Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Ebook Revolution Postponed due to Piracy?

My advice to authors; put the title of your book in Google followed by the word download, you may be horrified by the result. Now I was a lawyer for 20 years so I know it's important to get the facts straight before making wild allegations. However if you click the link below it appears that a bunch of people are offering my book for download without my permission. I've only ever uploaded my book to Kdp.Amazon, Smashwords and Google Books. With all of these I set a price of at least 99c and I thought the files would be rights-protected. Therefore NO WAY should anyone else be offering free downloads of my book. THIS AFFECTS ALL AUTHORS; even if you have not published your book in e-format, the print version can be scanned and offered as a pdf. If piracy is going on then it seems that the Jack Sparrow in question owes me a considerable sum of money. JACK SPARROW BEWARE, I've seen what happens when the lawyers get involved, it's not a pretty sight. 

Link to Echo McCool, Outlaw Through Time
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18 comments:

  1. J. A. Betts19 June 2012 at 01:39

    http://jakonrath.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/piracy-again.html

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    Replies
    1. Echo McCool19 June 2012 at 01:53

      Thanks for the link. Luckily most people are honest and to anyone thinking of illegal downloading I'd say WATCH OUT FOR VIRUSES!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous19 June 2012 at 02:27

    "...it seems that the Jack Sparrow in question owes me a considerable sum of money...."

    Or you owe him the sum of the free advertising and distribution he has done for you. Perhaps you could be kind enough to provide an address where he can send the invoice?

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    Replies
    1. Echo McCool19 June 2012 at 04:05

      Are you serious? Google "the law of contract", there has to be an offer and an acceptance. I'm guessing you're in the US. Here in the UK the civil courts have a principle, the loser pays the winner's cots. Thus there are plenty of law firms in London who do this kind of claim on a no-win no-fee basis, I've seen uploaders lose their life savings.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19 June 2012 at 04:22

      Just their life savings?

      The real Jack Sparrows out there are operating under the threat of prison.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous19 June 2012 at 05:20

      I work for one of the law firms in question, we're very good at what we do and we take no prisoners, have a nice day!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19 June 2012 at 05:53

      @Anonymous

      Good to know. No fun in an easy win! You are not the only one who is good at your job.

      http://torrentfreak.com/internet-censorship-boosts-interest-in-uk-pirate-party-120607/

      Delete
  3. Madeline Sloane19 June 2012 at 10:15

    Keep in mind that Smashwords has a distribution channel and you need to opt in/opt out to keep the book out of different distributor's storefront. I found several links to my books, but they were all for sale and not for free. Do keep diligent, though. Google alerts with your name may help.

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    Replies
    1. Echo McCool20 June 2012 at 00:10

      Thanks, Madeline. I'd already unpublished from Smashwords before I did this post but anyway I've heard from people who've uploaded ONLY to kdp.amazon.com, with digital rights management enabled, and their work has still been pirated.

      Delete
  4. Darlene E Williams19 June 2012 at 17:35

    Always periodically Google your name and book titles. As well, another avenue is to use a service such as http://www.copyscape.com/. Input about 1,000 words and it will scan the internet for plagiarism. Very cheap to utilize, but invaluable if it catches something.

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  5. Echo McCool20 June 2012 at 00:11

    Thanks, Darlene, I'll definitely check out copyscape.com.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous20 June 2012 at 05:00

    The people who want to hack their own, do-it-in-one-minute DRM, for their own usage, who are honest, are perfectly welcome to do so. The thieves who do it for malice and profit will steal the book in EITHER event.

    What it does do is stop Suzie, in large part, who doesn't have an heroic teenage boyfriend, from copying it and giving it to her friend next door, or her sister, etc. What YOU are not seeing is that the vast majority of users who buy books from Amazon and B&N don't KNOW how to hack DRM and won't do it. It's that "casual theft" that I'm talking about.

    You know WHY people steal electronic media? Because they can. Because they know it's unlikely they'll be caught and prosecuted. If you ask them if they'll walk into a store and shoplift the same exact material, they'll say NO, because there are real consequences. Theft is theft, whether the material is ephemera or physical; whether someone is stealing a printed copy of the book, or "simply" stealing the sale BEFORE the author has a chance to make it. If Suzie's 28,000 friends really wanted that book, at $0.99, they could have afforded it.

    So, the bottom line is: horrifyingly, 50% of the population are thieves all the time. Another 2/5ths are "sometime" thieves with situational ethics; if they can EASILY give a copy to a friend, or the sister-in-law can just copy a file, they'll do it. Since we're all agreed that the 50% will steal regardless, then it's the remaining 50% that we're attempting to deter from that sort of "casual" theft. (BTW: I don't consider 28K copies "casual theft," and neither does the DA in the jurisdiction in which the "hero" resides, BTW...I doubt he'll feel that heroic when he and his parents get done paying all the lost royalties AND he gets PROSECUTED, criminally, because his "thefts" went over Petty Larceny levels.)

    ReplyDelete
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