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The (Last) Word On Ebooks

© Manuel Viloria

This is going to be my last article for "Ebooks For Profit" as I prepare for fatherhood a second time around. After about 15 months with all of you, you probably have had enough to read. So now is the time for you to take action. But before I bid this monthly column goodbye, let's wrap a few things up, shall we?

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

A popular question involves how you authors and writers can prevent readers from easily emailing to their (non-paying) friends copies of your ebook. Solutions ranged from simple electronic locks, members only download areas on the web, to even computer-bound or machine-specific passwords.

(If you think the record companies were worried about Napster, wait till you see the publishing companies.)

All of this heavy-duty electronic protection resulted in increased customer dissatisfaction ("My password does not work!"), and still low sales. I remember this ebook which I helped protect but the author managed to sell only ONE copy -- it was a technical paper about the telecommunications industry of a certain country.

"Shall I allow your customer to print the ebook?"
"No -- they might photocopy it and pass it around."
"But don't you also sell printed reports?"
"Why, of course."
"Aren't you worried about THOSE getting photocopied?"
"Hmmm... Is there a kind of ink that can't be photocopied?"

Maybe the lone ebook buyer would have bought more if only he were allowed to print the ebook. I guess we'll never know as the opportunity has slipped away.

The Unraveling of PDF Security

Nothing stays secure forever. Take, for example, the case of PDF files. You can create PDF files that can't be modified, can't be text-selected and copy/pasted, and can't be printed. And all this with the help of a PDF "Owner Password."

But all that changed when a programmer figured out how to remove the "Owner Password."

It's only a matter of time before some "secure" ebook gets breached. As my elders used to tell me: Tao ang gumawa, tao rin ang sisira (Loose Translation: "Things made by humans can be destroyed also by humans.")

Moving On With PDF

So I went back to a few ebook author friends (those who sell PDF files) and shared with them the story of unlocked PDFs.

But they didn't look disturbed at all.

They figured it wasn't worth the hassle to convert all of their existing PDF files to something more secure only to be cracked yet again in the future. They reasoned that a person who gets a free copy of their ebook would never have even paid for that copy in the first place.