Are you an author or a BLIP? On eBAY you're a BLIP and a DRIP and a FOOL'S TOOL

Here's a Brit Twit who has gathered hundreds of books into download files. That's illegal on eBay, but eBay doesn't care very much. Even a "REPORT ITEM" complaint only has a 50-50 chance of getting the auction removed.

Publishers and authors need to get into the game a little more and knock this junk off. To this worthy, an author's output is nothing but a few hundred blips for moneygrubbing some nickels and dimes.

LOVELY. LOVELY.

A lot of eBay sellers know to go to the torrents (which most normal people don't bother with), grab hundreds and hundreds of book files FREE, and then charge for them on eBay, either in compilation form like THIS, or individually.

Aside from Amazon, eBay is THE BIGGEST WEBSITE IN THE WORLD for sales. People coming to eBay to buy books...should BUY BOOKS, actual, real books, not dupes via a download, or burned onto a 25 cent DVD and mailed away.

Due to lax DMCA laws, EBAY isn't obligated to ask a seller like this, "Show us your licensing." They may pay attention to a "REPORT ITEM" complaint from a bidder, but are more likely to remove an item like this if a copyright owner complains. There's PLENTY to complain about with this scavenging swine. He tosses hundreds of books into a cloud, and in this case, lists them:

How many of those titles are still in copyright? With most sellers, at least half are. But the sellers don't give a damn.

An irony is that even if they were public domain, eBay does not permit "digital delivery" because it's so fraught with the potential for abuse.

Sellers often list what's on a disc, figuring there's little risk of authors or publishers seeing and reporting the auction. Some sellers simply declare, "there are SO many books we can't list them all," and that's fine with eBAY. It's not so fine for bookstores, which already face dwindling sales because of Kindle and Nook. It's not so fine for libraries, who are often more of an Internet cafe than a library now, with tables full of computers replacing shelves full of books.

Books are being devalued by being turned into blips that appear on a Nook or a Kindle. AUTHORS should not also be considered BLIPS, to be ignored and ripped off by petty nickel and dime greedheads. Authors are accustomed to working cheap, and to get a few dollars per book as a "royalty." Now, with eBay, those few dollars are going into the pockets of blatant thieves who do nothing but harvest pdf, ePub and mobi files, toss them into a file, and offer them for a low-priced lowdown download.

DANNY BOY - Still a Member on eBay but no longer a Bootlegging Dick

More on account of violations of PAYPAL rules, DANNY BOY is NOT selling his bootlegs.

What was particularly galling about this character, was eBay's apathetic attitude toward his blatant flaunting of their rules. Ebay phone support admitted again and again, "Yes, this is against our Terms of Service" and "Yes, we do not allow digital delivery," and "Yes, the ads all say the items will be sent via email or download, which is not allowed." And did they end the auctions? No.

The excuse? Either it was buck passing ("I will forward this to our team...") or it was a shrug: "We have MILLIONS of auctions on our site, we can't get to all of them." To eBay, piracy against authors, and the parasitic destruction of book stores and libraries doesn't mean much. Even logic doesn't seem to apply, as in: "If Danny Boy sells the ENTIRE Dan Brown collection for a few dollars, hundreds of eBay sellers CAN'T make a sale. People are going to happily get a digital download that's not even the price of ONE used book with shipping."

Another galling aspect was that this seller had a template that looked VERY professional and convincing. Did bidders understand that this guy was bootlegging? That the authors were not being paid? The ads all seemed like he MUST be some big company with licensing agreements. Or something. Fortunately, on October 26th, it finally came to an end. NO MORE of this character.

Happily for DANNY BOY, he doesn't have to return the hundreds of dollars he made. Paypal took their cut. Ebay took their cut. Google hosted the "cloud" service that let bidders download the illegal files.

DANNY BOY would've been knocked off months ago if publishers took their heads out of their asses and did the MINIMUM in protecting themselves and their authors on eBay. This would be to have an intern check eBay once a week.

EBAY is second to AMAZON as the biggest sales site on the Net. People come to eBay looking for new or used books...and should NOT see offers for bootleg downloads. The publishing world is supposedly smarter than the music world, where drugged up cokeheaded idiots allowed mp3 bootlegging to put record stores out of business and make it impossible for many artists, even established ones, to stay on a major label.

Ebay doesn't have people selling mp3 files of the new Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran albums. It's much easier to get the new Ruth Ware or Dan Brown book. Ebay doesn't have people offering every Beatles album via a download link. But Stephen King? DANNY BOY had 72 Stephen King novels available for a mere THREE DOLLARS. It's time to take Ebay bootlegging a lot more seriously. It's offensive, it's insulting and it's dangerous to the future of publishing.

DANNY BOY - A week later, and STILL BOOTLEGGING

Howwww slowwwww is eeeeeeBayyyyyyyy?

Let's not make any comparisons to turtle shit. Let's just note that Danny Boy, who has been reported over and over, and was written up again on October 10th is STILL on eBay. Ireland's favorite son continues to STEAL from authors and act like he has EVERY RIGHT TO DO IT.

It's sort of like the potato famine. Isn't it? Oh, it isn't? Well, explain to Danny Boy that authors would like to $3 or $4 he steals from them, per book, so he can have a beer and a packet of crisp while getting turned down by every woman at the bar. Or is it every man?

Of course part of the secret with my lad Danny, is he picks on morons like George R.R. Moron, who could care less about piracy, or what it does to other authors, to publishers, to Mom and Pop bookstores or to libraries.

Let's take a look at who he steals from:

Danny boy will tell the world he has a right to offer DOWNLOADS and EBOOKS sent directly to Paypal mailing addresses.

And is PAYPAL telling him not to? No, they are not. Is eBAY telling him not to? Oh, not really. According to Phone Support, they've warned him several times. But he hasn't been taking those warnings too seriously. And he's only had ONE stoppage from a VeRO rep for an author or publisher. So he keeps right on going.

Begorrah! What a fine, fine lad our DANNY BOY is, and what a FINE, FINE bunch he's hooked up with, the lads PAYPAL and EBAY, sharing in what Danny steals.

SLAP DANNY BOY'S WRIST, LIMPLY. EBAY LOVES THEIR BOOTLEGGERS

You remember DANNY BOY?

He's the potato head who keeps right on copying books and BLATANTLY saying he's offering DIGITAL DOWNLOADS and books sent via EMAIL. Illegal? Gee, it actually IS. How many reports has eBay had on him? 20? 30?

"You see," says customer support, "we may warn the seller. We may issue a restriction for a day. We may issue a restriction for a week. We may limit the amount of items the seller can offer. And..." maybe, MAYBE a suspension? NOPE.

Here's DANNY BOY's bootleg of Brandon Sanderson NO LONGER AVAILABLE:

Did greedy Danny Boy take the hint? Of course not. He wants his beer money, our Danny Boy. He doesn't give a shit how hard a writer works on a book. HE figures he's entitled to copy it. He knows that eBay is going to just keep slapping his wrist. He sure as hell knows that PAYPAL won't tell him to give back the money. He's one happy bastard.

Here he is, pushing the Brandon Sanderson stuff a few days later:

What's the lesson here? That arrogant big websites run by CEO's with golden parachutes, don't think they have to play by ANY rules. Certainly not the GOLDEN RULE. Not any of the 10 Commandments.

That's greed. That's entitlement. That's a Communistic disdain for COPYRIGHT and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.