Google Play Piracy

Google Is Now Accepting Indie Authors into Play Books (Sometimes, And Only If You Ask Nice)

9 November, 2017 // 9 Comments

When Google closed its publisher portal two and a half years ago in response to massive ebook piracy, they said the move was temporary so they could "improve our content management capabilities and [Read More ...]

19 Months Later, and Google Still Hasn’t Reopened Signups in Its Play Books Publishing Portal

30 December, 2016 // 7 Comments

It has been nineteen months since Google closed its book publisher portal in Google Play Books, and the larger blogosphere is just beginning to realize that it may never reopen. A couple days ago [Read More ...]

Will Google Ever Reopen Its eBook Publisher Portal?

20 April, 2016 // 2 Comments

Earlier today someone made the unsubstantiated declaration that Google had closed its publisher portal "forever". While there is zero evidence to back up that assertion, I fear that it will be [Read More ...]

Google’s “Temporary” Shut Down of Its eBook Publisher Portal Approaches the Six-Month Mark

18 November, 2015 // 8 Comments

When Google shut down stopped letting anyone sign up to use its book publisher portal earlier this year, they swore that this was a temporary move intended to give Google time to "improve our [Read More ...]

Google Ordered to Release eBook Pirate’s Details to Dutch Anti-Piracy Group

5 October, 2015 // 0 Comments

A judge in the Netherlands has ordered Google to hand over the account info for the ebook pirate behind the Flâmanca Hollanda account. About three weeks ago Google was sued by the Dutch [Read More ...]

Dutch Anti-Piracy Group Files Suit over Piracy in Google Play Books

15 September, 2015 // 0 Comments

Until they were publicly shamed into changing their policy earlier this year, Google used to have a laissez-faire attitude towards piracy in Google Play Books. Now that indifference is coming back to [Read More ...]

Google Play Piracy Takes a Turn for the Bizarre

1 September, 2015 // 2 Comments

Over the weekend the NYTimes revealed that Google was taking steps to curb the piracy problem in Google Play Books. Based on what I am hearing from authors, Google hasn't solved said problem, but [Read More ...]

Dutch Publishers Take Credit for Swatting Pirate in Google Play Books

2 June, 2015 // 2 Comments

Google hasn't said much about the kudzu-like piracy problem in Google Play Books, or their recent decision to stop letting users register to upload books, but today i can report that someone is [Read More ...]

Google Shutters Its Play Books Publisher Portal in Order to “Improve Its Content Management Capabilities”

25 May, 2015 // 50 Comments

Do you know how I've been harping on the rampant commercial piracy in Google Play Books (four posts in the past month)? I think Google finally got the message. I've just read on Twitter, and [Read More ...]

Google Play Books Rep Throws Up Hands, Tells Dutch Publisher That Nothing Can be Done About Obvious eBook Pirate

18 May, 2015 // 5 Comments

Google has a serious problem with piracy in Google Play Books. It lets just about anyone set up ebook shops in Google Play Books, and stock them with pirated ebooks. The pirates are allowed to [Read More ...]

Google Says “Google Play Takes Copyright Seriously”

7 May, 2015 // 26 Comments

Earlier this week I broke the news that Google had a rampant piracy problem in Google Play Books, and today Google has finally responded. Far more so than most ebookstores, Google is a safe haven [Read More ...]

How to Get Google to Swat eBook Pirates? Public Shaming (Nothing Else Works)

5 May, 2015 // 17 Comments

Google has yet to officially respond to Monday's post on the rampant piracy in Google Play Books, but my work is already having a visible effect. On Tuesday I noticed that the ten pirate accounts I [Read More ...]

Google Play Books is a Safe Haven for Commercial eBook Piracy

4 May, 2015 // 57 Comments

Piracy is endemic to almost every retail site which sells digital content. Some sites such as Amazon routinely (and sometimes aggressively) police their catalog for pirated content, while others [Read More ...]