Friday, December 19, 2008

e-book piracy

This is my first official RANT!
I have no patience with piracy of any kind - with the exception of in the flowery fiction of a romance novel! E-book piracy or that of any type of artist created material is not to be tolerated and as authors we must find a way to stop it or at the very least fight against it. I do not have answers - if I did I would put them into action. I do however agree with Charlee's well written article one http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=3151 She say it all so very well. This latest one on esnips I think is one of the most blatant ones I've seen. This person actual gloats that she is costing us money. How ridiculous and in this economy too! The only thing I can think of is to e-mail each one of her "friends" and let them know what they are doing is wrong and how badly it affects the people who are writing the very books they enjoy so much. This is really a very weak thing to do but unless esnips removes this person's site I don't know what else we can do unless there is a legal action to be taken as a group??? Possibly if enough e-mails cram their boxes they'll get the picture.

1 comment:

Kayelle Allen said...

On Esnips and others, every time you go to the site flag the book or books. This alerts staff of several things, including possible copyright violation. Also look for their "contact us" information and help menus. Different sites have different places, but all have pages where you can report a copyright violation.

Whatever they ask for, copy and paste into an email and then give it to them. It might be as simple as your name, publisher, publisher's url for the book, and also the url on their own site where you found the violation. They will respond, because it's the law. Ensure you send yourself and your agent and/or publisher a copy of the email.

On each site, comment that this is your book and the person posting it does not own the copyright. Ask readers not to download the book because it is piracy. Copy the phrase and post it on every place they post the book. SAVE that in a text or word processing document and then go back and keep checking until the url is down. If they delete your comment, post one again, and send the phrase you'd like friends to use to add the same thing. Don't forget to ask everyone to flag the book. If they get hit with 15 or 20 people all flagging their stolen book and complaining that they are using copyrighted material without permission, readers who see it will steer clear of trouble.

Remember that old saying - the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Much success to you. I did this on esnips on a Friday, and by Sunday the books were gone. Don't take it lying down. Pass this to anyone you like.