Sadly, writers make zero money when online consumers buy used or pirated books. Amazon is among the worst offenders, allowing vendors to sell stolen books as “used” and thus avoiding author compensation.

Many websites offer pirated books, and pay nothing to the authors.

One way to help protect one’s book content is by adding Digital Rights Management to the content file so that violations are harder. Also, you can add permissions to PDF files that limit how files can be used.

The unauthorized distribution, sharing, and modification of digital content are covered by copyright laws, but monitoring the internet to prevent illegal activity is a challenging task. DRM addresses this by putting barriers in place to prevent digital content from being stolen.

Several companies offer services that add protection to your files. One company is Fortinet.com (no affiliation). DRM typically involves the use of codes that prohibit content copying or limit the number of devices a product can be accessed from. Content creators can also use applications to restrict what users can do with their material or encrypt digital media, which can then only be accessed by anyone with the decryption key.

This enables content creators and copyright holders to:

  1. Prevent or restrict users from editing or saving, sharing or forwarding, printing, or taking screenshots or screengrabs of their content or products
  2. Set expiry dates on media, which prevents access to users beyond that date or limits the number of times they can access it
  3. Limit media access to specific devices, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or locations, such as limiting content to people in the U.S. only
  4. Watermark documents and images to assert ownership and identity of content

DRM can come in the form of software or hardware solutions.

Media piracy is a huge problem in the U.S. and worldwide.  Go-Globe.com reports these figures:

$29.2 billion revenue losses in the US every year due to online video piracy.

$51.6 billion in economic losses due to online TV & movie piracy by 2022.

$300 million in lost publisher income each year due to e-book piracy.

230,000 to 560,000 jobs lost in the United States every year due to online video piracy.

37% of software running in the world are unlicensed.

$46.3 billion of software running in the world are unlicensed.

Please don’t pirate books and other media! Creators work very hard to offer their works to the paying market.