eBooks … By the Numbers: eBooks By the Numbers

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The estimated number of illegal book downloads in 2011. With the surge of 
the e-book industry comes 
a nefarious side effect: 
piracy. Illegal downloads have doubled in the past year, despite publishers' attempts to combat the trend. Internet book purchasing makes it almost impossible for publishers to pinpoint who is stealing what. The problem has become so severe that, in 2011, the Publishers Association in the UK issued 115,000 threats to websites it believed to be infringing. Many publishers are turning to search engines such as Google to filter search options for sites that provide access to illegal downloads. Richard Mollet of the Publishers Association told NewsCore, "Search engines are the gateway to piracy. That's why we are working with the government to try to encourage search engines to do more to reduce the prominence of these infringing sites."