His bidders don't tremble. They giggle. They smirk. They dance around their Kindles squealing like kiddies.
"I AM HAPPY!"
DOZENS AND DOZENS OF TOP NAME AUTHORS ARE BEING BOOTLEGGED BY THIS GUY. YOU'D THINK ONE OF THEM WOULD'VE BLOWN THE WHISTLE BY NOW?
I'm talking about Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Anthony Doerr, James Patterson, Paula Hawkins, Jane Mayer, Kristin Hannah, Veronica Roth, A.J. Rowling, Maya Banks...as well as well-known dead people such as J.D. Salinger, Dale Carnegie and Harper Lee. NOBODY checks eBay on their behalf? NOBODY?
"I AM HAPPY..." ...that they don't check, the gleeful BOOK FANS say:
Here's a small chunk of the 60 or so titles TREMBLE IN FEAR is happily duping and throwing around eBay for his cheap-shit $2 profit.
Two bucks each. Mr. Wonderful sends an e-mail with either a link to his Google cloud, or an attachment of a file, and he's made his money. The two bucks, by the way, could well be the royalty an author would've gotten on a legit sale. So let's not pretend two dollars means nothing. It can be ALL the royalty on a legit Kindle book and even a hardcover or trade paperback.
Mr. FEAR doesn't just indulge in necrophilia on Harper Lee, or stick his shovel into the zombie butt of a rich man like Stephen King. He'll steal from a less famous name, too.
Listen, the guy is ENTITLED. While eBay technically doesn't allow e-mail or "digital delivery" items, he boldly says that's exactly what he does. He even tells off any bidder who doesn't understand.
Isn't it time that Rowling and King and Patterson's people pay attention? If not for their own sake, than for their industry, their fellow authors, and for libraries that are supposed to be the lending alternative for poor people?
Isn't it also about time that eBay doesn't hide behind their "we're just a venue" line?
They also hide behind, "Oh dear, we have millions of new auctions every day, so if you report a seller, we just may not have the time or manpower to do anything. Report again. And again. And again. And if you call up, don't be surprised if a surly employee asks, "So, did YOU buy from this seller? Why are you reporting this seller?"
Supposedly book publishers have experts to handle piracy. It seems like they only pay these experts to look after the newest books for the shortest amount of time.
Ebay is such an easy place to police, and it's so simply to file a takedown (just submit the auction number via e-mail) publishers could have an intern do it for ONE HOUR a week. Instead, most publishers don't allow anyone to report piracy to their website, and pay no attention to complaints they read on Facebook or Twitter.
"I ain't namin' names," as Mr. Zevon once sang, but really, you Random Penguins, you ARE among the least competent of the lot.
