Prince Henry and the Pirate (Book)

Here is a paradox that perhaps is not so much.

Prince Enrique's memoirs, published in Spain under the title

(Plaza & Janés), one of the books with the most armored launch strategy in recent times, have suffered one of the worst hacks in living memory.

The book is already the Guinness record for sales in 24 hours for a non-fiction work.

It sold 1.4 million copies in one day: one million in the US and Canada (Barack Obama's memoirs sold

890,000) and 400,000 in the UK.

In that same period of time, 12,000 were sold in Spain and another 10,000 in Latin America, explain sources from Penguin Random House, a group to which Plaza & Janés belongs.

More information

On the hunt for the memories of Henry of England: the book is sold by mistake in Spain ahead of time

Added to these astonishing figures is the bizarre journey of the biography through the networks.

Since January 10, the memories have been massively distributed through WhatsApp and Telegram groups in PDF files in the different languages ​​into which they have been translated, including Spanish and English.

That is, you could get an illegal copy of the entire book for free without even asking for it.

As one tweet jokingly said: "I have received Prince Harry's book on WhatsApp so many times that it seems that if you do not forward it, ten years of bad luck will fall on you."

But piracy is a serious matter: in 2021, 5,334 million accesses to illegal digital products were made in Spain with a market value of 32,492 million euros and damage to the sector of 2,271 million, according to a study by the Observatory of Piracy and Habits. of Digital Content Consumption.

However, the fight against this illegal market is bearing some fruit and already registers a cumulative decrease of 20% compared to five years ago.

Closing or blocking access to websites with illegal content continues to be the most effective measure, but in 2021 the study warned that although nine out of ten users resort to Google as a means of access, "the number of those who use it increases considerably." they do via social networks, such as Telegram (33%) or WhatsApp (31%)”.

Among the motivations that consumers, in addition to economic ones, there is another that the study notes as "very worrying": half of the users admit that they do not know how to distinguish between legal and illegal platforms.

And there is another dizzying figure: 34% of book consumers in 2021 in Spain accessed them illegally, a trend that is increasing globally.

MUSO, an international analyst company specialized in digital content piracy, measured a total of 52.5 billion visits to piracy websites in the first quarter of 2022 and certified an increase in this practice of 58.5% in the publishing world compared to at the same time period of the previous year, ahead of movies (42.5%), television content (19.2%), music (13.9%) or

(9.6%).

The piracy of cultural assets has been a problem for decades, but there is a difference with respect to audiovisual products that is fundamental: the editorial product ―books, newspapers, magazines or sheet music― “weighs very little and is easier to share directly on networks social”, they warn in CEDRO, the association of editorial authors and with which the Federation of Publishers Guilds of Spain (FGEE) manages the defense of copyright.

A person illegally downloading music and books to a hard drive at home. LUIS SEVILLANO (EL PAÍS)

Apps don't work

The fight against this type of piracy "is very complex and there is a lack of collaboration between the platforms, which exacerbates the problem," sources from Penguin Random House stress.

The editorial group accuses WhatsApp and Telegram - the digital applications of Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg - of "failing to act" to prevent these illegal acts.

And they are not alone in this complaint.

"In practice, social networking platforms and messaging services do not promote tools to prevent piracy," stresses Jorge Corrales, CEO of CEDRO.

This association fights against piracy by tracking the network 24 hours a day through metadata and fingerprints that allow the identification of editorial products in illegal circulation.

Once identified, they contact them and ask them to remove the product and de-index it.

"We have a certain degree of success in this process," they say in the association.

If this is not the case, they go to the Intellectual Property Commission of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and in the most serious cases, to the courts of justice.

These actions are bearing fruit: last year they managed to deindex 1,834,860 links to pirated copies, and prompted the closure of 1,303 groups on social networks and messaging channels and 11 websites where illegal copies of editorial products were shared.

But it's not enough.

Soon, CEDRO will develop a project using

technology for authenticity certification associated with each file, using the properties of NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens).

For its part, in 2016 Penguin Random House created an anti-piracy portal where authors and literary agents can report any illegal content they find.

In turn, they also have tracking and location tools and manage to find more than 150,000 illegal links per month.

But they can't with everything.

"We would need greater collaboration from the public administrations and an involvement of all these platforms to be able to protect the intellectual property of our authors", they explain in the group.

A demand that is seconded by the Federation of the Publishers Guild of Spain, which calls for more specialized resources in intellectual property and technology.

However, the issue goes beyond monitoring and punishing.

Hacking is combated with technology but it is prevented with awareness and training, educating in respect for intellectual property and copyright, CEDRO insist.

In this, as in so many things, personal attitude and civic attitude is essential, because "cultural piracy is everyone's problem," reflects Corrales, from CEDRO.

Both the Publishers Guild and Penguin Ramdon House stress that it is important that those who are reached by these pirated files and open them are aware that a book of unknown origin can contain viruses, steal data, introduce unwanted advertising and other digital risks. .

money and fury

Despite the pirates, for the moment sales of

, published just four months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, are going from strength to strength.

The editorial group has made several reprints in the different Spanish-speaking markets ―in Spain alone they already have three―, which adds up to an edition of 200,000 copies.

Cover of the book of memories of Prince Harry in English.

, the book's original title, are also skyrocketing in the UK and US

, and it's also in the process of being reprinted.

As Larry Finlay, director of Transworld publishing house, which is part of the Penguin Random House group, publisher of the book in its British edition, said: “As far as we know, the only books that have sold more copies on the day of their publication are starring the other Harry: Harry Potter'.

can also be purchased in audiobook format, narrated by the voice of Prince Harry himself.

Perhaps we are before the first chapter of this story of pain and spite of the youngest son of Princess Diana of Wales, who was 13 years old when his mother died in a brutal car accident while fleeing from the

.

tabloid

In the summer of 2021, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have signed a contract with Penguin Random House for an arc ranging from 21 to 23 million euros for four books.

In Prince Harry's memoirs there is an almost Shakespearean phrase referring to his deteriorating relationship with the eldest son William, Prince of Wales.

A phrase that is perhaps the fruit of the imagination of the journalist and writer JR Moehringer, shadow author of the book, a specialist in portraying wounded men in childhood or adolescence, such as the tennis player André Agassi in the book

, or himself in

.

The phrase says: "My dear brother, my archenemy: how have we been able to get here?".

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