Loose Change

Publishers waste countless hours tracking down and prosecuting Internet Piracy -- hours that become part of the overall cost of doing business, incorporated into the price of each book. Writers have asked me on many occasions why it’s as difficult as it is to prevent piracy. Part of the problem deals with the history of file sharing sites -- many of these sites are run by experienced professional criminals.

For those of you too young to remember, there were home computers before the Internet -- even before e-mail. When people wanted to share files, they used dial-up connections known as Bulletin Board Systems -- BBSs. BBSs charged users access fees, and allowed users to upload and download files. While BBSs were initially developed for the sharing of scientific and technological research -- including the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web -- the most financially successful of these BBSs were established for the purpose of distributing pornography -- in particular child pornography. BBSs specializing in child pornography often avoided criminal prosecution by changing locations frequently and using a complicated system of networking to avoid detection.

When the Bulletin Board Systems gave way to the World Wide Web in the early 1990’s, pornography sharing took on new life in the form of user networking groups known as news servers, news binaries, alternative binaries and news groups. Altruistically envisioned to promote sharing of uncensored world news, user networks, or usenets, do not rely on central servers for file storage, but instead multiple users allowing other users access to files stored on their hard drives. Usenets themselves retain only indexes of available files, not the files themselves. By the late 1990s, these sites had grown to include sharing of music files as well as all forms of pornography.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), brought suit against one of these file sharing services, Napster, which from 1999 to 2001 allowed users access to music files, stored as MP3 files on users' computers by way of Napster's central interface. RIAA argued that a whole new class of cybercriminal had been born -- the digital pirate.

Because the Internet is open to world wide access, cybercrimes have become a growing headache for US Border Patrol. US Customs Agents assigned to the Cyber Crimes Division investigate and prosecute illegal sharing of millions of dollars worth of illegally copied music, book, and movie files annually. Punishment ranges from seizure of computers and confiscation of hard drives to 5 years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000.00.

Many Newsgroups still make no effort to comply with anti-child pornography or copyright regulations. The US Customs Agency prosecutes both loss of revenue through copyright infringement and distribution of child pornography. According to Customs Agents, however, many of these groups still operate on the same principles that kept the underground BBS distributors in business late in the last century, regularly changing host sites and registering with phony names and addresses. In addition, many sites will relocate to sites hosted in countries which do not have reciprocal agreements with the US to avoid prosecution.

Most publishers don’t like to talk about file sharing -- as if, by talking about e-piracy, publishers fear we’ll let readers in on the “secret” that somewhere out there on the web people are breaking the law and stealing work writers will never get paid for. Personally I’m of the opinion that most e-book readers know that the price of every purchase goes to support a small, alternative form of publication that wouldn’t last long without all of you.

Report Cyber Crimes:
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm

Bibliography: (never trust my memory any more -- have double check my facts.)
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.britannica.com
US Customs Agency, Division of CyberCrimes 

Margaret Riley
Publisher, www.ChangelingPress.com