1. BEYOND PIRACY:
FREE COLLABORATIVE DISTRIBUTION
OF BOOKS AND IDEAS
TODAY AND TOMORROW
created by sean cranbury
@seancranbury | @booksontheradio
presented at
bookcamp halifax 2011
sfu summer publishing workshops 2011
surrey international writers conference
bookcamp vancouver 2012

2. EVOLUTIONARY STEP OR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR?
BEYOND PIRACY

3. SOME DEFINITIONS OF PIRACY
• Crimes commi=ed on the high seas and oceans especially on ships
and boats. – via the internet
• Illegal reproducLon of materials which are patented or protected
by copyright. – via the internet
• “a global scourge,” “an internaLonal plague,” and “nirvana for
criminals”… it is probably be=er described as a global pricing
problem. High prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap
digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy.
If piracy is ubiquitous in most parts of the world, it is because these
condiLons are ubiquitous.” – via Media Piracy in Emerging Economies Report
• An instantaneous worldwide collaboraLve distribuLon system
driven by parLcipant enthusiasm about content that remains
largely untapped by tradiLonal publishers. – via Books on the Radio.

4. The future is
already here
it's just not very
evenly distributed.
‐ William Gibson

5. Neal Stephenson’s REAMDE.
Published September 20, 2011.
1056 pages. $38 CDN.
Uploaded to Pirate Bay same day.
EPUB/mobi ediLons bundled.
Currently: 38 seeders.
Approx d/l Lme: 38 seconds.

6. The internet is a copy machine.
• The internet is a copy machine. At its most
foundaLonal level, it copies every acLon,
every character, every thought we make
while we ride upon it… The digital
economy is thus run on a river of copies.
Unlike the mass‐produced reproducLons of
the machine age, these copies are not just
cheap, they are free.
• … copies flow so freely we could think of
the internet as a super‐distribuLon system,
where once a copy is introduced it will
conLnue to flow through the network
forever, much like electricity in a
superconducLve wire.
• Kevin Kelly, Be=er Than Free. www.kk.org

7. This is a DistribuLon Network
This is a data
visualizaLon of the
blogosphere circa 2008.
This distribuLon network
is based on shared
enthusiasm, ideas,
community ethics, not
commerce (though
commerce may result or
be facilitated by
community interacLons).
ParLcipaLon = influence.

8. • P2P file sharing/bit torrent
technologies and whatever
subsequent advances occur that offer
even greater efficiencies for trading
digital informaLon are going to
eviscerate current publishing models
and provide new plalorms for
expression, sharing ideas, mixing and
remixing narraLves across a huge
range of interconnected media and
re‐engineering texts… Books, released from the tyranny of
their covers, physical dimensions
and coordinated distribuLon
networks will transcend themselves
into a place where pure creaLvity
and collaboraLon can exist without
the burden of commerce.
‐ Sean Cranbury in conversaLon with
Hugh McGuire. The Future of
Publishing, Open Book Toronto,
September 2009.

9. How can we interpret these numbers?
This is a “Piracy Study”
conducted by that renown,
imparLal third‐party
organizaLon, The Business
Sooware Alliance in 2007.
What do these numbers tell us?
When we compare what we
know about the poliLcal and/or
economic relaLonships between
the countries on both sides of
this table what do we noLce?

10. Media Piracy in Emerging Economies is the first independent, large‐scale study of
music, film and sooware piracy in emerging economies, with a focus on Brazil, India,
Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia.
Major Findings:
Prices are too high.
CompeLLon is good.
AnLpiracy educaLon has failed.
Changing the law is easy. Changing the
pracLce is hard.
Criminals can’t compete with free.
Enforcement hasn’t worked.
h=p://piracy.ssrc.org

11. Coda: A Short History of Book Piracy
from the Media Piracy in Emerging Economies Report
• Such monopolies inevitably a=racted
compeLtors from the ranks of the less privileged
printers, as well as from those outside local
markets. Repeatedly, over the next centuries,
state‐protected book cartels were challenged by
entrepreneurs who disregarded state censorship,
crown prinLng privileges, and guild‐enforced
copyrights.
• New pirate entrants always responded to
• Pirate publishers played two key roles in this
the market inefficiencies created by the
context: they printed censored texts, and they cartels. In the short run these distorLons
introduced cheap reprints that reached new
could be upheld by state power. But in the
reading publics. Both acLons fueled the
long run, pirate pracLces were almost
development of a deliberaLve public sphere in
always incorporated into the legiLmate
Europe and the transfer of knowledge between ways of doing business. Over Lme,
more and less privileged social groups and regulatory frameworks changed to
regions.
accommodate the new publishing
landscape.

12. “Many of the great ruins that grace the deserts and jungles of the earth are monuments to
progress traps, the headstones of civilizaLons which fell vicLm to their own success. In the fates
of such socieLes — once mighty, complex, and brilliant — lie the most instrucLve lessons...they
are fallen airliners whose black boxes can tell us what went wrong.”
‐ Richard Wright, A Short History of Progress.

13. This presentaLon was created,
formulated and regulated by
Sean Cranbury with the help of
the internet.
Sean lives in Vancouver, BC.
He is a writer and former
independent bookseller who
now hosts a radio show & blog
called Books on the Radio.
He is the co‐creator of the
Advent Book Blog and the W2
Real Vancouver Writers’ Series.
www.booksontheradio.ca
www.realvancouverwriters.org
www.seancranbury.com