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Hachette UK Chief Exec Tells China Newspaper: We Represent Authors and Authors Deserve to Get Paid

How do you protect the intellectual property of authors in the digital market?

The question was posed this weekend to Tim Hely Hutchinson, group chief executive of Hachette UK, during an interview with the South China Morning Post. Hutchinson responded:

“One of the most important new roles for publishers is the protection of copyright – how do we protect authors against piracy and casual file sharing? We have a subcontractor who sweeps the internet every day to find infringing editions and we send every infringer a takedown notice. If they persist we take legal action. And that is successful – the books do get taken down.”

Hutchinson also discussed DRM (encrypting digital files such as ebooks to discourage illegal copying), a hot-button topic in some circles:

“And on casual file sharing, we strongly support the maintenance of DRM – digital rights management – so all the files, e-books and audio are encrypted and all our contracts with people like Amazon make it impossible for people to share or to lend. Lots of people say take DRM off, it’s old-fashioned, but that’s wrong. Our primary job is to represent authors and authors deserve to be paid. One way is by making sure we keep the DRM on.”

While the interviewer did not specifically mention piracy in China, widespread theft of intellectual property in the country makes DRM all the more important.

Last year Hachette opened a sales office in Hong Kong, stepping up its focus on the region. During the interview, Hutchinson contrasted Asia’s robust growth to the “relatively small and static market” for books in the U.K. And he said Asian readers tend to prefer nonfiction such as business and self-improvement books. “It’s less literary and more to do with getting on in life,” he said.