Patriots or Pirates? Part 3

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Case of LendInk.com

This is the third part of my little series on e-book piracy, in what started out as a plan for a single post.  But, things keep coming up that I feel compelled to write about, because there just seems to be so much information, and misinformation, flying around in various circles.

This all started for me when a site called “The Ultimate E-Book Library”, teubl.com, was brought to my attention.  As I dug into this site, it became clear that it and many like it were engaging in copyright infringement.  I certainly was not the first writer to dive into this issue, nor will I be the last.  As I read the exchanges in forums and Facebook pages and groups between authors and users of these types of sites, there were some common themes that were used in defense of these sites.  These were the themes I talked about in the first post in this series (which I originally thought would be the only one).  There were eight specific points that I tried to address in that blog, which you can read here …

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/07/patriots-or-pirates.html

Time passed, and there was one comment to that original blog post that got me thinking.  A commenter stated that piracy, as we called it, is not harming the industry, but rather that there was evidence that it was actually helping the industry.  I addressed that specific argument in more detail yesterday.

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/08/patriots-or-pirates-part-2.html

So today, I want to talk about something else that has occurred over the past couple of weeks.  But in order to do that, I need to set the stage a little bit.

WHAT IS LENDINK?

(Note: As of this writing, LendInk.com is no longer online, so I can’t provide any direct quotes from their site.)

LendInk.com advertises itself as a free e-book lending site.  You can search their site and find books to borrow for free.  There are typically several entries for the more popular books.  I should note that LendInk is not the only site that advertises itself as such.

IS LENDINK A PIRATE SITE?

When this site was first brought to my attention, the context was “oh look, we found another one!”  In other words, here’s another pirate site offering free e-books in violation of copyright protection.  On the surface, it certainly could appear that way.  But, it was definitely something that I wanted to take a hard look at.

In their FAQ section, they explain how LendInk works.  LendInk does not actually house copies of the books, or handle the process by which they are lent.  The best way I can think of to describe it, is that it works sort of like a dating site.  Potential lenders post the books that they have available to lend, and potential borrowers look for books that they would like to borrow.

Here’s the key to the whole thing – the actual lending has to take place through Amazon’s or Barnes and Noble’s own lending system.  No actual books are lent through the LendInk site.  All they do is provide a service, for free, so that lenders and borrowers can find each other.

WHAT WERE THE ISSUES WITH LENDINK?

Well, one issue was that potential lenders could list any book of which they had possession.  However, some of these books were not eligible to be lent.  In fact, this was one of LendInk users’ primary complaints in reviews of the site.  Borrowers would find a book they wanted, but only after contacting the lender did both parties discover the book was not lendable.  But why did this become a bigger issue?  Because writers would find their books on the site, which they had not authorized to be lendable, and assume that lending was taking place outside of what they or their publisher had agreed to.  This led to instant animosity towards the site.

Another issue, that was discussed in my circles, was that their site did not make it clear enough on their home page how they worked.  I can certainly see this as I had to go into the FAQ page and read it all to discover the mechanics of the site.  Their page made it seem as if they were handling the lending.

Then there was the simple fact that independent authors (and some publishers) are very sensitive to the issue of piracy, and given the two issues above, a quick review of the site could easily have been interpreted that piracy was exactly what this and other legitimate lending service sites were engaged in.  Blood was in the water, and honestly, some authors were in total attack mode.  It did not help that in one statement of the FAQs, they stated that they did not even house cover images on their site, but every book listed had a picture of the cover with it (at least as far as I saw).  Whether the image was actually housed there or not, it gave the impression that they were violating their own stated policy, which hurt the credibility of the site.

This is not to necessarily lay blame at the feet of the site owners, or the authors.  This is just to show the environment that led to what happened next.

THE FALL OF LENDINK

What did happen next was that a social network campaign started against LendInk.  Once these things start, they are hard to stop.  I’m not sure exactly what transpired, what organizations or companies were contacted, but what I do know was that LendInk was rather suddenly shut down.  Some of us were upset about it, because we knew what this would do to efforts to shut down true pirate sites.  It hurts the credibility of that effort, honestly.

LendInk and similar sites are simply offering users another way to take advantage of existing book lending programs which were negotiated between publishers and distributors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  This is completely different then file share sites, where multiple copies of books are made and distributed permanently for free.

To complete the picture, Amazon’s lending program works like this:  If a publisher (including self-publisher) allows lending, the book can be lent for a period of 14 days.  The book is not available to the lender while it is lent out.  In effect, no copy is created.  It’s just like me handing the book to my next-door neighbor.  I also believe most if not all Amazon books can only be lent once by the purchaser.  B&N's is a similar system.

Now, myself, I wouldn’t want to use my one lend-out on a complete stranger, but there is nothing preventing someone from deciding to do that and using a site like LendInk to find someone who wants to borrow it.

This is a pretty decent model for the beginnings of an evolution of e-book distribution, perhaps even a precursor to a subscription type of service.  And it’s not a bad way to increase readership and demand for a book.  If I borrow a book, but can’t finish it in 14 days for whatever reason, and like it, I might go buy the book so I can finish it.  Even if I get it finished in time, that one lend could turn into a recommendation to friends.

It’s even more restrictive than libraries, since typically only one lend is allowed per copy.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN

This part is as much directed to authors and site owners as to fans and readers.

First, authors, before we get up in arms about a particular site, please take the time to understand how the site works.  In my opinion, this is a black eye to authors.  Going after sites that turn out to be above-board and legitimate marginalizes our efforts in curtailing actual piracy.

Second, there are other sites like LendInk out there, let’s leave them alone.  As long as all the lending takes place within agreed-upon systems and guidelines, then there should be no issue.  If the site is actually housing content and allowing multiple downloaded copies, that crosses the line and deserves to be addressed.

Third, I hope that the owners of these sites can do some things to make it clearer on their opening pages how the sites work.  And explore ways to keep unlendable books from even showing up on their site.  I know this is not an easy thing.

WHAT’S NEXT

I actually am hoping that LendInk finds its way back online and is able to maintain their model.  As long as they work within the guidelines that publishers and distributors agree to, I see no reason to vilify them.

I do, still, find myself with more to say, so Part 4, probably the last one (although I’ve said that before) will be coming.  In it, I’ll turn attention back towards tuebl.com and other similar sites.

UPDATE 28 AUGUST 2012:

I'm very pleased to announce that LendInk.com is back up and running.  That's great news!  The bad news is that they're already receiving DMCA requests.  Which means there are still quite a few people out there that are NOT understanding how LendInk works.  It only takes a few minutes of investigating to understand it, and if writers and publishers have a problem with lending, they need to take it up with their distributors (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.).  LendInk houses NO content.  It's that simple.  I throw my moral support behind LendInk and sites like it because they provide a completely legitimate service, and I hope you will too.