Wiley filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court last week against 27 BitTorrent users, claiming the defendants shared copies of books from its "For Dummies" series without permission on October 18 and 19 of this year. The suit accuses the defendants of copyright infringement, trademark infringement and trademark counterfeiting," according to TorrentFreak, which obtained a PDF copy of the complaint and noted Wiley "argues that through the massive piracy that occurs on BitTorrent, their company is suffering severe losses that might cost several authors their jobs."
According to Wiley's attorney, the "John Doe" defendants "are contributing to a problem that threatens the profitability of Wiley. Although Wiley cannot determine at this time the precise amount of revenue that it has lost as a result of peer-to-peer file sharing of its copyrighted works though BitTorrent software, the amount of revenue that is lost is enormous."
In addition, Wiley claims that "counterfeit" copies of the books may damage the company’s image, and "is particularly concerned that its trademarks are used in connection with unauthorized electronic products, which could contain malicious viruses. Wiley is also concerned that these unauthorized electronic editions of its works may be of inferior quality to the original versions."
PaidContent.org reported that while most of the titles listed in the complaint are computer related--Photoshop for Dummies has been downloaded more than 74,000 times since the summer of 2010--"there are a few surprises" as well, including how-to books on calculus, home repair and day-trading.
"The problem affects book publishers as it affects all content owners, and with the growing popularity of e-books, various strategies to address illegal file-sharing, including litigation, will necessarily grow as well," said Susan Kohlmann, a copyright expert at Jenner & Block in New York.
