By Mary Adair
Another Google Alert hit my inbox. It is amazing how my
books are so popular on sites like https://www.flowerfun.net/signup?sf=eone
, another site I did not give permission to give my books away. This site
offers a “Free” membership with the promise, for supplying the required
validation of your account, “Validate Account …Your credit card will NOT be
charged for validating your account.” Makes me want to shout out…”Are you
kidding??? You take content from authors without permission, while asking
people to trust you not to use their credit card information??
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| Book pirates are an author's worst enemy |
Of course there are pretty tough penalties against using a
person’s credit card without permission. But then again, if the CC number is
“given” away by the owner to a site that has no qualms about freely giving away
or selling author’s work without compensation or permission, maybe there would
be a loophole…
I would be impressed if the people reading books by joining
one of these sites that send out unlimited titles for “Free” or for a “low
membership fee” without compensating the author of the work, would at least
thank the author for the enjoyable “read” by going to sites like
www.goodreads.com and leaving a review. If the reader didn’t mention the site
that provided the creative works without permission of the author, no one would
know they obtained the work by bypassing the author and the review would be a
nice “Thank you” to the author.
I personally believe most members of these sites are fans of
the authors they read and do not realize how they hurt the authors by
supporting sites that distribute these creative works of art into which their
creators pour their hearts and souls for the enjoyment of their readers and
fans.
I received a Google Alert this morning, telling me that one of my books is "free" on a pirate website. Grrrr. I'll send the thieves a DMCA notice and ask them to remove the book, but that's only a temporary fix. Seems like another pirate site pops up immediately! I think the only way to shut down these sites is to educate readers about how piracy affects authors, and point out the dangers of handing over their credit card info to criminals. Thank you for posting about this ongoing problem.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting that. Something I wasn't aware of.
ReplyDeleteI get these nearly every day. Really frosts my pumpkin.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, all of my books--even backlist titles I haven't yet published as ebooks--have been pirated. In fact, hundreds of websites have offered my books "free" to subscribers. More copies are pirated and offered free each month than I sell. I pay MUSO to send Takedowns, but it's like the Dutch boy sticking his thumb in the dike to keep back the flood. I wonder if the people who pirate our books and their subscribers who try to get them for free ever think that they're affecting a working writer's ability to pay the bills, save for retirement, buy food for their families. Why don't people realize what these pirates are really doing is stealing?
ReplyDeleteI have several times had a Google alert for all my books on what I assumed was a 'pirate' site but when I looked for a sign in tab or some means of contact, in order to send a 'stop and desist' notice, the site mysteriously dropped and all the details disappeared, so I can only assume that it was some sort of virus or trojan horse, although I'm not sure how it worked as usually these things are spread by clicking a link. As others have said, pirate sites ares so prolific, as fast as one gets closed down two others pop up. I'm sure the average reader doesn't even stop to think about why the books are being given 'free' or for a 'subscription charge' and haven't a clue that they're actually robbing writers of their (modest) livelihood. The only recourse we have is, as as you say, to educate people but I fear we're fighting a losing battle.
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