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High Court Orders UK ISPs To Block EBook Sites
An anonymous reader writes: The UK High Court has ordered British ISPs to block seven websites that help users find unauthorized copies of eBooks. Under the order, BT, Virgin, Sky, EE and TalkTalk must block AvaxHome, Bookfi, Bookre, Ebookee, Freebookspot, Freshwap and LibGen within the next ten days. “We are very pleased that the High Court has granted this order and, in doing so, recognizes the damage being inflicted on UK publishers and authors by these infringing websites,” says Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of The Publishers Association. “A third of publisher revenues now come from digital sales but unfortunately this rise in the digital market has brought with it a growth in online infringement. Our members need to be able to protect their authors’ works from such illegal activity; writers need to be paid and publishers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in new talent and material.”
I'll have to take a look.
The UK High Court has ordered British ISPs to block a website that helps users find several websites that help users find unauthorized copies of eBooks. Under the order, BT, Virgin, Sky, EE and TalkTalk must block Slashdot within the next ten days. “We are very pleased that the High Court has granted this order and, in doing so, recognizes the damage being inflicted on UK publishers and authors by this infringing website,” says Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of The Publishers Association. “A third of publisher revenues now come from digital sales but unfortunately this rise in the digital market has brought with it a growth in online infringement. Our members need to be able to protect their authors’ works from such illegal activity; writers need to be paid and publishers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in new talent and material.”
It started out with a politicial promise: We won't ever block more than this secret list of child pornography maintained by the "internet watch foundation". In the meantime there's a general porn filter (with weasel wording in the law turning "opt-in" and "opt-out" on their heads), the music industry got a couple blocks in, and so the book industry couldn't stay behind, now could they? More importantly: Who's next?
From TFS:
this rise in the digital market has brought with it a growth in online infringement
I'm willing to bet consumption, both legitimate and illegitimate, is up; so I wonder how much damage this "rise in piracy" is actually doing. At the end of the day I could go and hunt down a pirate copy of the book I need, find a website that actually allows me to download it, avoid the viruses and so forth. Or I could just buy it easily from Amazon, and strip the DRM for backup purposes. You see the legitimate content has a massive advantage here: It's much easier to get and comes with the ability to sync notes etc. with the cloud (if you don't mind Amazon knowing your reading habits), while it's not too difficult to remove the DRM for a backup copy.
If I was a publisher I'd be far more worried that this incentivises me to read older, public domain books. Before I still had to go to the bookshop and buy them, and a publisher could probably get new books out at a competitive price if they wanted, whereas now I can just get them free from Guttenberg (or even Amazon themselves). And with many publishers trying to charge almost the same for a Kindle book as a print book I rarely buy new books for my Kindle, if I want to read one of them I buy the dead tree version instead. But often I just find some public domain reading material and the publishers loose my custom.
How long before all traffic other than Netflix and Hulu appears to originate and end in Eastern Europe? For a few things (like those mentioned) it helps to be inside a specific zone, but for just about everything else, it helps to be outside the heavy-handed, censoring regimes.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Sometimes I see a strip club that I could go to, and I wonder if I'd break some sort of agreement with my wife if I do.
FTFY.
so, is the UK going to have any internet access left once everyone has gotten everything they do not like? welcome to the age of fascism. franco, mussolini, the stasi, etc. would all have huge boners if they were around for this, the surveillance age :)
"To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the Operating System"
Fortunately, this can't happen in America. In America, they can only seize the domain, remove it from the search engines, send a DMCA notice, accuse you of hacking, but not block the website.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I think, as a Brit, I can explain the way the law has been structured here...
You see, culturally we love Whac-A-Mole style games. The current decision-making generation having grown up with them in arcades and fairs and there is a massive sense of nostalgia for them.
Hence, when there is an opportunity to enact legislation that has you striking down a website only to encourage dozens of near-identical ones to pop up overnight... well - we go all starry-eyed and start humming old 8-bit arcade tunes to ourselves.
-- Gaxx
Things are going to get exponentially worse in the UK- a model of state Internet censorship is being carefully crafted here in order to encourage oppressive States in the West's sphere of influence to do the same, using Britain as the excuse. The purpose is not really to censor Brits, but to give justification to African, Asian and Middle East hell-holes to 'copy' the 'mother of Parliaments' and remove free Internet access form their citizens.
In Britain, one can just VPN past these minor irritants. In the nations expected to impose IDENTICAL methods, for reasons of political and social control, VPNs are explicitly illegal, but regardless are also blocked by the ISPs.
Britain's new ultra-right-wing government is just about to wage war on free speech and thought crime. Few in Britain will be persecuted under such sick and depraved laws. But regimes in Africa, Asia and the Middle East will quote Britain's clamp down when imposing their own appalling laws limiting the expressions of their citizens- just as the British government intends.
Britain set an example to the world when it abolished the slave trade- without that action slavery would still be legal in the USA. Now we have the same principle serving EVIL rather than good. British demons create laws of pure evil, in order for the same laws to propagate across the planet in the service of evil.
Which of you here can now deny this? Britain and the USA stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the neo-Nazis of Ukraine (which recently created national laws requiring the lionising of WW2 Nazis by all citizens). Britain and the USA stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Wahhabi monsters of Saudi Arabia (that nation where rape slaves were legal and widely traded until 1962 - NINETEEN-62). Britain and the USA created ISIS, as a terror force designed to allow the creation of Greater Saudi Arabia (a bloc designed to encompass almost every current Muslim nation). Forces from the current Greater Saudi Arabia are, with the US war machine, currently carrying out the extermination of helpless Yemen.
So, rather like that recent racist massacre that the US press described as a "parking dispute" because the victims were Muslim, this is NOT really about the piracy of books. That's just the excuse in the UK to allow the rolling process of censorship to proceed.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Why do you find it strange that ignorant politicians and greedy media moguls are ham-handed in their dispensation of "justice" in the protection of their revenue streams. I'm waiting with bated breath for Edger Rice Burroughs to "innovate" a new series of Ganymede novels wherein the plot goes: hero meets girl, hero loses girl to evil antagonist, hero chases antagonist and saves the girl and they (i.e. hero & girl, not hero & antagonst) kiss (and nothing else!) at the end. I hear Ernest Hemingway is recovering nicely from his suicide by using all that generous royalty income towards the latest medical technology to cure his malady and will be penning a sequel to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" just in time for Xmas gift giving. Let us all fervently hope Roger Zelazny will provide us with a new Amber novel and a astonishing collection of short stories. Would it be too much to ask for another six dimensional Lazurus Long novel from R.A.H.? I have a burning need to know if Mycroft and Athena ever "get it on" and Colin Campbell and Hazel Stone survived to write more "Scourge of the Spaceways" scripts .
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
"It's nothing compared to what will be thrust upon us once those two trade deals go through."
Also it's "two", not "2"; we might be slashdot, but for god's sake we don't type like 12 year olds!
Don't you guys care at all?
First they started censoring child porn. This is totally acceptable, child porn is bad. Nobody dared to say anything.
Then they started censoring pirate sites. This was for the children also, I guess. People objecting these changes are mean pirates! Don't listen to them!
Then they started censoring youtube videos with "dubious" political agenda. When some people complained, it was "only an option to remove videos", blaah blaah blaah.
Now they are starting to censor books.
While there is still time, I suggest you read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by Georgy Orwell. That should give you a pretty good picture where this is going..
More than 120 domains are currently blocked by the country’s major ISPs
so how are they blocking domains? in DNS?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
UK ISPs could buy this technology from China
Oh please, it's not the 1970s anymore. The majority (vast majority perhaps) of ebook authors are self published individuals who worked for months or years to produce their creations, only to have some yahoo in Eastern Europe swipe it for their own benefit. The "greedy media moguls" you imagine are less a part of the picture than ever before. And authors are the most vulnerable to online piracy - musicians can do live gigs, movies make it at the box office or through syndication - what other means does a writer have to earn money beyond direct sales? Live readings?
Since when has blocking some pirate sites been the same as censoring the content? Hysterical, much?
I'm no advocate of piracy, but the principle of allowing government-controlled selective blocking of information (for *any* reason, to start with) sets a dangerous precedent.
Just add "filetype:torrent" to your search or any other filetype you want.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I've been wondering for a while whether the affected ISPs would have cause to sue the government/courts/publishers for compensation as a result of losing customers due to the enforced filtering (which doesn't apply to smaller ISPs). TTIP sounds like it would open up that possibility if they can't already...
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Tomorrow there will be 20 new sites.
I want to thank the high court as well to have alerted me to a handful of sites I didn't know about, to illegally download my books from.
Perhaps even one where I can learn not to finish my sentences with a preposition.
The self-published authors would hardly be represented by TPA, right? TPA says "writers need to be paid and publishers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in new talent and material." -- IOW sure, the authors might suffer, but the important thing is that we can shaft them for money. I mean seriously, what are those "innovations" that the publishers have come up with? e-books? Nope. Self-publish solutions? Nope. Oh, I know -- sales bolstered by the self-feedback effect of bestseller lists, DRM on e-books, and insane regulations for libraries that makes it so expensive to lend e-books that most of them still offer only paper books, even though it should be obvious that e-books would be an ideal solution for libraries.
Of all the authors of e-books I've read, only 3-4 have been self-published (one of them being Cory Doctorow, but he has a regular publisher too); two of them publish using sites where people can pay either before (how much do you anticipate this book?) or after (what did you think the book was worth?).
Face it, the old type of publishers don't really serve much of a purpose in the world of e-books, just like the old type of record companies don't really serve much of a purpose in the world of digital music sales. Lucky for them they have the ear of the governments and don't need to worry about catching up with reality...
For those too lazy to Google, here are the links to save.
http://libgen.org/
http://en.bookfi.org/
http://freshwap.ws/
http://www.freebookspot.es/
http://ebookee.org/index.php?t...
http://bookre.org/
http://avxhome.se/ebooks
To be fair, they're blocking access to copyrighted works for which the copyright holder has not authorized a copy. So, it's not really anything new...
(I hate copyright law as much as the next rabid /.er, but just sayin',)
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
“Last night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before...It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it's all over.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
I'd never heard of any of these sites before.
"Now they are starting to censor books."
Since when has blocking some pirate sites been the same as censoring the content? Hysterical, much?
"That should give you a pretty good picture where this is going.."
Its simply treating the internet like any other media - ie subject to the law. If you don't like the law vote for someone who'll change it. In the meantime stop whining like some tin foil hat hippy whos just stepped out of 1975.
“The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half-second clips in it, or one-third of a second. We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Well, the censorship goes for the paper versions as well...I guess it is easier to do it in electronic format. My reply is off-topic but I just could not let this comment pass. The book market, being in the hands of corporations suffers from two issues at least:
- General censorship - only authors that are not "too controversial" are published. It is those corporations that decide which author deserves publicity, so you can have excellent books that no-one ever heard of. I have read very serious articles from all kinds of scholars on the subject [publishers, authors, journalists, ect.] and they all agree that our very culture [music, literature, cinema] is steered by corporations. It's a bit like the google echo-chamber where over time you get only the hits that you "like".
- Particular censorship - I have encountered two examples myself. One is the recent, rather popular book called "the Martian". A friend of mine downloaded somehow the last draft just before publishing. We found out that paragraphs and in some cases whole pages are missing in the officially published version. And the cut out parts were all biting, sarcastic comments on the state of humanity [very insightful observations actually]. The other censored book is also an excellent read from a modern Russian author [V. Pelevin]. In his book "Generation P" entitled in the US as "Babylon" 2 pages are missing from the first chapter because....hold on to your chair...it discusses in a very humorous way why only Pepsi was available in the USSR but not Coke, whereas in the the US Coke is bigger than Pepsi. Can you imagine the lengths at which this people will go - to censor a book that would have been read by no more than a few thousand Americans? I know the corporations did it, cause I have a friend whose job is to monitor the entire media [including Internet] of my motherland for mentions of corporations and she reports every single day to them so they can take action if they deem it necessary....they are interest what is written about them in a obscure blog in an insignificant country!!! Disgusting...
I know that this won't be popular here, but good on the Brits.
Make sure you don't visit AvaxHome, BookFi, Bookre, Ebookee, Freebookspot Freshwap or LibGen
Don't visit those sites. Just don't!
I agree - the post wasn't in support of traditional publishing - but in this case they helped authors who weren't in their stable as well; I doubt the criminals only ripped off writers from large publishing houses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I wonder if Ishmael (Daniel Quinn) would get published today? Or 1984 or Fahrenheit 451?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
what other means does a writer have to earn money beyond direct sales?
As far as secondary revenue streams go, authors can license their IP to TV, Movie and Video Game makers or they can sell merchandise themselves.
But that requires they build a fanbase. And in that endeavor, a literary agent is far more beneficial than an industry trade group whose only interest in an individual author is whether they've paid their membership dues who goes out and does boneheaded things that are more likely to incite spite in burgeoning literary fans and thus encourage and spread piracy rather than stifle it.
And it's been pretty well established that there's few (if any) people who pirate media that would run to Amazon or iTunes and buy something if they couldn't obtain it via piracy. People usually pirate things when buying isn't an option. I was no different. In my broke ass teens and twenties, I first got all my books from a library and then later when things like BBSs and gopher became available to me, via piracy. Authors didn't earn a dime from me for a couple decades, except perhaps via a few people who weren't as broke as me who might have bought books based on suggestions from me that I based on the books I borrowed or stole.
But what they did earn during those decades was my loyalty to their "brand". Now that I'm older and have a far greater amount of disposable income and far less patience for digging around looking for books I want on virii and annoying ad infested piracy sites, I'm a prolific purchaser of books (and other media). I've since bought many of the books I'd previously borrowed or stole. And most of the books I buy from new authors these days most often comes from authors who do things like release the first book in a trilogy for free or via word of mouth suggestions from people who are where I was in my teens and twenties and read stolen or borrowed versions of their books.
As far as secondary revenue streams go, authors can license their IP to TV, Movie and Video Game makers or they can sell merchandise themselves.
That's a bit like saying coders can just make a game then license the IP to TV stations, moviemakers, writers and merchandisers as a secondary revenue stream. It happens but it's rare enough that it may as well not exist for most. Musicians on the other hand almost all play gigs (as well as being able to sell their music to videogame makers, TV shows and movies), and the movie industry practically invented merchandising as well as other avenues of income.
But that requires they build a fanbase. And in that endeavor, a literary agent is far more beneficial than an industry trade group
Literary agents liaise between writers and publishers/producers etc. They have nothing to do with building up a fanbase, most authors do all of their marketbuilding themselves, in their own time, on their own dime.
And it's been pretty well established that there's few (if any) people who pirate media that would run to Amazon or iTunes and buy something if they couldn't obtain it via piracy.
Certainly established to the satisfaction of people who pirate books anyway.
And most of the books I buy from new authors these days most often comes from authors who do things like release the first book in a trilogy for free or via word of mouth suggestions from people who are where I was in my teens and twenties and read stolen or borrowed versions of their books.
Freely released books are a very different matter to piracy, especially from creators who can least afford it.
That's a bit like saying coders can just make a game then license the IP to TV stations, moviemakers, writers and merchandisers as a secondary revenue stream. It happens but it's rare enough that it may as well not exist for most. Musicians on the other hand almost all play gigs (as well as being able to sell their music to videogame makers, TV shows and movies), and the movie industry practically invented merchandising as well as other avenues of income.
That's like saying someone can go out and write books, get them published and sell enough copies to make a decent living doing it. It happens, but it's rare enough that it might as well not exist for most.
"It's hard" doesn't refute the fact that it's possible. It's a lot more possible than increasing sales by targeting piracy.
Literary agents liaise between writers and publishers/producers etc. They have nothing to do with building up a fanbase, most authors do all of their marketbuilding themselves, in their own time, on their own dime.
I have a family member who is preparing to release a book at this very moment. Her literary agent's first action was to put together a marketing team to promote the book in order to grease the wheels in selling the book to a publisher.
A good, modern literary agent also performs (or subcontracts) the duties of a manager and marketer as relying on just liaising with publishers vastly reduces their potential income where things like Amazon and iTunes are open to anyone with or without an agent or publishing deal and where a little buzz can vastly increase the publishing deals (and thus comission) they negotiate.
And it's been pretty well established that there's few (if any) people who pirate media that would run to Amazon or iTunes and buy something if they couldn't obtain it via piracy.
Certainly established to the satisfaction of people who pirate books anyway.
Are you really one of those mindless idiots who jumps on the cock of the media conglomerates and believes that every connection to a torrent swarm is a lost sale? I didn't think there was really anyone who believed that and could actually get a computer to work, much less find their way to /.
Freely released books are a very different matter to piracy, especially from creators who can least afford it.
One of the first books I got for free was a the first piece of Twilight fan fiction from an unknown author on Smashwords who was certainly not a well known, filthy rich author at the time. The book wasn't my cup of tea, but it seems to have worked out fairly well for the author.
That's like saying someone can go out and write books, get them published and sell enough copies to make a decent living doing it.
Who said anything about making a living doing it? How about making what you can doing it, a pursuit aided not in any way by piracy.
I have a family member who is preparing to release a book at this very moment. Her literary agent's first action was to put together a marketing team to promote the book in order to grease the wheels in selling the book to a publisher.
Great, my maiden aunt is a kung fu ninja. Even if some very unusual literary agents organise marketing teams you can bet your ass they aren't doing it out of their own pocket.
Are you really one of those mindless idiots who jumps on the cock of the media conglomerates and believes that every connection to a torrent swarm is a lost sale?
Who really cares, stealing from authors in one way or another is as low as it gets.
One of the first books I got for free was a the first piece of Twilight fan fiction from an unknown author on Smashwords who was certainly not a well known, filthy rich author at the time. The book wasn't my cup of tea, but it seems to have worked out fairly well for the author.
Right, so now book piracy is actually helpful. Are there any further moral pretzels you'd like to wheel out, inquiring minds want to know.