What Can You Do if Your Book is Pirated?

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Copyright-Pirates
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Imagine that Amazon pulls your book from its digital shelves – or just gives it away for free?  That happened to one of my clients books.  The reason?  All of his books were pirated by http://www.general-ebooks.com/
Having read about websites that steal books and sell / give them away on a (foreign hosted) website is already very disturbing, but to see a clients book pirated this way is another story.  I dug into this topic and thinking about Amazon’s copyright checks when uploading a book, I really found a useful page on Amazon’s web site, how to proceed as a victim of these thieves.  But not only Amazon, Google also can help you, or a skilled copyright lawyer.
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Californian bestselling author Molly Green also found her books for download at General eBooks, the same site that pirated our clients books – all of them!  Molly Green used the service of copyright lawyer Kathryn Miller Goldman Esq., and explains in her blog post:

“Beneath the legitimate links to online retailers on this site is a blue link that says, “GET BOOK.”  This is the link to the illegal download.  But you have to scroll down the page, in order to find this unauthorized link.  Such sites’ purpose seems to spread malware and computer viruses through book downloads.”

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So, Scroungers are Immediately Punished…
However, that doesn’t help you as an author.  Your book is not downloaded from this particular site, rather from other web sites offshore, who’s malware is coded in a way that even downloader’s IP addresses can be configured to let others download the book from their computer.  A perfect snowball system.  These thieves don’t make money with your book (but you might lose sales) but their intent is to use greedy people free downloads to distribute viruses and malware.

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Claim Copyright Infringement Through Google
Use the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) removal request with Google and other search engines.  Google writes: Report alleged copyright infringement:
“It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site) and other applicable intellectual property laws.  Our response may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers.”
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Claim Copyright Infringement Through Amazon
As Amazon doesn’t like when their books are downloaded for free – and after all Amazon is the “top dog” – they might be more influential in these cases. Contact them right away!
They explain on their copyright page:  “Amazon respects the intellectual property of others.  If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, follow the notice and procedure for the Amazon site where you identified the infringement.”

“To claim copyright infringement, please submit your complaint using our online form. We respond quickly to concerns of rights owners about any alleged infringement. If you prefer to submit a report in writing, please provide us with this information:

  • An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest – if you are not self-publishing;
  • A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon;
  • A description of where the material you claim is infringing is located on the site;
  • Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
  • A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.”

“This procedure is exclusively for notifying Amazon that your copyrighted material has been infringed.”

Copyright Agent
Amazon.com Legal Department
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108

Phone: (206) 266-4064
Fax: (206) 266-7010
E-mail: copyright@amazon.com

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How to Find Out if Your Book is Pirated?
Set up Google Alerts for all your book titles and your author name to help you keep track of where your work is appearing.  And register the copyright for your book as explained in a former blog post.  Read also a genius article of Molly Green’s Lawyer: 

How BitTorrent Technology is Used to Pirate Copyrighted Material — A Primer for Writers by Kathryn Miller Goldman Esq.:  http://www.charmcitylegal.com/bittorrent-a-piracy-primer/

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