“比手狠，比眼快，不怕下得多，就怕抢不到，电子书，全场0元，仅限3天。”4月17日，当当网宣布，除少数品种外，其他电子书均免费下载。这一“断臂营销”策略引来竞争对手京东商城[微博]的还击，“免费谁没有？好书你没有！”很快，京东商城火速上线5万本电子书供免费下载。
风波
未与全部出版商提前沟通，已有作家提交律师函两大电商“斗法”，让读者喜笑颜开。“下载免费电子书”的呼声，在网络上迅速传开。
不过，“零元售书”却招来合作方的不满。据介绍，当当网的电子书销售与出版社和作者按收入分成结算，一旦免费下载会斩断合作方的财路。据媒体报道，果麦文化称，作家冯唐已经向当当网提交了律师函。
尽管当当网对外宣称“与出版社有过一些沟通”，但据记者采访了解，当当网并没有获得全部出版社的授权。人民文学出版社数字出版与科技部主任赵晨表示，他们是事后才知道当当网电子图书免费下载一事，“虽然我们有时候也会参与一些促销活动，但不会拿出全部图书参加‘价格战’，下载电子书无需付费，我们很难向作者交代。”
在与当当网沟通后，人民文学出版社的有关电子书已经下架。“当当网也和我们沟通了相关补偿的问题，之后我们会就补偿金与作者按照协议分成。”赵晨说。
北京大学信息管理系教授李常庆认为，作为企业行为，以促销引关注无可厚非，但关键在于这一促销行为的合法性。“只有获得相关出版社的授权，保护相关作者的合法权益，有效协调作者、出版社、电商的三方权益后，才可‘断臂’。”
隐患
因“肥私”而“害远”，影响文化精品产出能力
事实上，电商“肉搏竞价”已非首次。而当当网此次推出“免费下载”，在百道网总裁程三国看来，是一种短期促销行为，主要是为其5月推出的阅读器做预热。
调查数据显示，只有9.4%的读者在读过电子书后还会再去购买纸质书。“免费下载电子书、打折销售实体书，对出版业的伤害特别大。”
程三国认为，电子书免费势必影响纸质书的销量，从而影响出版商的“产出”能力，从长远看，反而损害图书电商自己的利益。
据介绍，很多图书电商的低书价、高折扣，主要是通过不断向出版社施压，而不是通过扩大市场得来。“好的文化产品需要投入成本，好的作家需要高的稿费。若出版社一再出让利润空间，就没有资金去生产精品出版物，长此以往，读者就读不到好书了。”北大出版社市场营销中心业务主管杜焕庆对此忧心忡忡。
有业内人士表示，电商“断臂营销”可谓因“肥私”而“害远”。“文化产业的发展关键是要保护创造，而这必须通过保护创作者的合法权益来实现。”李常庆说，“在当前情况下，作者和出版社签署的不少协议对电子出版并未规范，缺少相关的法律保护和市场尊重。”
“我们需要的是一个优质的、价格可接受的、有竞争而非垄断的良性图书市场。”李常庆直言，“电商所断之臂，非己之臂，实为良性图书市场之臂。”
online book giveaways raise industry concerns
publishing industry professionals have expressed concern over a number of online promotions in which copyrighted e-books are being sold for free.
china's largest online bookseller dangdang.com is in the middle of a sales effort that includes almost all of its e-books being sold for free, from wednesday to friday。
rival jingdong mall, announced on wednesday that it also will offer 50,000 e-books for free。
some leading names in the industry said that someone will have to pay in the end, and a resultant price war between the industry's main players could be hugely destructive to the sector。
according to local media, chinese writer feng tang has already delivered a lawyer's letter to the retailers protesting about the giveaways, which he says is costing him a considerable amount in lost royalties。
zhao chen, from people's literature publishing house, told beijing news that the promotion will bring harm to companies。
wang qian, a professor at the intellectual property school, east china university of political science and law, told china daily: "it's legal if dangdang has the authors' authorization and paid them for that."
dangdang's senior pr director guo he said that the promotion had been approved by the company's legal department。
but guo refused to confirm or deny whether it gained the permission of all the authors and publishers before starting the promotion。
guo said that if they got complaints from content providers during the three days, they would pull the relevant free products out of respect。
"basically, we are doing this because we want to draw more people into reading books, especially copyrighted e-books," guo said。
as well as free e-book downloads, dangdang is also offering 50 percent off printed books, to "celebrate the upcoming world reading day", guo said, while denying the promotion had anything to do with the possible launch of the company's own e-reader。
guo said his company considers there are only a small number of regular e-book readers in china and encouraged publishers to invest more time and money in the future marketing and selling of e-books。
"we share the same ambitions as the writers and publishers - to increase the number of potential consumers," he said, adding the short-term sales expected by the promotions would not affect the interests of either groups over the long term。
zhang hongbo, secretary-general of the china written works copyright society, the only collective copyright management organization for written works in the country, said the giveaways showed a sloppy approach to copyright if approvals had not been sought from copyright holders to offer their titles for free。
"i think it's hardly successful marketing if it's based on sacrificing the interests of copyright holders."
zhang said the promotions also raised doubts, and showed a lack of faith in the development of the country's e-publishing industry, especially from the so-called traditional publishers。
although the value of china's e-publishing industry reached 133.7 billion yuan ($21.6 billion) in 2011, zhang said the share of e-books is still smaller than that of digital games and digital advertisements。
"content providers in the country are weaker than the platforms and channels," zhang said. "i fear this new tide of free e-book selling will cause them to have even lower confidence in the e-publishing business。
"that will bring bigger harm to the industry as a whole."
however, yan feng, a fudan university professor and columnist on it products and e-readers, said the giveaways was a good marketing tool to draw customers into buying dangdang's other e-book products。
yan said he had chosen 50 e-books in the promotion without being charged, while some of his friends seized 100.
"e-books will be the focus and highlight of the book market," yan said, adding that dangdang is simply attempting to create a foothold in that sector, faced with stiff competition from companies such as jingdong and amazon。
but he added that if the giveaways lasted too long, it could have negative effect on the industry and its own business。
as a reader, he said it would be more effective if online booksellers stopped "the price hype" and focused instead on improving the e-reading experience by using better design and editing。
"there's no such thing as a free lunch. a lot of effort goes into the launch of just one book. price wars can only eventually harm book creators and producers," yan said。