Comment on the New York Times:

Peter uses statistics reported by my company to argue that computer books are a canary in the coal mine, showing that piracy is hurting book sales. This is not true.

The decline in computer book sales has little or nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with the consolidation of the bookstore channel, legitimate competition from other sources of information (web pages, video training, etc.), the end of the annual software release cycle from big vendors like Adobe and Microsoft (which used to drive new book purchases) and a decline in technology spending due to the economic downturn. To lay this decline at the feet of piracy is alarmist claptrap. O’Reilly’s technology conference business has been hit harder than our book business by the downturn. Explain that as a result of piracy!

Ebooks are one of the only bright spots in the market. Safari Books Online, a joint venture between O’Reilly and Pearson, is now O’Reilly’s second biggest distribution channel, delivering per book revenue and profits entirely on a par with print books. Meanwhile, the Kindle, the iPhone, and plain old PDF are becoming significant revenue sources for O’Reilly.

Focusing on the threats from new media rather than the opportunities is the surest way to fail. Embrace the future; don’t fight it. Figure out what job you do as an author, or as a publisher, and then figure out how to use the internet to do it better. That’s how Apple built a billion dollar music business while the music companies dragged their feet. It’s how innovative authors and publishers are building the business of the future today.

— Tim O’Reilly