Today, more than ever, every individual has entry to reading, thanks to ebooks. Moreover, there is a much wider audience for authors and publishers to publish their works online, thanks to the power of the Internet. But with ease of use and distribution, comes dangers such as the threat of piracy. Ebook piracy which involves the unauthorized sharing, circulation, and replication of ebooks, has become an enormous issue impacting authors and publishers alike. Hence, there is a need to effectively protect ebooks from piracy in order to prevent revenue loss for authors and publishers.
Best Approaches
Let’s look at some of the best approaches to safeguard your ebooks from piracy online.
- Use digital rights management. DRM or digital rights management ensures the safety and security of your ebooks against theft, misuse, and sharing. The encryption used in DRM systems prevents any individual from gaining access to your content without a suitable access key and then DRM controls enforce what they can do with it. With ebook DRM, you can be guaranteed that only an authorized user or individual who has paid for your ebook can access your content. Protecting your ebooks with DRM protection software can ensure the safety and security of your ebooks against unauthorized use and piracy.
- Dynamic Watermarks & social DRM. Watermarks are visible or invisible text that can be embedded into the code of your ebook at the time of the transaction or applied automatically when an ebook is viewed or printed. That means when a buyer purchases your ebook, their personal details such as name, email addresses, and other credentials are implanted within the watermark code. In some instances, the publisher and author details are also contained. Social DRM or dynamic watermarking can prevent the extensive circulation of your ebook content. That’s because the original purchaser’s details are entrenched within your ebook, and pirates or miscreants would have to risk being caught sharing your ebook illegally. In the event of piracy, a publisher can easily track down the individual and file lawsuits against them.
- Restrict ebook editing. Secure your ebooks before selling them online by establishing DRM controls such as restricting editing, screen grabbing, printing, and copying the content of your ebook. Given the widespread spate of piracy, many authors and publishers experience a loss in revenue when their work is plagiarized. Therefore, the right DRM solution can prevent the sharing of your ebooks as well as unauthorized changes and edits made to your content.
- Set down copyright protection laws. Register for copyright protection that reveals you are the creator and the rightful owner of your ebook content. Establish a legal notice that mentions all rights reserved by you and get it verified by an attorney. That means if any individual tries to resell your content or copies from it, you can easily take them to court. Bear in mind that this can be expensive, so it is better to protect your ebook as much as possible, to begin with.
- Monitor and track the progress of your ebook through Google alerts. You can use the Google search engine to keep track of your ebook. For instance, you can choose any random statement from the ebook and set down a Google alert to prevent illegal copying of your ebook content. Therefore, if any particular information has been posted anywhere on the Internet, you will be notified about the leak. Setting up Google alerts can be an excellent way of monitoring your ebook content to make sure it does not appear on the Internet unknowingly. In the event you discover that your ebooks are being circulated without your permission, you can file a lawsuit against them.
- DMCA takedown notices. Irrespective of the country where piracy has taken place, you can file a DMCA notice to have the content removed. Parties enforcing the Digital millennium copyright act, also known as DMCA, will contact the website company, host, or domain provider and inform them of the copyright infringement. The website would be coerced to remove the content, and if they fail to concede, the website could be shut down with the content forcibly removed.
Conclusion
It’s a strange world where authors and publishers looking to build their audience base and encourage people to read books have to consider several ways of safeguarding their content from the same audience. Publishing your ebook online comes with its own list of advantages and disadvantages. While you receive the benefits of reaching out to audiences worldwide, you may also be faced with unpleasant surprises in the form of ebook piracy. Therefore, the best way to ensure that you are securing your ebooks online is through DRM technology. Simply put, DRM protection enables you to protect your ebooks against unauthorized use and distribution, thus preserving your source of income while still providing access to authorized users.
