Lawrence Block wrote his books before he was born?

When it comes to eBay bootlegging, you can stretch the truth. You can stomp it flat. Ebay won't blink.

Here WAS a seller who was telling the most blatant and outrageous lies. Dozens upon dozens of authors, who are alive and 40 or 50 years old...were actually born before 1923 and wrote their books before 1923.

File that under "that's my story and I'm sticking to it." And eBay? They aid and abet anyone who brings in money.

The seller had a dozen CD-R and DVD-R collections of everybody's copyrighted books. Like so:

Who discovered it? ONE VeRO rep for ONE author. And no, that VeRO rep wasn't anyone from Digimarc or any of the other flashy and boastful agencies that claim they find, through technology or wizardry or a oujia board, any and all copyright violations.

Were it not for that ONE VeRO rep, this seller's junk would still be on eBay, hundreds of authors would be cheated, and a few more libraries would be dealing with letters demanding they cut back hours.

How insane is that? And here's the finish:

It would be nice if eBay wasn't like the Nazi Sgt. Schultz of "Hogan's Heroes" and blubbering "I see nothing, I know nothing" in the face of outrageous injustice. But at least they'll listen to a copyright rep if one spots something that needs to be stopped.

Too bad there are complacent, apathetic authors and publishers out there, who don't find "I own copyright" offensive, or don't see piracy as dangerous and unacceptable.

The other day I was taking a look at a typical thieving-den forum. The ADMIN announced, "Please do NOT upload anything from Disney. We want to be under the radar. We don't need the aggravation."

Wouldn't it be nice if all companies had the reputation Disney has? That a lesson Disney continues to teach is to RESPECT copyright OR ELSE?

The average person doesn't know about torrents and doesn't spend a lot of time in sneaky forums. That person probably has never even downloaded off Pirate Bay, which gleefully still thumbs their noses at copyright owners and takedown requests. People DO spent their time on eBay. They go there to buy a book at a cheaper price than Amazon, and they see somebody offering REAL cheap bootlegs with impunity. And so they buy.

And if a best selling author and a huge publisher aren't hurt too much by it, not enough to take "appropriate action," a Mom and Pop bookstore is hurt. A library is hurt. And there's a little less caring, sensitivity and morality in the world, and another triumph for greed and stupidity.

Book publishing is supposedly run by people a little more intelligent and less drug-addled than the music industry? Sometimes, especially if you check what they allow on eBay, you wonder what brainless pill-heads are on control of the literary world, and what utter bubble-wrapped impotent fools are at the NY Times Review of Books Tweeting memes all day while books burn. I mean it literally. Books are burning in landfills because it's so easy to get your fill of electronic bootlegs.

Happy New Year for Scholastic R.L. Stine Bootlegging. Heil Goosestepping over Goosebumps

Amazing. 2016, and some publishers are sending the message: "We are SO rich, we are SO busy with our $200 power lunches and standing in line at Starbucks, we won't even have an unpaid intern spend 2 minutes a week keeping our best sellers safe."

Today, FOUR different book-Nazis are stealing Stine's books. It would literally take 2 minutes to stop this farce.

An educational book company? Scholastic? WHAT are you telling the children? That it's OK to steal?

Aren't the self-entitled Millennials seeing enough of that when they sneak over to the torrents and Internet forums and see copyrighted material thrown all over YouTube?

THIS helps?

I mentioned this situation in a few previous posts. It's gotten worse. Instead of two parasites, there are now four.

The price for the Goosebumps set drops every week, while bidders cheer, "Thanks, what a bargain! My kids love this stuff!"

The problem is not whether Stine, Scholastic or his "Parachute Press" are losing a few hundred dollars a week. It's that people are losing respect for copyright, and that other authors and publishers are suffering too. The more people steal, the less they buy. The more people can get from eBay bootleggers, the less reason they have for browsing a bookstore or a library.

Frankly, I'd like to think that authors and publishers are not as stupid as the rock industry, and that instead of seeing record stores go under like the music biz did, the authors and publishers will fight to preserve the bookstores that are left, and the libraries that buy and support all authors, not just best-selling short-sighted twits.

GOOSEBUMPS, ST. JUDE "CHARITY," Scholastic and R.L. Stine Apathy

Remember school and Scholastic books? I don't recall, at a book sale, teachers saying, "Children, if you sneak a few books without paying, it's ok."

I don't recall authors coming to class and saying, "Jeez, I make SO much money, if you walk out without paying, it's ok with me."

Here's an eBay seller (and eBay is, along with Amazon, one of the biggest sales sites on the Internet, very high profile) who is stealing a Scholastic book. But more than that. This seller is claiming to own copyright. AND, this seller from Hoboken is a "Robin Hood" who robs from R.L. Stine and Scholastic and...gives 10% to St. Jude's Hospital.

Where's the 90% go? Oh, of course, to the person who claims to have written the "Goosebumps" series and controls copyright and re-sale rights. Some jerk in Hoboken.

Does Scholastic know? Does R.L. Stine know? Yes and yes.

Would they care to stop this? No, and no.

Would they authorize ME to tell EBAY that this seller actually does NOT own copyright and that the auction should be ended? No, and No.

I don't charge to do what amounts to less than a minute's work. The answer is still NO. Go figure why not. Apathy? Stupidity? No idea what a dangerous thing it is for people to get low-price pirated editions and not support the publishing industry?

How do you like that lovely CHARITY banner?

Ebay encourages sellers to donate some of their profits to a favorite charity. Conveniently, neither eBay or the charity know or care whether the item is a bootleg or not.

Ebay bidders think that this jerk in Hoboken is the real deal. And charitable, too. Gosh, a whole 10% to St. Jude. Marlo Thomas should drive to Hoboken and pin a medal on this clown.

Bootlegging is quite a profitable hobby when it comes to stealing from R.L. Stine and some others who have plenty of time for Twitter and Facebook. There are authors who will tell you what they had for breakfast, and what TV show they're watching at the moment. They don't have a minute to stop someone on eBay who is saying "I own copyright" to their work.

All this seller does is e-mail pdf files. Or give out a password to a cloud download. "I do a few of those, and I can have myself a fine, fine dinner at my favorite restaurant, me and my partner, courtesy of R.L. Stine and Scholastic. Yum Yum!"

It beats clipping coupons.

I certainly don't want to offend Scholastic or Stine by calling them apathetic, short-sighted or ridiculous.

I also don't want to offend any Muslim terrorists out there by using a Yiddish word, but here goes: CHUTZPAH.

It takes a lot of CHUTZPAH for a seller to boldly state, under possible penalty of perjury, an outright LIE.

No, you do NOT own Stine's copyright. You don't own Scholastic's copyright. You are, in essence, raping whores. You are victimizing people who don't have the self-respect to complain.

Read the caveat that EBAY will not question:

Ebay is using a worn-out legal loophole called the DMCA, to aid and abet piracy and to profit from it. Using the loophole, eBay can say, "We're JUST a venue. We have no idea if the seller is telling the truth about owning copyright, and WE WON'T ASK FOR PROOF. All we'll do is act on an e-mail or fax complaint from the copyright or intellectual property rights holder. It's their responsibility to contact us. If they don't, well, less money for them, more for us."

Scholastic and Stine could stop this nonsense. At least become two more people on a bootleggers' "don't mess with" list. So far, they aren't interested.

I guess if they saw schoolkids stealing at a school book sale, they wouldn't want to get involved either. They'd say "kids will be kids."

But the eBay seller in Hoboken is no kid.