Publisher’s Weekly recently published an article stating that the industry is losing $3 billion to book piracy. I found it interesting that the only source for the article was Attributor, a company specializing in selling anti-piracy services. As a matter of fact, I had spoken with their aggressive sales team several months earlier.

All that to say, there’s nothing like fear to move the masses! Based on some responses from my colleagues at Tyndale, there is some concern about piracy. With regards to the digital front, I am never disappointed to read doom and gloom from PW.

I also had the pleasure of reading a rebuttal to PW’s article stating the losses could reach 1 trillion dollars! The article was a tongue-n-cheek response in which the reporter discovered rogue institutions called “libraries” were loaning books to all citizens that could crater the industry. To his dismay, these dens of iniquity were found in nearly every American city and town.

There’s a bit of truth to this satire in that many of us worry about implications of the digital revolution that we’ve largely ignored or responded to in the traditional publishing model. In addition to lending, this same argument can be applied to DRM and other types of consumer restrictions.

Again, we’ve seen that a judicial and careful approach to digital content can help increase the bottom line. We can’t be too reckless, but we don’t have to live in fear either.