How much time should you spend trying to protect your e-book from digital theft?

How much time should realistically be spent trying to prevent thieves from stealing the e-books you publish? In a world where multi-billion dollar corporations have been unable to figure out how to stop digital theft, my recommendation might come as a bit of a surprise. This topic came up recently when I was talking to a friend of mine who was in the process of setting up his own e-book publishing company.

My friend seemed to be spinning his wheels. Initially he assumed that he was having a hard time choosing a topic and creating an e-book. No, that part had already been fixed. My friend was really stuck on the question of what to do about stolen e-books. He had been visiting online forums where many people were discussing the pros and cons of various digital theft prevention schemes.

So I told my friend something that took me a while to figure out on my own. I told him that his main focus should be keeping honest people honest. In other words, he can’t stop a committed thief, but he can certainly deter a casual thief. And for the most part, the vast majority of thieves fall into the category of being causal thieves.

How much time should you spend trying to protect your e-book from digital theft? My recommendation is that you spend at least an afternoon or evening studying the subject and implementing a basic security management system. That will deter occasional thieves and keep honest people honest. Other than that, don’t worry about it.