Pirates and Hackers Taking Aim at iPad, eBooks, and New Frontiers

[Michael Essany]

Incredible but true, there are now more books available through Apple’s App Store than there are games.

According to Mobclix, the App Store currently offers (roughly) 26,500 books, about 19% of the total apps available. Conversely, only 25,000 games are available - 18% of the App Store’s total volume. It's the first time that the game category has been bumped to second place.

And, believe it or not, this could be the wave of the future, not a flash in the pan. As a result, some are wondering what Apple will do to help curb the exploding practice of ebook piracy.

While we often don't consider this phenomenon very frequently, it has become an "issue" for Apple, but mostly for publishers. After all, within twenty-four hours of the 2009 release of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol," the ebook was illegally downloaded more than 100,000 times.

And the problem is bound to get worse before it gets any better. The popularity of ebooks, after all, will only take off further when the iPad finally reaches consumers later this month. Consequently, it seems the pressure on Apple is mounting to take greater measures to reduce ebook piracy. But it isn't exactly clear what Apple can really do about it. So regardless of rampant piracy concerns, the digital book revolution has begun. And the train is moving much too fast for any publisher aboard to jump off now.

From the UK's "Guardian" publication last month:

As e-readers become ubiquitous, publishers know they need to go digital. And being digital, no matter how much drm you shove in, means content will be pirated. Anyone will be able to get any new book you want if you know how to look for it.

Of course, the perceived "panic" among publishers could also be dramatically blown out of proportion. While music and film piracy has been around for years, ebook piracy is fairly new. And no matter how big the business of ebooks becomes, chances are that digital films, music, and games will always prove a bigger target for hackers, pirates, and jailbreakers than the latest James Patterson novel.

[lolcats1]

Incredible but true, there are now more books available through Apple’s App Store than there are games.

but are there more "beautiful boob" apps?

[tarekkkkk]

hmm i like to eat apples

[Ichwohneinloche]

*Rant Power On*
pirates will always be around taking the latest things. It wont stop and you never will stop them. As long as there is something to be had, pirates will be there to take it. Get over it. You cant change the world. I'd love to know how many people get pissed off when they hear about pirated apps and books and crap and then they sit down on their computers and open limewire or utorrent to get the new Jay-Z song or download a copy of Avatar? I mean talk about a double effing standard.
*Rant Power Off*

Who the hell waste thier time pirating a BOOK?!?!?!

[lolcats1]

Who the hell waste thier time pirating a BOOK?!?!?!

if it takes about 5 minutes to do it, everyone

[GTOpilot]

"the App Store currently offers (roughly) 26,5000 books,"

Is there a new math out that I am not familiar with?

[Michael Essany]

Thanks for the catch... the extra zero has been dropped

[Meh]

Is pirating books really something that worries publishers? Seriously? Ever heard of the library? o.O And if you want to read the latest magazines, comics, or novels, you can head to your usual mega bookstores where they actually have chairs for you to sit down and read any book you want without hassle. If these 2 facts alone don't bother publishers, why would pirating eBooks? I'm at a loss here..

[awesomeSlayer]

Pirating eBooks?!

*FACEPALM*

[pyromcr]

see modding is the only good thing about the ipad. i mean there are so many things that can be done. look at what hackers have done with the iphone, imagine what they can do on the ipad!

[lolcats1]

imagine what they can do on the ipad!

absolutely nothing that they hasn't done with the iphone. how does this escape you?

NOTHING IS DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE TWO, BESIDES THE SIZE OF THE SCREEN, AND MINOR UI CHANGES.

[SnowLeo]

but you forgot one thing PIRATES CANT READ! AARRR!! ROFL! I think theyd rather have a cup of cranberry juice to fix their scurvy than a book.

[creasy425]

*Rant Power On*
pirates will always be around taking the latest things. It wont stop and you never will stop them. As long as there is something to be had, pirates will be there to take it. Get over it. You cant change the world. I'd love to know how many people get pissed off when they hear about pirated apps and books and crap and then they sit down on their computers and open limewire or utorrent to get the new Jay-Z song or download a copy of Avatar? I mean talk about a double effing standard.
*Rant Power Off*

Who the hell waste thier time pirating a BOOK?!?!?!

is it wrong that i use a pirated copy of limewire to pirate music??????

[SnowLeo]

theres no piracy in cloud gaming and in-app purchases through apple so there are solutions

[iphoneguy.]

is it wrong that i use a pirated copy of limewire to pirate music??????

Ha!

The iPad release and rising interest in eBooks is going to be a big business jump for us pirates

[lalalacollege]

Pirating eBooks?!

*FACEPALM*

obviously nobody here is in college. does anyone know the average cost of textbooks?...

[L00i3]

Consequently, it seems the pressure on Apple is mounting to take greater measures to reduce ebook piracy.

In no way, shape or form is it apple's job to fight piracy. They want to open the itunes store, app store & an ebook store, then their job is to be a middleman between content publishers & consumers. Kind of like Walmart. The ONLY reason apple incorporates any kind of DRM into the stuff they sell is to keep people buying ipods.

[adp]

obviously nobody here is in college. does anyone know the average cost of textbooks?...

If you buy them from the bookstore (as a full time student) you're looking at around $400/semester. I pay a third of that buy buying used from Amazon.

[adrian1480]

theres no piracy in cloud gaming and in-app purchases through apple so there are solutions

that eliminates too much market for it to be a practical solution, as no internet access = no access to the content you paid for.

that's a non-starter for most people, as Ubisoft is now finding out with its recent videogame PC release, "Assassin's Creed 2", which features DRM that forces you to be online all the time in order to keep the game from automatically quitting on you. Bear in mind, this is a single player-only game. yet, if you lose your internet connection, the game immediately quits.

Nobody is buying the game as a consequence. I think people who believe cloud computing will be a viable option with the ability to completely remove tangible possession from the ownership experience doesn't understand the nature of humanity and the desire to control that which he supposedly possesses. To do with as he pleases.

"Cloud"-only access to purchased content will never happen. there will be pressed CDs which means there will always be MP3's and FLAC. there will be printed books, so there will always be scans in PDF. hoping for clouds only means hoping that you as a legal consumer of these goods experience more hassle and less flexibility, while pirates continue to enjoy content they always enjoyed.

Just like Ubi--who's fancy always-on-internet DRM was cracked inside of 25 hours--stopping piracy at the expense of legal owners ability to use a product doesn't stop piracy and also hurts your sales figures as would-be buyers like me simply refuse to buy your DRM-infected product, whereas without it we would have.

It's better to accept the reality that some piracy will always exist and understand it than to try to stop it. the pirates do not represent a market segment you can win.

[victis]

!#bin/rant

# Apple is trying to control everything
Apple=power >abusive operating system
# The harder they try the more we pwnd them
# Apple just give up hackers, crackers, and cyber pirates will always be one step ahead
%Apple *$ /*\} access to / = null

//We will not be exterminated