PRETTY LITTLE LIAR BOOK THIEF in ARGENTINA -- DONATES 10% to CHARITY

Oh, EBAY should be proud.

So should the HUMANE SOCIETY.

Here's a lovely Latina in Argentina, a "fairy princess," who very kindly steals from rich authors and publishers, gives 10% to dogs and cats, and the rest to herself.

The header is typical of the eBook thieves. It obviously is offering a digital download (note: NO postage charge, despite this auction being from somebody in Argentina).

The cute part is that this seller will be donating 10% of her theft to charity. So leave her alone, she's doing GOOD WORK.

Like most of the conniving con-artists offering illegal downloads from Argentina, Russia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Russia, etc. this one adds that caveat that eBay requests. You know, the one that pretends that the seller is a) the copyright owner or b) has re-sale rights and c) is aware digital downloads aren't legal so will be sending the item by mail...even though it's a digital file, and the feedback always mentions "it was easy to download, thanks."

What will end this abuse?

Authors and publishers need to check EBAY once a week and take a MINUTE to send offending auction numbers to vero@ebay.com.

It's the only sure way to defeat all loopholes.

If the author, publisher or other authorized person can state "under penalty of perjury" that the pretty little liar does NOT own copyright and is NOT authorized to re-sell pdf/mobi/epub/kindle files, the item is removed. The seller will usually be suspended if there are multiple complaints.

FOLLOW-UP, OCT 7th - This seller, reported to the charity involved, reported to several book publishers, is no longer offering illegal dupe eBooks. For the moment.

BREIN Fights GOOGLE - Where's the Publisher Equivalent Fighting EBAY?

We know the truth. "Just a Venue" organizations such as GOOGLE and EBAY are partners in crime with BOOTLEGGERS.

Google's YouTube, Blogspot and GooglePlay allow anyone to post, share and sell copyrighted material. This material then makes money for the uploader AND for Google.

Similarly, EBAY will allow somebody to get five accounts all supposedly based in Russia, or ten accounts all supposedly based in Sri Lanka, and even coach these sellers on how to bootleg eBooks with impunity. As in: "Say in your ad you own copyright or it's public domain" and "Say in your ad that you won't be offering a digital download but will send the item by mail."

Whether it's GOOGLE or EBAY the bottom line is that the giant company gets bigger. The Internet monsters have gotten to the point where they can dictate to once-powerful giants. Amazon can tell Disney and can tell book companies, "Nope, we are NOT carrying your product unless you PLAY BALL WITH US." Google's YouTube will say "Sorry, NBC, ABC, CBS, Columbia, Warners and RCA, you might as well play ball with us, and upload your product and get a few pennies in royalties, because we will make you jump through DMCA hoops on EVERY violation you want to report."

What's it take to get justice? Apparently a government agency. In Holland, BREIN is fighting Google's hypocrisy.

Where's the agency looking out for writers? Do writer's unions do nothing except take a huge fee and offer a dental plan? Does HarperCollins, Simon & Shuster and the others think that finding a "Web Sheriff" agency (like Digimarc) is enough? What does Digimarc do? Put in a digital mark on Kindle files so they can track if they're being illegally uploaded and downloaded at Kickass or Demonoid or Pirate Bay? That does NO good when those torrent sites snicker and ignore take-down requests. And where's Digimarc when it comes to filing a DMCA on eBay against a Sri Lanka seller with a long list of best-selling authors being abused?

The publishing world is SUPPOSEDLY full of bright, literate people. It's SUPPOSEDLY loaded with authors who want to champion truth and beauty, and point out injustices and make the "human condition" a little better. Instead, the scummiest Internet torrent sites and even the biggest auction site (EBAY) can get away with massive copyright abuse?

Where's the BREIN for authors and publishers, telling EBAY they can NOT allow pdf mobi epub kindle sellers to run rampant?

Where's the BREIN for authors and publishers, demanding that torrents be blocked and that every ISP shut down service to those who download from them?

Imagine what would happen if the average person couldn't easily go to torrents, forums and blogs, and download the latest best sellers. They'd buy that material, or at least take it out of the library.

BREIN is showing that GOOGLE is not GOD. It's time for politicians to pass strong laws that reduce the power of these gigantic monopolies.

There should be an American version doing the same.

It's also time that publishers and unions truly get organized and quash flagrant abuse. The RIAA can take down any seller who offers the Top 10 albums on mp3. That's why you don't see that crap on eBay, even from ubiquitous Sri Lanka sellers with a dozen aliases. Where's the publisher equivalent?

AUTHOR BE AWARE: Your Books Stolen at the Forums

A funny thing happens in the forums: authors get their books "shared" without permission.

Yes, THIS is how the books also end up on EBAY where they are SOLD without permission.

Caveat Emptor? Sure, right here:

If your book was released in ebook format, it's probably being given away on the Internet RIGHT NOW. Most likely in a forum, rather than a blog or torrent.

OK. Do I need to define my terms?

Blog: This used to be where music thieves prospered. Google's "Blogspot" was a pioneer in allowing anyone to get a blog for any purpose. Quickly, bloggers learned they could make money by stealing music, or offering thousands of porn images, etc. The blogger would put a Paypal "tip jar" on the blog. "Want more? Tip me." The blogger would also hook up with Rapidshare, Megaupload, and other "cloud lockers" that would pay the blogger for his "hard work" in upping stolen files.

Rapidshare and Megaupload are long gone, and blogs aren't so popular for copyright theft. That's because of forums and torrents.

Forums, which usually require signing up to become a member, are hidden hives for "sharing" anything and everything. "Sharers" are protected. If links disappear (get reported), the moderator can see who looked at that post, and soon determine the spy. The spy is booted, the ISP blocked, and the thievery continues. A great benefit of forums is one can type in a name and instantly get the goodies, as there are dozens if not hundreds of people all "sharing" files.

Torrents? Most, like the forums, are "private." The idea here is that instead of using a "file locker," people all hook together electronically and suck files off each other's designated "sharing file." You put your favorite mp3 music files or pdf mobi kindle book files into a folder that all your fellow torrenters can access. The more popular the file, the quicker the download.

At the moment, forums still beat out the torrents because most people don't know how torrents work and are leery of letting strangers have access, even limited, to their computers. Since individuals in forums upload their own files to their choice of "cloud" server, they alone pocket the money they get.

Back to the funny things that happen in forums. Like seeing your book being given away.

I discovered this myself. My "Horror Stars on Radio" book, from McFarland, turned up in several forums.

Take your choice on how that happened: a) the publisher sends review copy eBooks to anyone with a blog, including those who secretly hustle them around to make money for themselves, or b) somebody bought the book on Amazon and decided it was so great they wanted to "share" it with people who might otherwise not know about it. Thus, they get a hearty "thanks!" and a "wow, great book" for themselves.

As obscure as my "Horror Stars on Radio" book is, forums have others even more esoteric. In one day, September 15, a fellow posted over ONE HUNDRED text books, including these:

In order for people not to spend any bread, and to make sure nobody "spoils the fun," most pirates spread their links to a variety of "cloud" servers. Usually they stick to servers that will kick back some money to them. Speaking of bread:

Just click the link, and off you go, to a "cloud" server that might toss a few ads in your face, or hope you'll "buy a premium account" for a faster download. The deal is often that the uploader gets a penny for every download, or maybe twenty five cents ends up buying a "premium account" thanks to the enticing item.

I know, it seems very petty. Authors usually don't make minimum wage for the time they put into a book. But if you're a Communist (and many uploaders are, in theory if not in Russia) your view is "everything should be shared." And if you make a few kopeks while you do it, why not?

If you're a Capitalist, why, you rationalize that the author is rich, or should be happy to be published, and YOU living in Plano, Texas or in Sri Lanka or wherever, can help pay your low rent with a little help from energetic uploading.

Today's post was inspired by a friend of mine.

She e-mailed that she was waiting and waiting and waiting to get Chrissie Hynde's new book out of the library. She was waiting for some other book, too, and apparently the one copy was stalled. Somebody lost it? Stole it? She remarked, "I suppose I could find it on line." (Hint Hint).

She only knew of the famous torrents, the nasty-named Pirate Bay, Kickass, Demonoid, etc.

But as you see from the above, the old-fashioned "forums" that have a huge range of freebies (books, magazines, tv episodes, music, porn, plus general chat areas) are still doing well.

Yes, I found the two books she wanted and e-mailed her the links. Why? My rationalization was that she wasn't going to buy the books anyway. I was just helping out a friend who was waiting on the New York Public Library that had a long list of people waiting on one title, and had apparently lost the other title entirely.

See how easy it is to rationalize?

Ten years ago, when mp3 files became popular, the rationalization in forums, and on blogs (torrents weren't around yet) was: "This is like sharing. What's wrong with making a copy for a friend?"

The answer was that we're not talking about friends, but a conspiracy of strangers. We're talking about blogs where one egomaniac with a desire to be a "blogfather" and get tons of "nice comments" offers downloads of HUNDREDS of items, each one going to THOUSANDS of downloaders. That's massive piracy.

In an era of self-entitlement, of "Ashley Madison" websites, of hedonism, of "enjoy yourself before you're blown up or the planet starts burning from the heat," we overlook little things like copyright. The chant in the forums is "copyright is COPY WRONG," and guys like Assange are heroes, because, don't you know, copying copyrighted material is actually "freedom of speech."

And so it is, and so it goes. You, AUTHOR, are losing sales. Bookstores are disappearing. Jeff Bezos has helped turn readers into Kindlers, and real books are becoming fire wood. Used bookstores must rely on old-fashioned readers, and on sales of books that have not yet been digitized. But, ha ha, most any "public domain" book HAS been digitized by a library somewhere, and has ended up at archive.org or at the Gutenberg Project. PS, there are dedicated "sharers" out there who feel it's their duty to digitize every magazine or book they can stick on a scanner.

Meanwhile, with very little effort (just joining a few of the "usual suspect" forums, everyone has plenty to read. FREE. And the more people get for FREE the less they need to buy.

The bottom line is probably: "How can this be stopped? Isn't this a bad situation for the economy?"

The answer is that yes, it's bad, and yes it can be stopped IF governments stop being Assange-holes and understand that blocking nasty websites or shutting them down is a good idea. It's pathetically rare the number of times ICE or some other government agency blocks a site such as Megaupload. It's pathetic how many years it takes to get a site taken down and get the perp prosecuted.

Megaupload was owned by an obese German who legally changed his name to "Kim Dotcom," and ended up with the gaudiest estate in New Zealand, a palace of excess. The U.S. government, some four years later, is still wrangling to extradite him and keep his bank account frozen.

Every time the government proposes any type of new law, such as SOPA, the Asssange-holes, abetted by Google, Wikipedia and others who profit off copyright abuse, make sure it's shot down. They scream about "Freedom of Speech," forecast doom, and even "go black" for a day, encouraging the wrath of hackers and other greedheads.

Ebay has been getting away with being a mammoth fence for stolen goods, including book files, because they can claim to be "just a venue." They will say "We have no idea if Ms. Rule or Mr. Patterson or anyone else gave permission for one of our sellers to offer all their books on PDF format, delivered on a CD or thumb drive. It's fine with us, unless they tell us otherwise."

What can change that ignorant, greedy, destructive thinking? Perhaps lobbying by publishers, or by the do-nothing author unions. The fact is, EBAY chooses not to allow certain things on their site, from chloroform to used panties. They do have a rule against selling "digital downloads" that bidders can get via e-mail or a cloud service, but the current loophole is that the auction stays IF the seller states "I am the copyright owner or authorized re-seller" and/or "I will ship the $2.99 pdf file from Croatia via postal mail, because eBay policy forbids e-mailing it." Ebay conveniently ignores that the seller gets positives with lines like "thanks, great item, it was easy to download!" So it's up to the author to send in a complaint saying "I'm the copyright owner, not this seller using five different accounts..."

We've seen the utter destruction of the music world due to piracy. Record stores are gone. Out of print records are thrown all over the forum world, and you can use YouTube as a jukebox to find even very obscure singles or entire albums. Will the publishing world, supposedly full of smart, creative people, allow this to happen to them?

How EBAY Coaches Sellers to Cheat Authors

Digital book files are flying all over the Internet. The stealing is called "sharing."

It's no surprise that EBAY sellers get the idea they can "re-sell" pdf/mobi/kindle files like second-hand books. Or, keep making copies.

When a seller declares "I will send you the file by e-mail" or "you will get a download link within 24 hours," that's the big red flag. IF anyone reports the link, it's taken down.

EBAY then helpfully points to their policy, and how to find loopholes to get around it.

What all of that means is that sellers shouldn't put their files in the "books" category, and they should lie and claim they own the rights.

Like so:

Only the above caveat was, irony of ironies, at the bottom of an ad for a pdf bootleg of "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak.

EBAY, hiding behind the "Digital Millenium Act," which was put into law well before "file sharing" became popular, declares "we are JUST a venue." They can't be sure if some guy in Sri Lanka owns the rights to Zusak's book or not.

With the caveat in place, nobody can report the auction except Zusak (his agent, publisher or whoever he's designated as his "VeRO - Verified Rights Owner" rep.

Look at the "Guidelines" below, and you'll see that EBAY coaches sellers (big yellow block) on the correct weasel words to use.

It's fortunate that most illiterate EBAY thieves never read the above guidelines, so they do get stopped. Again and again. Unfortunately, EBAY is very lenient about suspending anyone. The hardcore Sri Lanka bunch (some actually in Texas but faking a foreign location) get 10 or 20 aliases so they can pile up plenty of warnings.

The true professional penny-ante thieves add the lying caveat about "owning the rights" or declaring the new book "public domain," and so, bottom line, it's up to the rights owner to take a minute (literally, that's all it takes) to send the auction number in for removal. Yes, too often EBAY will figure the seller has simply made an "honest" mistake in claiming to own the rights to everything Rowling, King or Patterson wrote. But if that seller does it a second time on the same author, that IS a suspendable offense.

I know. Authors have plenty to do without glancing at eBay once a week, and that's especially true of the big shots. But EVERY author should be staying vigilant, for the good of all. The more people get free, or via bootlegs, the less they buy.

How THE BOOK THIEF is stealing THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusac. And YOUR book?

Oh, the IRONY.

Here's a seller in INDIA illegally making dupes of THE BOOK THIEF.

What a BARGAIN, only $2.99 for the PDF

This auction was reported to EBAY by a fan. EBAY let the auction stand.

Why?

Not every employee at EBAY is literate OR observant.

The fan went through the proper procedure. He found that little line in the ad that says "REPORT LINK."

He then used the menu to select the reason for the report and direct it to an employee expert enough to handle the particular complaint:

Too bad whoever glanced at the ad didn't notice the line about sending the book digitally (in violation of eBay rules).

They missed what I underlined in RED, which admits the book will, against eBay rules, be sent by e-mail (or by digital download off a "cloud locker.")

Ebay sellers often put the "I will send this via e-mail" or "you will get a download link" at the bottom of an ad, where an EBAY rep might not notice. I know, you'd think EBAY would channel complaints to an employee that knows what to look for, but that's not always the case.

What happens if EBAY doesn't enforce their own rules?

A fan can send in another complaint. Ebay cautions filing again "delays" the process. Perhaps indefinitely.

The other option is to contact the author, who should then send in a VeRO (verified rights owner) complaint, or have the publisher handle it.

If an author can't be reached (through a website, Facebook or Twitter) a bad alternative is to go to the book company's website. It may have a "report privacy" link on their website, only it may NOT work.

It's akin to "put it in the round file." Apparently book companies don't have some intern or "editorial assistant" to e-mail eBay with an auction number. Instead they forward the complaint to a "service" like Web Sheriff or Grayzone etc. These companies are expensive and mostly involved in finding download links at Internet torrents, forums and blogs. If they charge a buck per takedown, they may be instructed NOT to bother with eBay at all. They may also be told to concentrate only on certain authors.

What can be done?

It would of course be helpful if so-called "writer's unions" (the kind that have a rep stand around at a BEA convention boasting about dental plans) got into he game. It would be helpful of publishers seriously patrolled eBay.

It would also help if eBay didn't coach their criminals into put in an insane caveat about OWNING the copyright or RESALE rights to the book. This caveat is often enough to make an employee shrug and say "gosh, it sounds legal. We're just a venue. We won't ask the seller to give us proof."

Put the above in an ad, and don't mention the item will actually be sent via download or e-mail, and there's a 50-50 chance the auction will ONLY be stopped if there's a VeRO complaint.

Bottom line? Authors should join VERO, and glance at eBay once a week.

An author can have several "vero reps." It might be the author, the author's agent, the author's nosy Aunt Clara. Just fill in eBay's one-page form and that's it. After that, if a bogus auction is seen, all that's needed is to send in the auction number from one of the authorized e-mail accounts (author, agent, Aunt Clara) and the auction is removed.

Since eBay sellers do face suspension, and it's no longer easy to get multiple accounts, it doesn't take too many stoppages before a bootlegger gives up or IS suspended. The system does work.

ANY AUTHOR CAN BE PDF-MOBI-KINDLE BOOTLEGGED ON EBAY

What do Bradley Nelson, Carole J. Morton, Elissa Braunstein and David Samuel have in common?

Being bootlegged on EBAY.

Remember the old days when somebody would simply buy a book, then re-sell it to a used book dealer? Now that there's eBay, it seems that buyers of a download think they not only have the "right" to re-sell, but to, oh, make a few extra copies as well.

This EBAY seller probably bought original downloads of things he/she was interested in: obscure self-help, poetry and non-fiction. Then?

The ad makes no attempt to disguise how the book will be delivered, or that it is COPYRIGHTED.

This seller even offers items for only two dollars.

The above book is NOT one of those "public domain" titles that eBay nickel-and-dimers often sell. It's not one of the zillion "Get Rich on Ebay" "200 Great Sex Tips" "300 Fab Recipes" titles. And neither is this one:

The seller's eclectic list seems to involve personal likes...transformed into extra cash. Just not for the author. The seller puts them up as 30 day buy-it-now, with anywhere from 2 to 10 copies available.

Ebay, the "just a venue" people, say it's up to public-spirited citizens and alert authors and publishers to stop sellers like this.

In this case, the seller is violating eBay's rule on "digital downloads." It's pretty obvious this seller has no idea there IS such a rule, and probably no idea that copying anything in this age of Pirate Bay and YouTube is actually illegal.

Sadly, all this seller probably had to do was add a caveat, "I will send this book via the mail, as eBooks downloaded from a cloud service is illegal," to keep the auctions running. At least for a while. Ebay is about 50-50 in seeing through that conjob line. Sometimes an employee realizes it's a ruse, or checks a seller's personal messages to verify that download links are being offered. But sometimes, a seller keeps going for a very, very long time and is only stopped when enough authors and publishers send a VeRO (verified rights owner) complaint via fax or e-mail.

The Fake "KINDLE STORE" is NO MORE. Thanks to Author Protests

For month after month, racking up over 400 positives, stealing $7,000 or even $10,000 in author royalties, a fake KINDLE STORE on eBay was making big money.

Who were the victims?

Richar Price, Anita Diamant, Lisa Gardner, Robert J. Shiller, Danielle Steel, Anne Tyler, Bill O'Reilly, Allison Pataki, Kristin Hannah, Jeffrey Archer, Susanna Kearsley, Jacqueline Winspear, Bonnie Biafore, Debbie Macomber, Helen MacDonald, George Hodgman, Stephen King, Dorothea Benton Frank, Joseph Finder...

In other words, a VERY wide selection of anyone whose book the fake KINDLE STORE owner thought could be easily stolen and copied.

This was happening on EBAY, with offices in Utah and California.

We're not talking about elusive torrents in Croatia or Sweden run by scofflaws.

TODAY, I can report that the fake KINDLE STORE is NO MORE.

Several authors filed complaints. It's possible that Amazon also did, tossing the final A-bomb.

Yes, there are still some weasels on the site right now, but none as bold and brazen as this seller was.

But how did this eBay account stay in business for so long?

The answer is that authors were not paying attention and the seller used a ridiculous caveat that EBAY allowed. Here's a typical ad.

You'll note the caveat loaded with lies:

"The eBook does not infringe on any eBay or Vero Rules...I am within my legal rights to resell this e-Book..."

"I am either the Author, the copyright holder, or an authorized reseller, or this item is in public domain..."

"I will send this item by postal mail. Sendint it my email...violates eBay policy."

Over the past months, some parasites and maggots on eBay have refined their games with the above caveat. This is because it IS against eBay rules to use "digital downloading," and anyone, include fans of an author, could use the "report this item" link to have the auction removed.

By claiming to have permission, and pretending to not use digital downloading, only the author, agent or publisher can report an auction and have it removed.

I literally called eBay on this. Ebay, of course, is infamous for hiding behind the Digital Milennium Act, and the line, "we are JUST a venue."

But, to do them justice, they will often see through a blatant ad that simply says "This auction does not violate rules" when it does. Ebay personnel will often note that an illegal book auction from Sri Lanka or Kenya can't possibly involve sending the item by mail when the cost of postage is more than the winning bid.

But in this case, when I called eBay, I got somebody who wasn't listening.

I asked an eBay employee (you can only reach the lowest level with an ordinary phone call) how this seller could be legit when the feedback included such lines as "I was able to download the book" and "The download link worked just fine."

The eBay employee: "That's not enough evidence for us."

So the seller could only be stoppoed by a copyright holder filing a complaint.

Guess who DIDN'T notice the ads and DIDN'T send in a DMCA month after month?

Yes, this seller, pretending to be some kind of affiliate of Amazon's KINDLE store, was pocketing as much as $10 per title.

For month after month, this seller got away with it, based on an inane loophole and authors and publishers not paying attention, assuming that eBay patrols its site (which it does not).

The seller was able to sell 40 or more "bargain" dupes of over 60 authors' works. Two examples:

Ebay bootleggers have it easy. They just go to the "usual" torrent sites (Kickass, Demonoid, Pirate Bay) or hidden forums, download the latest best sellers, and then duplicate them for profit. 40 copies of Larson's book at $7.49. Multiply that by over 60 titles this seller had before being shut down. How many termites does it take to destroy a home?

What extermination method was used to stop this abuse?

Using Twitter, a dozen authors were alerted to the problem with links to the eBay ads. AND, several e-mails were sent to Amazon advising them that since they own trademark on KINDLE, and have deals with all the authors, they CAN and SHOULD protest the abuse. While authors were losing a dollar or two in royalties, Amazon was losing a full $10 or $12 on each theft, and there were thousands of them.

Yes, Amazon can absorb the loss of $10,000 worth of sales with an eBayer taking home $7,000 or so instead. But "it's the principle of the thing." And the more it happens, the more eBay sellers will do it. And the publishing world is in enough trouble. And aren't writers and publishers a little smarter than the record labels and rock stars that let their industry collapse and let Tower Records and the other stores go out of business due to piracy?

While right now on eBay you're likely to find the top authors (Patterson, Rowling, Clancy, James, King) being bootlegged with "every book for $7.99" via download or a CD, DVD or thumb drive, even mid-level authors are being abused and it's up to them and their publishers to give eBay a look once a week and file a VeRO (verified rights owner) stoppage.

It's easy. All eBay requires is that someone in authority (author, agent, publisher) sign a form which is then on file in eBay's VeRO division. After that, all that's needed is the auction number submitted by e-mail or fax to VERO@EBAY.COM. Item is removed, usually within 24-48 hours.

The good thing about eBay, versus the torrents or forums, is that it's not "whack-a-mole." Sellers DO get suspended (case in point here). Once suspended it's not easy to get back. Unlike Google's "Blogspot" for example, eBay requires sellers to use a valid credit card. After a suspension, it's not difficult to match up the offending seller's phone number and address and other information, or see that the seller is bootlegging the same items again. Most don't even try.

A big THANK YOU to the authors and/or Amazon for putting the nail into the coffin of a parasitic vampire who had been rolling along for many many months, making thousands of dollars off other peoples' work.

This seller had 64 titles online a few days ago.

Today?