Amazon is usually pretty good about acting on take down requests from rights owners. I deal with them, eBay, and various other online marketplaces on a regular basis. It seems likely that you could have the book removed entirely.
I decided to contact Amazon also when I saw so many stolen pieces. Here is the exchange with Nigel on 'Chat': You are now connected to Nigel from Amazon.com Me: plagiarized work for sale, repeat offender Nigel:Hello my name is Nigel, I will be assisting you today. I'd be happy to look into that for you. Could you please give me a link to the content in question? Me: http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Beckwith/...(See full link) Nigel:Thank you, one moment please Could you please tell me which of the books is a product of plagiarism? Me:All of them are. The links to the original work are in the 1 star reviews for each book. They are all stolen from fictionpress. One of the original authors I know brought this to my attention and I saw all those other books were also stolen. Nigel:Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I would need to have this reported. Do you have a link to the original work as well? Me:I posted it in my review of The Charity Case: Why is it this author, agentkirb, [ http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2983395/1...(See full link) ] says he's not you Jessica? That author cites 2011 as the date first posted online. Here's his opening: "It was a rare cold day in Houston, a city known for its hot, humid summers and mild winters. But for a few days near the beginning of the year the mid-day temperature almost approached freezing levels. The weather matched the occasion: a large crowd of people gathered for the funeral of Captain Charles Cooper of HPD. The mayor of Houston was on stage giving a speech and with him were a dozen other high ranking politicians and policemen. As he spoke, he looked out into the crowd of over five hundred that filled up the seats in Tranquility Park. "The city has lost a hero." said the mayor. "But we must not dwell on this tragic loss. Instead let us remember him for what he brought to the city. This man, a Marine that served this country in the Gulf War, was also one of the best law enforcement officials this city has ever seen..."Looks like all that differs are the names. Nigel:Thank you so much for this information, i will make sure that this gets reviewed and the appropriate action be taken. Me:How soon will you act? Nigel:I cannot confirm the timeframe, but I will make sure that it gets looked into. Me:I would hope Amazon cares about protecting authors. You are a bookstore. These sales should be stopped before the end of the day and it looks like no one's done anything for a month. Nigel:I will try my best Ginger. I've forwarded this to the correct team internally and expressed the urgency of the matter too. Me:Thank you...
IANAL - but please check out the US Copyright Office's site (http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html) - if you haven't registered the copyright, you're limited in terms of lawsuits, collecting lawyer's fees, etc. You can still register it within five years - but that's explained on their website. At this point, though, it does seem that your best course of action is contacting any sites where the book is being sold by this person and getting them to take it down and whatever other remedies they may have.
First thing is to inform amazon. Regardless of the artistic medium (photography, writing, etc) websites now have a very clearly established procedure. It usually involves sending them a screen capture of the plagiarised work, both where it's on their site and where it was first published. They then liaise with the site you published it on, to confirm the dates, and they remove the plagiarised stuff off. If that doesn't work, you should visit a lawyer. But rest assured, the moment you created something, it's yours and wherever on the internet it may be, it's under your copyright. It's easy to prove that you wrote t, from your PC records, so try not to worry too much.
Yes, Amazon has an established process. The chat that Ginger had may be effective, however some sites will only take something down when the rights holder themselves makes a report through the established procedure. If the books aren't removed in the near future, I'd make a report that way. In fact, I'd do it anyway - not reason not to.
Given the overwhelming evidence with all the stolen work from different authors, I doubt Amazon needs a direct challenge. However, I thought I'd look into it before assuming. Turns out this is a growing problem with ePublishing. Apparently it's worst with erotica. NPR noticed a year and a half ago: On Amazon, An Uneasy Mix Of Plagiarism And Erotica I do believe the more publicity this gets the better. It's bad enough people use material without paying, but to claim authorship? Definitely needs a writing community uproar or it will get worse. This is also a warning to everyone with anything posted online, keep checking for your work showing up elsewhere.
They don't need it, but it depends on many such requests they get, I suspect. I deal with a lot of these sites regularly, and many of them (who are inundated with take down requests) won't do anything no matter how much evidence you have unless you follow their established procedure. It's just a matter of efficiency in dealing with so many such requests. So it is certainly worth filing a request through the established process, even though submitting it in other ways can't hurt and might still be effective. As for posting online, I don't generally recommend it, given that you essentially lose control over the work (something explicitly, but you always lose it whether explicitly stated or not).
Sadly, I agree. Given my dealings with EBay re a dishonest buyer that dozens of sellers complained about, it's disappointing these large corporations do as little as possible. But for an unknown author, this is a two edged sword. Posting work online is one way to build a readership. Since I'm on my first book, I haven't put any of it online and don't intend to. But I see those authors that become popular online first and a commercial success second. I'm not sure how I'm going to market my book when it is done.
[MENTION=53143]GingerCoffee[/MENTION] - there's only so much they can realistically do, however. I saw not long ago that Google had received something like 28 million take down requests from one entity, with the RIAA coming up in second place with something like 20 million requests. They have to automate these processes as much as possible and use standard procedures, or else they'd never do anything else but review take down requests Putting it online is a two-edged sword, true. I suppose instead of just putting it online on a web site, you could always just put it out there as a free eBook through Amazon, B&N etc. Some authors have found success putting work online for free, but not a great percentage of them. I don't read free stuff on the web, so I'm not sure what the average quality is.
Buyers do look at reviews, I bet we've stopped this thief's sales even if Amazon leaves the product up: An Email from Amazon: As for too many requests, that's why I opt for a Chat exchange. But it doesn't always help, like with EBay. What I did in that case was I monitor the thief's feedback and when a new seller shows up I send them a warning. I've prevented him from stealing from a number of people that way.
There is more interesting stuff in the NPR article: I may have to look into that WarriorForum when I have more time. Some people really suck.
1. Register your story. You cannot initiate legal action (in the USA) until you do this. 2. Collect your paper trail. All your prior drafts, outlines and notes. Those are your evidence if it does come down to litigation. 3. Consult a literary attorney. It may not be worth the expense of taking it to court, but a lawyer may be able to help you with letters to the right people to slap down the plagiarist, possibly get him or her blackballed (especially if he or she has stolen other work, which is very likely).
Given some of the perps are in other countries, it would be hard to get any satisfaction through the legal system unless you were a top selling author. What's really worrisome is if people have made zip files and your stuff is in one, you might be looking at a whack-a-mole situation. You could stop sales only to have your work show up again and again under different names. If the sellers and the web sites that host writing don't address it, people won't be able to post anything for free on those sites. One thing a person could do, and it's sort of an out there suggestion, is publicize your work as 'so good the thieves can't leave it alone'. I think the web site the works are being stolen from would be interested in stopping it more than Amazon would be, but, it depends on so many things. People need to make the wheels squeak or it will just get worse. All you have to do, it seems, is a bit of cutting and pasting and money comes in. That's just too tempting for criminals to resist. Now that I think about it, why don't those sites just block copy/paste? Other sites do.
Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but not an IP lawyer, so take my advice with a pinch of salt. The first step is to decide whether this is about money, or the principle. If it's about the principle, then forget court action, it won't be worth it. What I would do if its just about the principle is: 1. Draft a letter meeting the requirements of Amazon's infringement policy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_14061711_claimcopyright?nodeId=201140760). This letter should state explicitly, in a clear, chronological fashion the events from your drafting and posting of the story to today. Keep the letter short, and address each required point in a separate paragraph (I can look over this for you). Ask for Amazon to follow up with you as to the action they have taken. 2. Draft a letter to the author or publisher of the book, stating that you have notified Amazon in accordance with their copyright infringement policy, that their work has infringed copyright. Say nothing else. Do not provide specific information or evidence of the infringement to them. Do not make threats. Do not send cease and desist letters. Be very civil. This letter informs them only of the action you have taken. 3. If you are so inclined, get an IP lawyer to look over these letters. Drafting them first will save a tonne of money, but still expect it to cost a good couple of hundred dollars. Likely also the lawyer will try and persuade you to litigate, make clear that you do not want to pursue court action. Unless you actually want to go to court, this step may not even be required; likely the letters themselves will be enough. 4. Send the letters in electronic form and also a duplicate by mail. Make copies of everything. 5. Wait. Follow up with Amazon in a month or so. Do NOT contact the author/publisher again, unless you want to pursue court action, and even then, do so through a lawyer. Again, happy to look at the drafts if you like. TPM
[MENTION=16167]Peanut[/MENTION] monster, I already sent a letter. It probably isn't professional so I'll take you up on your offer when I get home.
Often, with cease and desist letters, or letters of that sort, you want to be sure not to give the other side grounds to file a Declaratory Judgment action. In this particular case, I don't think you have to worry about that
There's another thing to consider, though. Publishing online (even on this forum) is a way to PROVE you are the author of a piece. If the OP hadn't had her stuff published on fictionpress in the first place (with a verifiable date) she would not have been able to prove she'd written it. So perhaps publishing things online ...even just snippets ...is a good thing? I suppose another way to do this is to send stuff to people you trust via email. Emails are also date-stamped and can be produced as evidence of authorship, should the need arise.
About the publishing my story online thing. Obviously I knew when I published it online, I was basically signing away my rights to make solid money on it. But I look at it two ways A) for a period of time (may still be true now), I hadn't written anything sellable. So it was a moot point. And B) I want people to see what I wrote, give opinions on it and hopefully I come away a better writer. If I want to make money on my stories, I can always just start charging with the next one. It really doesn't make sense to me to write a story and then hide it away on the off chance I polish it enough that someone will accept it for publishing. I can understand doing that when you have more skill as a writer, and maybe have the resources (friends, research contacts) to help you polish your story makes it even easier. I should probably do the copyright thing though. Seems like having one gives me more options if this sort of thing happens again.
Ah. The best thing to do with Amazon is to send the notice by email. As long as you have all the information they ask for when it comes to copyright complaints, you shouldn't have any trouble.
definitely!... all valid points i'd consider in drafting a letter... good, knowledge-based advice from you, as usual, steepike... thanks for adding the requisite specifics...
You're welcome [MENTION=373]mammamaia[/MENTION]. I end up dealing with this particular issue a lot, because a lot of my clients find infringing products popping up on the internet. At times, it is definitely reduced to a game of whack-a-mole.
It's a game of whack-a-mole, but they do have to put a bit of effort in to make all the moles, and if they get stopped a month in like this case, they are going to have a hard time making money off it. In any case, I want to re-iterate how much I appreciate you guys chiming in on the issue. I'm going to copyright my stuff in the future (probably starting with this story). I assume copyrighting stuff is easy to do.
