately, I like owning my books.

I do not agree with dling, or photocopying books..but I do understand where its coming from

a manga cost rm70 and dling a few minutes? logically anyone would choose dling unless he/she wants to own the book/collection.

as for me, i buy my manga but not before i dl it.

same goes for text book, the biomolecular text book in msia cost 2k...who would buy it? i have no idea.

moniqee

Jul 2 2009, 11:10 AM

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QUOTE(firedauz @ Apr 19 2009, 02:17 PM)

These are just examples:

1. Photostats:
I can guess this usually occurs to students, whereby the price of such books or materials of original quality would be quite expensive. So how do they solve this? Just photostat the original book content. By right, this is illegal, since it borders on copyright issues as well as disrespecting the nature of the book author(s) who had been writing materials for the benefits of the students themselves.

college textbooks are expensive costing around RM100-200 unless u manage to get original 2nd hand textbook... ^^ that's also depending on the condition...

2. E-Books:
Not all e-books are legal. Hence, by just a few simple keywords, you can find the entire book content of Harry Potter's novels or the next Indiana Jones's movie script. Going by the matter, Harry Potter's books are not even that expensive if you are a fan, and Indy's next movie script is not even supposed to be read if you are the series's follower. You can't really say "because I am their hardcore fan, I *MUST* READ IT!" because that is just wrong.

as for ebooks... well... not all the books u can get in ebooks... mostly u need to pay... ^^ i support... but not much coz the ebooks are sometimes more expensive than the physical books.. since i had to pay in USD...

3. Illegally Printed Materials in Books & Magazines:
This is usually common in magazines, comics & mangas. How often do you find at any local book shop, whereby they are selling Doreamon mangas that were printed and translated into BM/English/Chinese, but it was not even legally authorized by the owners back in Japan? How do we know it was illegally printed? Check out the front intro of the book, they will just put in the name of the company printing it and translating it, but no authorization from anyone! The best thing yet, some of us had been buying it because: (1) they are cheap, and (2) if its in Japanese, we won't understand it. Those companies knows this, so they abuse the system of where the Japanese will not go to length and search all book shops in Malaysia and sue them, AND because they know that the locals in Malaysia will BUY them.

These are 3 examples, but I'm sure there are more like illegal reading via podcast, etc.

podcast is free... so i think u cant avoid this... apple itune can dl free podcast...

What do you think?