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[richardlang]

Confessions of a Book Pirate
http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pirate.html

He lives in the Midwest, he�s in his mid-30s and is a computer programmer by trade. By some measures, he�s the publishing industry�s ideal customer, an avid reader who buys dozens of books a year and enthusiastically recommends his favorites to friends. But he�s also uploaded hundreds of books to file sharing sites and he�s downloaded thousands. We discussed his file sharing activity over the course of a weekend, via email, and in his answers lie a critical challenge facing the publishing industry: how to quash the emerging piracy threat without alienating their most enthusiastic customers. As is typical of anonymous online communities, he has a peculiar handle: �The Real Caterpillar.� This is what he told me:

The Millions: How active are you. How many books have you uploaded or downloaded?

The Real Caterpillar: In the past month, I have uploaded approximately 50 books to the torrent site where you contacted me. I am much less active then I once was. I used to scan many books, but in the past two years I have only done a few. Between 2002-2005 I created around 200 ebooks by scanning the physical copy, OCRing and proofing the output, and uploading them to USENET. I generally only upload content that I have scanned, with some exceptions. I have been out of the book scene for a while, concentrating on rare and out of print movies instead of books because it is much easier to rip a movie from VHS or DVD than to scan and proof a book.......
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The comments on this interview are worth reading. A few authors chime in and share their thoughts and experiences regarding book piracy.
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