3 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections Piracy is another problem in the new mix of digital and global elements. In China, a leading platform of digital content, including online reading and ebooks, is su ering from competition through pirate sites that o er their most popular content free of charge. Can Google’s recent compromise o er of back-listing websites o ering illegal content become a model for China? Or would this instead be just another incentive for governments to ban access to unwanted content altogether? Or, more broadly, can anyone argue in favor of China blocking websites for such a reason and at the same time defend free speech and free access to information in other countries such as the US or Europe? In Germany, and to a certain degree all over Europe, the debate on piracy has evolved in the rst half of 2012 into mainstream headline news. What started as a battle at the margins, with lobbyists for the content industries opposing free speech advocates and digital nerds, has now been split into two strictly opposed camps, with the majority of authors ironically siding with the industry and arguing for strong government action against online sources of illegally distributed copyrighted content. The “pirates,” on the other side—who have formed political parties across the continent to run for election to national parliaments—occasionally nd common ground with government authorities or the European Commission, for instance in derailing the internationally supported Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which was strongly supported by the German publishers’ and booksellers’ association Börsenverein. The European Parliament voted against the agreement with 478 nega- tive votes, 39 positive, and 165 abstentions. (For a detailed account, read the Wikipedia page here.) Yet many authors (who do not have any other regular income than from their writing) have good reasons to be worried. In Germany, more than 1500 such authors protested, shouting, “We are the creators! Against steal- ing intellectual property” (“Wir sind die Urheber! Gegen of publishers, and thus further expand its massive mar- ketshare. The European Commission has a similar investi- gation underway. More interesting than the complex legal argument, for our perspective here, is the political dimension the controversy coincides with Amazon—and a few more mostly US companies—rolling out their ebook services on a truly global scale. In India, one of the most attractive emerging econo- mies, Amazon could not get the license for opening a local enterprise this situation allowed two local Indian equivalents, Flipkart and Indiaplaza, to build relevant market positions. Only in August 2012 could Amazon open a dedicated site with a huge catalog of more than a million titles, priced in rupees. In Sweden, there is no Amazon.se website, probably because a local Swedish platform run by a potent local company, Bonnier, has a strong presence in addition, the Swedish market is too small to ght over, at least for such a global behemoth as Amazon. And furthermore, many Swedish consumers are also readers of English language books and can easily purchase them online—if they wish, even from Amazon. But how long will such exceptions be sustainable? Apple, whose iTunes store is already popular with consumers in many markets for downloading music, movies, and TV shows, continues to add ebooks in new languages to the closely integrated Apple iBookstore as well. Some languages are still excluded, notably those running from right to left, such as Arabic. Does this build a barrier of access to global knowledge and learning for the Arab? Certainly. But although adding one or several languages is a challenge that can be overcome rather easily, connecting an entire culture to the ebook market is another hurdle altogether. Will an already shaky Arab publishing industry be able to evolve to meet the stan- dards of the leading global players, or will Arab readers have to read international ction either in English or in a quickly pirated copy?