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65 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections But the strongest force in the emergence of an inter- national web of English reading is probably Amazon’s integration of its ebook catalog, with the Kindle reading platform and an increasingly uniform pricing policy ready to atten the di erences in what an ebook costs a consumer across markets. bestselling ction from the US and, to a lesser degree, the UK that constitute this segment’s pro le. More recently, an increasing number of online shops have added dedicated English catalogs with an increas- ing number of titles, even in countries like France, Italy, or Spain, which were traditionally more di cult to access for foreign-language reading. Amazon, which expanded its presence with localized online stores in Italy and Spain in 2011, is strongly pro- moting its English catalog as well as increasingly broad o erings in other languages, both in print and for the Kindle.

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65 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections But the strongest force in the emergence of an inter- national web of English reading is probably Amazon’s integration of its ebook catalog, with the Kindle reading platform and an increasingly uniform pricing policy ready to atten the di erences in what an ebook costs a consumer across markets. bestselling ction from the US and, to a lesser degree, the UK that constitute this segment’s pro le. More recently, an increasing number of online shops have added dedicated English catalogs with an increas- ing number of titles, even in countries like France, Italy, or Spain, which were traditionally more di cult to access for foreign-language reading. Amazon, which expanded its presence with localized online stores in Italy and Spain in 2011, is strongly pro- moting its English catalog as well as increasingly broad o erings in other languages, both in print and for the Kindle.

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66 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections development of this platform. With the advent of smart- phones and, more recently, tablet computers, and the with the spread of mobile access to the Internet, a rap- idly increasing number of consumers throughout Arab countries daily access music, movies, and social media, as well as text on their devices. Most of this content has become an integrated digital stream of digital media— yet with the exception of books. Because ebook publish- ing in the Arab language is still in such an early stage, digital books are accessible only as pirated copies. As soon as a book shows initial success with readers, pirated versions appear within days, both digital (in PDF format) and printed. To make the situation worse, many of the most popular platforms for the distribution of various digital content, such as Apple’s iTunes and equivalent local channels, will not carry any (or a large selection of) Arab language books, alongside their extensive selec- tions of music or movies. As a result, a relatively well established platform for the distribution of books online, such as Nil WaFurat, su ers not in spite of but because of the expansion of digital media consumption. But the Arab world is not a homogenous market, even with regard to piracy. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the local production of pirated ebooks is not considered an imminent threat to innovative businesses the UAE government would like the entire country to become a regional leader for the development of a “knowledge society” along the benchmarks of the 21st century. This ambition is well re ected in the recent emergence of several ventures—like Rufoof, or also Qordoba, which are portrayed here in the discussion of the Arab market—as well as the funding that such initia- tives can raise from both local and international sources (an option hardly practical for a company headquartered in Lebanon, such as Nil WaFurat), disregarding the Levantine’s old tradition as a main hub for books and publishing throughout the Arab world. The authoritative practices and strategies with regard to piracy—or, more broadly, with regard to creating the legal framework to cope with the challenges from digital eBook Piracy in Europe: The Example and Debate in Germany, and Related Findings Methodological Issues with Regard to Research on Piracy Throughout media history, the emergence and penetra- tion of markets by new media seems to have been inti- mately intertwined with the advent of piracy and challenges to the current business practices of those in control of the respective “old media.” To provide an example from the early days of the movie industry, a recent, highly authoritative study says bluntly: “Piracy was, we have seen, absolutely central to the birth of the lm industry.”5 In fact, piracy, and the subsequent legal battles, had been instrumental in the forming of the movie industry, and by the outcome of those legal battles, those studios that dominated the new born industry for decades, owed their strong position to a signi cant degree to those early innovators and explor- ers of the new technology of the lm and of drama projected onto a screen who, at the end, had been labeled as pirates. At the same time, and in practical terms—which are not necessarily identical to legal considerations—the label “piracy” can refer to di erent issues under di erent circumstances. In the fragile context of an emergent, under-regu- lated, and under-controlled market such as those in large parts of the Arab world (or similarly, in Russia), piracy can be a direct threat to the already precarious infrastructure of the book business, as the example of Lebanon’s (and the Arab world’s) rst online book shop—Nil WaFurat— well illustrates. Its founder, Saleh Chebaro, explained in an interview for this report in early 2012 how the upswing in the consumption of digital media content paradoxically turned out as essential to the further 5 Peter Decherney: Hollywood’s Copyright Wars. From Edison to the Internet. New York, Columbia University Press 2012, page 65.

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66 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections development of this platform. With the advent of smart- phones and, more recently, tablet computers, and the with the spread of mobile access to the Internet, a rap- idly increasing number of consumers throughout Arab countries daily access music, movies, and social media, as well as text on their devices. Most of this content has become an integrated digital stream of digital media— yet with the exception of books. Because ebook publish- ing in the Arab language is still in such an early stage, digital books are accessible only as pirated copies. As soon as a book shows initial success with readers, pirated versions appear within days, both digital (in PDF format) and printed. To make the situation worse, many of the most popular platforms for the distribution of various digital content, such as Apple’s iTunes and equivalent local channels, will not carry any (or a large selection of) Arab language books, alongside their extensive selec- tions of music or movies. As a result, a relatively well established platform for the distribution of books online, such as Nil WaFurat, su ers not in spite of but because of the expansion of digital media consumption. But the Arab world is not a homogenous market, even with regard to piracy. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the local production of pirated ebooks is not considered an imminent threat to innovative businesses the UAE government would like the entire country to become a regional leader for the development of a “knowledge society” along the benchmarks of the 21st century. This ambition is well re ected in the recent emergence of several ventures—like Rufoof, or also Qordoba, which are portrayed here in the discussion of the Arab market—as well as the funding that such initia- tives can raise from both local and international sources (an option hardly practical for a company headquartered in Lebanon, such as Nil WaFurat), disregarding the Levantine’s old tradition as a main hub for books and publishing throughout the Arab world. The authoritative practices and strategies with regard to piracy—or, more broadly, with regard to creating the legal framework to cope with the challenges from digital eBook Piracy in Europe: The Example and Debate in Germany, and Related Findings Methodological Issues with Regard to Research on Piracy Throughout media history, the emergence and penetra- tion of markets by new media seems to have been inti- mately intertwined with the advent of piracy and challenges to the current business practices of those in control of the respective “old media.” To provide an example from the early days of the movie industry, a recent, highly authoritative study says bluntly: “Piracy was, we have seen, absolutely central to the birth of the lm industry.”5 In fact, piracy, and the subsequent legal battles, had been instrumental in the forming of the movie industry, and by the outcome of those legal battles, those studios that dominated the new born industry for decades, owed their strong position to a signi cant degree to those early innovators and explor- ers of the new technology of the lm and of drama projected onto a screen who, at the end, had been labeled as pirates. At the same time, and in practical terms—which are not necessarily identical to legal considerations—the label “piracy” can refer to di erent issues under di erent circumstances. In the fragile context of an emergent, under-regu- lated, and under-controlled market such as those in large parts of the Arab world (or similarly, in Russia), piracy can be a direct threat to the already precarious infrastructure of the book business, as the example of Lebanon’s (and the Arab world’s) rst online book shop—Nil WaFurat— well illustrates. Its founder, Saleh Chebaro, explained in an interview for this report in early 2012 how the upswing in the consumption of digital media content paradoxically turned out as essential to the further 5 Peter Decherney: Hollywood’s Copyright Wars. From Edison to the Internet. New York, Columbia University Press 2012, page 65.

64 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections readers and the most worldly, the most frequent travel- ers, and the most linguistically competent consumers. Although at this stage no data are available as evidence for this assumption, some indicators can nevertheless be identi ed. In countries such as the Netherlands or Sweden, English-language print books have become increasingly popular with readers such is also the case in several Central and Southeast European countries, including Slovenia, to the point that translation of English- language ction into local languages has been reported to be challenged by imports of the original editions. In Germany, what is by far the largest wholesaler, Libri, successfully started to expand its foreign-language packages to retailers almost a decade ago, as could be seen in the ever-growing foreign-language selections in the largest chain stores, notably Thalia. Although these foreign-language shelves used to be occupied predomi- nantly by literary classics, it is now the latest releases of infringe competition terms—echoing the actions by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). On the other hand, in early summer, the European Commissioner for digital, Neelie Kroes, called on decision makers in the publishing industry to help her on Europe’s “Digital Agenda” to bring down trade barriers for a seam- less exchange of digital content such as books, arguing for adjusting the VAT hurdles, and talking publishers into embracing digital strategies much more boldly (Digital Agenda for Europe). Receptiveness for Foreign (English) Reading It has been argued that ebooks will give a big push to English reading around the globe, for the simple reason that ebooks travel at low cost over long distances, cross- ing borders seamlessly, once globally acting companies have set up the required infrastructures and made the required legal arrangements per each target market, and also because early adopters of ebooks are the strongest Chart: Average retail price of top 10 ction titles (of each market) and di erence between print and Kindle editions, early September 2012. Sources: UK (Nielsen/The Bookseller), Italy (Informazioni Editoriali), US (Publishers Weekly), Netherlands (GfK), Germany (buchreport/Der Spiegel), France (Livres Hebdo/Electre), Sweden (Svensk Bokhandel), Spain (El Cultural).

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64 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections readers and the most worldly, the most frequent travel- ers, and the most linguistically competent consumers. Although at this stage no data are available as evidence for this assumption, some indicators can nevertheless be identi ed. In countries such as the Netherlands or Sweden, English-language print books have become increasingly popular with readers such is also the case in several Central and Southeast European countries, including Slovenia, to the point that translation of English- language ction into local languages has been reported to be challenged by imports of the original editions. In Germany, what is by far the largest wholesaler, Libri, successfully started to expand its foreign-language packages to retailers almost a decade ago, as could be seen in the ever-growing foreign-language selections in the largest chain stores, notably Thalia. Although these foreign-language shelves used to be occupied predomi- nantly by literary classics, it is now the latest releases of infringe competition terms—echoing the actions by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). On the other hand, in early summer, the European Commissioner for digital, Neelie Kroes, called on decision makers in the publishing industry to help her on Europe’s “Digital Agenda” to bring down trade barriers for a seam- less exchange of digital content such as books, arguing for adjusting the VAT hurdles, and talking publishers into embracing digital strategies much more boldly (Digital Agenda for Europe). Receptiveness for Foreign (English) Reading It has been argued that ebooks will give a big push to English reading around the globe, for the simple reason that ebooks travel at low cost over long distances, cross- ing borders seamlessly, once globally acting companies have set up the required infrastructures and made the required legal arrangements per each target market, and also because early adopters of ebooks are the strongest Chart: Average retail price of top 10 ction titles (of each market) and di erence between print and Kindle editions, early September 2012. Sources: UK (Nielsen/The Bookseller), Italy (Informazioni Editoriali), US (Publishers Weekly), Netherlands (GfK), Germany (buchreport/Der Spiegel), France (Livres Hebdo/Electre), Sweden (Svensk Bokhandel), Spain (El Cultural).

Page 6English-Language and Other eBook Markets click to expand contents

Page 14Market Close-ups click to expand contents

Page 53Key Drivers and Debates click to expand contents

Page 66eBook Piracy in Europe: The Example and Debate in Germany, and Related Findings click to expand contents

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