73 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections lishers explored such possibilities with a subscription site targeted at US consumers with English-language edi- tions of their graphic books (www.jmanga.com). The JManga o er, at this point, is available only to users in the US and Canada. For details, see Livres Hebdo, August 22, 2011 (bit.ly/wcMfPm). The piracy debate also overlaps with that on ebook pricing as The Economist pointed out in an analysis on ebooks and the book business titled “Great Digital Expectations,” “piracy is a particular threat because of a second, bigger problem: the apparently arbitrary nature of e-book pricing” (The Economist, September 10, 2011). The debate on piracy and ebooks is a complex chal- lenge for the industry’s organizations, and the overall story they want to tell the reading audience as well as politicians and regulators. So far, in many parts of continental Europe, at least, the predominant mood is one of angst. “Publishers and retailers tremble from the pirates,” read the headline on an article about extraordinarily growth of ereader and ebook sales in Christmas 2011 in Germany—and this wasn’t in a tabloid, but in the country’s leading business daily, Handelsblatt (December 27, 2011). What may have been conceived as a means of self-defense in an industry undergoing change can result in a severe image prob- lem, as pointed out by René Strien, a German publisher and president of the association of German trade pub- lishers (buchreport, January 19, 2012). Strien warned of publishers publicly being blamed as a mere “content exploitation Ma a” at a crucial moment when the very basics of European and international copyright were coming under review by politicians and clashing lobby- ing groups, with growing controversy between rights holders and consumers. Thus, piracy—together with pricing and regulation— may be the strongest force shaping the European ebook markets in their next phase of development. produced in the tens of thousands, without their original (print) publishers even being aware of the piracy. Preliminary Conclusions and Outlook There is broad agreement about the publishing indus- try’s arrival at the “Napster moment” for ebooks. But these brief case studies on piracy research in France and Germany clearly illustrate the limited consensus—aside from the problem’s scope and threatening forces—on how to understand the driving forces and, as a conse- quence, what action will be e ective at reducing the loss from piracy to legal rights owners. Identifying and mapping the o erings seems to be key, and the obvious rst step—not only to persecute infringement, but before such action—is to become aware (especially for publishers) of the intricacies and dynamics of the challenge. This step requires tough strategic decisions for the industry: to assess to what degree experiences, practices, and lobbying strategies from other content industries— notably movies and music—should be followed, and to what extent di erent approaches should be developed. eBooks are primarily downloaded from DDL sources, with uploaders next to impossible to identify. Therefore, publishers must get involved individually to check such sources for their respective catalogs of titles and to force concrete links promoting illegal download sources for their titles to be taken down by the o enders. So far, only a few such specialized service providers exist. Several of the leading international groups have taken such action, such as John Wiley & Sons in the textbook market (Publishers Weekly, November 1, 2011) and the Hachette group for general trade (Livres Hebdo, December 15, 2011) as just two examples. But the o er can also be adapted to be more compelling for readers who would prefer a legal o er, if it were available in convenient ways. A group of 39 Japanese manga pub-