A Typical SRI LANKA book thief abusing Top 25 Authors with a DICK of a CAVEAT

Can you imagine walking into Barnes & Noble and leaving with bags full of unpaid books?

You tell the security guard:

"The authors all know me, and told me I could have copies free."

The security guard: "Oh. I'm JUST a security guard. I have no idea if you're telling the truth. Pass, friend."

RIDICULUOS?

This is what goes on at EBAY.

Some book thief in SRI LANKA uses a caveat in his ads — one used by a dozen other Sri Lanka book thieves — and EBAY doesn't challenge it. Then he rips off DOZENS of authors and pockets HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS.

EASY MONEY.

Here's a typical auction, up RIGHT NOW:

Could anything be more ABSURD?

Some jerk in Sri Lanka, offering the ENTIRE output of HARLAN COBAN for less than the price of ONE PAPERBACK, and EBAY nods like a dumb cartoon dog. "Yup, yup, looks ok to US."

Some jerk in Sri Lanka somehow has "Full Resell Rights" from 25 best selling authors?

Some jerk in Sri Lanka covers himself by saying he is EITHER the "Authorized Re-seller" or "the copyright holder" for 100's of books by 25 different famous writers? THESE WRITERS...

Insanity Number ONE:

If this seller was offering used underwear, and wrote: "These will be cleaned before sending them," the auction would end. If this seller was offering opium, and wrote, "In my country it is legal, and I am authorized to export it to America," the auction would end.

Blatantly abuse copyright, and EBAY is like Sgt. Schultz in "Hogan's Heroes" and "knows nnnnnnuthing. NNNNNNNUTHING."

They conveniently point to the lax DMCA rules in America, which state that their website is "just a vehicle" and they have NO obligation to do anything about ads on their site unless they feel like it. OR, if a copyright owner sends in a takedown request.

Insanity Number TWO:

NONE of the authors or their publishers have sent in takedown requests! Just why that is, is a big mystery. Apathy? Incompetence?

Companies that specialize in takedowns, such as DIGIMARC and WEB SHERIFF charge for their services. They charge too much? In that case, why not have an intern check eBay, the most HIGH PROFILE sales site other than Amazon, and knock these sellers off?

Having some 20 years experience in eBay's VERO program, I know that it's very simple to send in a takedown. It takes only a few minutes. Sellers get suspended if they get more than a few takedowns.

There are only a few major publishers left. The seller with 25 items above would be GONE almost instantly if ONE publisher objected.

An RIAA-type takedown specialist representing ALL the major publishers could end this abuse, and keep it under control in less than an hour a week. Isn't it worth it?

And yet the publishers can't get it together. They resist having easy ways to contact them. Only a few have a website with a "report piracy" link, and it seems pretty obvious that if the major authors such as Stephen King and Harlan Coben and Diana Gabaldon and J.K. Rowling and pudgy E.L. James etc. are letting Sri Lanka book thieves amass hundreds of dollars in sales each week, SOMEBODY is being very lax. SOMEBODY is sending the message that book publishers are filthy rich, that Barnes & Noble and bookstores don't need protection, that Barnes & Noble's ePub sales and Amazon's Kindle sales don't need protection, and that the literary minds of the world have no clue about morality. Even if you ARE rich, you don't let somebody claim to OWN your copyright. You don't reward somebody who can barely speak English for copying a DICK of a CAVEAT and lying so obviously.

When the music world first noticed mp3 piracy, everyone shrugged. Now, there are only a few major labels, there's almost no "mid-list," and they rely on the huge sellers to carry them. Indie labels pay nothing and the artists can't make a living on music sales.

The publishing world, which should be a bit smarter, is waiting for MORE bookstores and libraries to close? Waiting for more people who buy cheap copies on EBAY to then "share" this stuff with their friends? Or with strangers on the Internet?

Savvy cheapskates know all about the hidden torrents, forums, and Google's infamous BLOGSPOT blogs, but the average person doesn't. The average person knows that EBAY is a good place to get a used book, a promo copy, and..."well, what's this...a seller offering ALL my author's books, and for less than the price of a paperback! The seller claims to be AUTHORIZED by the AUTHOR. Why, the seller might even BE the author. Why should I clutter my shelves when I can put these on my Kindle, Nook or laptop? What a deal!"

And yes, some of them even leave glowing positives for these sellers. And guess what, a few negatives don't bother the dealers OR eBay at all. For example, THIS seller:

Time for an "RIAA" for Book Publishers - to deal with EBAY BOOTLEGGING

Ebay bootleggers know that many people have NO IDEA there's thievery via cheap illegal downloads.

Both authors and publishers are losing A LOT OF MONEY to jerks like THIS:

Bidders think the LIES in this ad are TRUTH. Ebay shrugs and says "We don't know if he's lying or not. And we're "just a venue" and U.S. laws are WEAK, so WE DON'T HAVE TO ASK HIM TO SHOW US HIS LICENSING AGREEMENTS.

This seller DARES to say:

"I am an Authorized Reseller of this product and also have resale rights to this eBook. Full Resell Rights are granted by the copyright owners to sell these E-books with Resell Rights. This ad is in compliance with all eBay rules and regulations."

BULLSHIT.

Who else is this parasite stealing from? EVERYBODY. This is just a few:

What's the excuse? That DAVID BALDACCI, RICK RIORDAN, DEAN KOONTZ, and pudgy E.L. JAMES and the others DON'T need the money?

That some jerk should take the royalties instead?

The more that's STOLE'D the less that's SOLD. While people are happily filling their KINDLE and NOOK readers with ILLEGAL COPIES, they are NOT supporting libraries. They are NOT supporting publishers who need to find the NEXT best-selling author. They are NOT supporting Mom and Pop bookstores. They are NOT supporting Kindle or Nook who MIGHT pay a little more if the market wasn't ruined by piracy.

It's getting easier and easier to copy off ebooks, and more and more people want that format. The publishing world should learn from what happened to the music industry, and PROTECT COPYRIGHT, and not wait till the stores shut down and they have to rely on a few best-selling artists and turn their backs on thousands of other authors and on readers who want variety and books that aren't self-printed pieces of crap full of typos.

Since most people don't know about the torrents and forums where weasels "share" books, the BIGGEST PLACE FOR BOOTLEG COPIES is EBAY.

The only reason there's so much bootlegging on EBAY is that publishers don't want to spend money on a WEB SHERIFF to file a DMCA. They shrug and tell the authors, YOU do it. It's YOUR book. The authors have no idea their books are being ripped off, and have no idea how to become a VERO (Verified Rights Owner) member on eBAY and send in a DMCA.

Actually, sending in a DMCA on EBAY is easy. There are no hoops (like Google has with their BLOGSPOT and YOUTUBE). You just cut and paste the auction number and email it.

Bootleggers thrive because eBay only slaps their wrist if ONE or TWO publishers or authors make a complaint. As in: "We know nnnnnuthing, nnnnuthing, and we can't be sure that our seller's other 50 or 100 titles are illegal JUST BECAUSE we got TWO complaints."

THE ANSWER:

An "RIAA" for Book Publishers...specifically, an office, or even ONE PERSON...who can file complaints on behalf of ALL major publishers, and shut down ALL the sellers.

EVERY AUTHOR IS AT RISK. LOOK AT THIS:

How about THIS...a weasel who is offering EVERY AUTHOR and EVERY PUBLISHER whose titles are in the Reese Witherspoon Book Club:

It's GRAND LARCENY EVERY DAY.

It does NOT have to be this way. Not on a high profile site such as EBAY, who can't hide from copyright law by operating in Croatia or the Ukraine or on an island in the Pacific.

I know from experience, as a VERO rep for a dozen celebrities, that this is not "whack-a-mole." Sellers who get suspended can't easily get a new bank account, a new Paypal account, change their ISP location, and return. If they do, a good VeRO rep spots them instantly and they go down again, and they know it's too time-consuming to try again.

THE Winston Graham bootlegger (also abusing Baldacci, Stephen King, pudgy E.L. James, etc) is such a stinking parasite weasel, he's willing to mail a CD-R disc for fifty cents, and give EBAY and PAYPAL fifty cents, just to make TWO BUCKS per book. Well, hell, it's FOUND MONEY for him. It beats clipping coupons. And he can rationalize that bigshot publishers are making SO MUCH MONEY they aren't even sending in DMCAs on him.

Let's CHANGE THAT.

One good VeRO rep can spot all the devious tricks these sellers try. One wrong word in an ad ("download" or "ebook") matched with the name of a famous book or author, and that is IT.

If we have a United Nations, we should have a UNITED front for publishers. The stakes are high. Most publishers have incompetent and inefficient "templates" for people to "report piracy" and any email address authors use is also prone to neglect. Complaints right now are largely ignored. Most rights owners who get an email sent to their legal department, an editor, or a publicist, send a form letter: "Thank you for your concern. We are taking the appropriate action." Which is going out for a two hour lunch.

The answer to the EBAY problem is ONE VERO REP authorized to send in DMCA's. EBAY allows for more than one VeRO rep, so individual authors and publishers can STILL get in the game if they want. But the security is having ONE VERO REP who can take down an entire line a seller is offering.

Is this logical?

Or is the answer CRAPATHY and "we're taking the appropriate action."

Why EVERY author and EVERY publisher should send those takedowns to EBAY

All it takes is one.

One strong takedown on a perpetual smug bootlegger.

That seller CAN be given a "RESTRICTION" (not allowed to sell for a month or more) or a PERMANENT SUSPENSION.

Here's what one bootlegger sent to a publisher:

The whine was ignored, because this seller had a history of warnings, according to eBay, and had "ignored them. This seller has not been paying attention."

Why wasn't the seller disciplined before? Because the complaints were sent to "REPORT ITEM" via an eBay template, by fans and perhaps bookstore owners, who saw that this seller was offering ebooks "with a download link you will get after you buy."

This is illegal on eBay, but eBay will often choose to slap a seller's wrist a few times. Five times. Ten times.

When eBay gets a TAKEDOWN demand, then things get MUCH MORE SERIOUS.

You can laugh at how this seller plays dumb. Gosh, if you own a book, can't you copy it? And take ALL the money with NO ROYALTIES to the author or publisher? What's wrong with that? And Gosh, isn't it ecological to sell ebooks? And Gosh, I looked around, and I didn't see any law against this.

Sadly, eBay is RIFE with WEASELS and PARASITES and MAGGOTS who try to trick people into buying bootlegs, and try to sneak things past a "web sheriff" or a book company's VERO rep. For example:

Why, what's THIS?

It LOOKS like somebody is selling their collection of paperbacks. Doesn't it?

What a bargain.

Now let's see the ad copy:

What's a bidder thinking now?

Maybe: "Hey, that's still a good deal. I get audiobook versions e-mailed to me. Come to think of it, the actual books might be five times as much money. These audiobooks must be legal, because they're on eBay. The author and publisher probably made a deal to offer these bargains to me. I'LL BUY IT!!!"

Meanwhile...while EBAY and PAYPAL take their cut, and the CHEAP THIEF gets his pizza and beer money for a nice dinner...

BOOKSTORES continue to close.

LIBRARIES shorten their hours.

AUTHORS see chintzier royalty checks and get smaller advances for new work.

The VERO program (Verfied Rights Owner program) on eBAY is simple. An author or a publisher sees a violation, and simply cuts and pasts the auction number and sends it to VERO@EBAY.COM. It takes ONE MINUTE. If you're anyone besides pudgy, lame-brained E.L. James, it's NOT going to be a problem to do.

Join the ranks of intelligent, responsible people (which doesn't include pudgy, lame-brained E.L. James who spends her days masturbating with thousand dollar bills rolled up into dildo shapes). Contact eBay and fill out a form so that YOU can protect YOUR WORK. PS, you can assign anyone to be your rep; you don't have to do it yourself, and you don't need a high priced lawyer. Publishers: you can assign an INTERN to check eBay once a week. You'll see how quickly your company, like Disney, becomes known and feared by the bootleggers. Soon enough, they won't even ATTEMPT to steal from you.

The Plant Paradox - and the EBAY BOOK THIEF PARADOX - EBAY COULD MAKE MORE MONEY BEING LEGIT

Today, anyone typing in "The Plant Paradox" will find 22 BOOTLEG auctions run by BOOK THIEVES.

People who were ready to buy a new copy of the REAL book, or a used copy of the REAL book, get enticed by "bargain" downloads for a buck or two.

They don't know that these are illegal dupe copies, do they? How could EBAY be crass and stupid enough to allow BOOK THIEVES to prosper?

But prosper, they do...EBAY, THE BOOK THIEVES and PAYPAL, all sharing in profits that belong to AUTHORS.

That's just SOME of them.

According to eBay phone support...hmmm...ummm....errr...we have so many listings....errr....not to worry I will report this....why is it the same seller does it over and over? Errr...hmmm...we give sellers warnings....ummmm....I see this seller SANDRO has gotten many warnings and is just not paying attention....hmmm....errrr....I will forward this along....no I can't tell you why the seller hasn't been suspended....errrrr....if you report items sometimes we are too busy....ummmm....

How convenient that they get PAID for their CRAPATHY. The authors get screwed. Some book thieves have gotten HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS off this good doctor's book. The book thieves see which authors don't seem to have a VeRO rep, or don't have anyone caring about their rights...and it's wheeeee...FREE MONEY! All the book thief does is email the file.

Here's an assortment of the book thieves, and their obvious, often illiterate, often obnoxious copy about what they do and how they are entitled to do it.

GOT THAT? Ayyyy, don't ask for no REFUNDS. Is not real book is DIGITAL BOOK you get when ME send EMAIL. Hey EBAY, I am either the author or I am licensed to sell this. Since you are "just a venue" you are not going to ask me to prove it? Ha ha!

Want to see what one of these arrogant bully BOOK THIEVES looks like?

This greasy scumbag looks like he's a prosperous drug dealer. But he's just a penny ante BOOK THIEF. On LINKED IN, he tells the world he runs a web design outfit. Yeah, he's doing SO well with THAT, that he's instantly replying to anyone who bargains him down on and submits "best offer" to him.

Authors work hard and most have a DAY JOB, and they can use whatever royalties they manage to get. EBAY is not helping matters.

An irony is that EBAY is fucking their own legit sellers. There are people who have "THE PLANT PARADOX" in hardcover or paperback, and would love to sell a copy, but bidders are lured away by the cheap downloads. "Say, why pay even $3.99 to "THRIFT BOOKS" for a real copy, when I can get a download for $2.00 and save shelf space, and read it on my fabulous Jeff Bezos KINDLE??"

PS, EBAY is also fucking sales on Jeff Bezos' AMAZON and on BARNES AND NOBLE and wherever LEGIT download books are sold.

It's pathetic that eBay actually has a "Digital Delivery" rule that its myopic drone-employees in Indonesia somewhere don't even understand, and it's ridiculous that THEY MAKE MONEY by shrugging and saying, "Gosh, we don't know WHY these items aren't being stopped..."

Lastly, it's outrageous that book companies don't have a "REPORT PIRACY" feature on their websites that work. SOME of them have one for AUTHORS ONLY, meaning that the template they use is keyed to the author's email. If you try to send in a complaint on behalf of the author, and the email doesn't match up, the book company won't care. Book companies are also half-assed fools who use DIGIMARC and other "Web Sheriff"-type organizations who obviously don't even check eBay despite taking a dollar or two for every DMCA they send in.

Book companies are so stupid, and apparently LOADED with money, they don't even assign an unpaid intern to send in DMCA's to eBAY. How easy is it? You simply email the VeRO program with the auction number. THAT'S ALL. It takes a minute. The violations on "The Plant Paradox" could be handled in less than 20 minutes. So the publisher, and the AUTHOR in this case (who might not know about the problem) are partially to blame.

Mostly, the shame and blame belongs on EBAY and PAYPAL for allowing BOOK THIEVES to prosper.

The good doctor's 22 BOOK THIEVES, is of course far less than for some of the better known books. Pudgy E.L. James would probably lead the list of most pirated authors, except the word "author" doesn't apply to these semi-illiterate, lurid, idiotic, marshmallow-brained hack. So having nearly 100 maggots stealing from HER is not going to cut into her ability to sit around stuffing chocolate into her hole.

The best thing to NOT reading her drivel is NOT paying for it.

"AMAZING. SO HAPPY" to rape E.L. James? With EBAY's HELP?

As pudgy E.L. James would tell you, there are various ways to abuse and dominate women, even in this "Me Too" era. Tiger Woods is a master at it. He engages in "rough sex," and when he goes too far, the woman simply takes her Band-Aids and her aspirin and walks away. Consensual.

RAPE by definition is NOT consensual.

RAPE by definition is taking something from somebody else. It's not just physical. It takes away trust, faith, and even hope. It's a betrayal. It's done with malice and selfishness.

The word has been used in many contexts, and it can be used in this one: the bootlegging of E.L. James' books, and the works of Ruth Ware and several other women. When you take from a woman, what else do you want to call it? Does it have to be violent? Rapists have acted while the victim was drugged. It's happened without the victim even being sure it's happened.

Does pudgy E.L. James know she's being used on eBAY? Does Ruth Ware? Pudgy E.L. James might be the kind of woman who really doesn't care one way or the other. That doesn't mean the guy should get away with it, or do it to other women who might just have a little more intelligence and morality.

Here's some POSITIVE FEEDBACK on an eBay seller who eBay claims to have "warned," over and over for what, a year now? TWO? "Oh, we give a warning. Then we give another warning. I see this account has had a lot of warnings. Not to worry. We will send out another warning."

EBAY protects the identities of the bidders, so we don't know who is "SO HAPPY" with getting a bootleg of one of pudgy E.L. James' moronic badly written "books." The point isn't whether you rape a bag lady or a princess. It's wrong. Does eBay understand this?

YES AND NO. Ebay has said, "Yes, we have a rule against selling digital downloads. But we have MILLIONS of auctions. We don't always have the time to remove auctions reported to us." Stealing and copying an author's book is a low priority to them. What the hell, pudgy E.L. James is worth millions. A nickel and dime Canadian creep pulling in three bucks (after Paypal and eBay take THEIR percentage) is no big deal. Don't say it's "the principle" of thing. It's not like writing is so difficult.

Here's the ad:

No, it's hard to feel sympathetic toward a moron like pudgy E.L. James, or her trailer-trash fiction that suggests women really do want to be abused and assaulted because it's so ROMANTIC. It's hard to feel sorry for a bottom feeder who is even worse than the usual "bodice ripper" garbage that some women read with such delight (even if they wouldn't want to be "ravished" in reality).

But how about her sister authors? ME TOO to RUTH WARE and RACHEL ANDERSON and...

ALL these women should be saying, "NO...you don't TAKE FROM ME. You don't USE ME. You don't MAKE ME YOUR WHORE when you PIMP MY BOOKS AND TAKE ALL THE MONEY."

IT's the PRINCIPLE of the thing. And yet, EBAY has continued to ignore this seller's multiple violations, like some addled judge who decides there's no reason to charge a rapist time after time after time...and then when a case does come to trial, says "probation."

This seller has been caught and STILL not been given a restriction, warning or suspension that has made him STOP.

The seller here is a cheap, penny-ante pimp-minded sociopath. WHAT IS EBAY's EXCUSE? What is PAYPAL's excuse? And where are the publishers and their Web Sheriffs and Digimarc Guards to see to it that their artists are protected? Pudgy E.L. James is living in a bubble (appropriate for someone that looks like one). Any email to her website goes unanswered and anyone using social media to point out these abuses is blocked. There's always the woman who doesn't press charges against her rapist, and waits for her sisters to do it for her, with a ME TOO and a ME TOO and a ME TOO.

Perhaps RUTH WARE and RACHEL ANDERSON and the others will be the ME TOO chorus that doesn't include dumb pudgy E.L. James.

"READ A BOOK A DAY" Says TWITTER - "STEAL A BOOK A DAY" says EBAY

Huh? It's "READ A BOOK A DAY" day on TWITTER? As opposed to "PIZZA DAY" or "FRITOS DAY" or the rest of the crap they throw on that idiot site.

Yes, yes.

How noble. Dozens are getting on their soap boxes to proclaim (how controversial) that they LIKE BOOKS.

Some, who aren't quite clever enough to write something original, dig into Bartlett's or some Google site of BRAINY QUOTES, and post some fine words about the joys of cracking open a book.

Meanwhile, in this digital age, EBAY weasels are happily STEALING from authors and publishers.

They offer cheap illegal downloads and make MORE per book than the AUTHORS would in royalties.

Like this:

NUM NUM!

NUM! NUM! GOT MORE?

LOTS MORE.

Slimy Sandro the illegal Kindle/Nook peddler has plenty more.

So do his sneaky conniving pals, like THIS bastard:

NUM NUM! NUM NUM! GOT MORE?

These pricks get lots of NICE comments.

"GREAT SELLER!"

A lot of bidders on eBay figure if something is on the site, it MUST be LEGIT. Neil Gaman and Georgie R.R. and pudgy E.L. James and activist genius Rowling and big hulking freakish Stephen King must ALL be getting royalties on this shit.

But they're not.

NOT only that, piracy hurts bookstores, libraries, and authors. Oh, maybe not THE KING or the fabulous James Patterson, but it sure hurts the mid-list authors. They're the ones who get told by the publishers, "Sorry, we can't give you a big royalty. Dwindling book sales, you know. Uncertain market, you know. PIRACY, you know."

Know what publishers do about PIRACY? You know? Mostly NOTHING.

Publishers do very well for themselves. At best, they'll hire some Web Sheriff-type company to patrol the blogs and forums and knock off bootlegging of their MOST RECENT TITLES. After a month? Nah, not worth it to pay these people to file DMCA's.

EBAY? They hardly bother at all. Ebay is the easiest place to send a DMCA.

How do I know? I rep more than a dozen famous name friends of mine. I'm friends. I don't charge. It takes me a minute.

And yet when I tell publishers they should hire an intern, or have a "report piracy" link that WORKS, or that I can reduce eBay book piracy by at least 50% and will do it FREE...they refuse. They are in control. With their heads up their asses. Or vaginas.

It angers me. A LOT.

As the author of 19 books, it ANGERS ME.

It's bad enough people are getting more illiterate. It's bad enough that various Gutenberg-type sites give away every public domain book (and plenty that aren't). We need blatant piracy on EBAY?

Ebay says "we're just a venue." They say "Yes, it IS illegal to offer books as downloads BUT...we don't patrol the site. YOU have to tell US."

What they've also told me, privately, is that book piracy is such a low piracy that if you do "REPORT LINK" (there's a hot link in every eBay ad for this) they might not get around to it, because "we have so many auctions, and many involve more serious violations of our rules."

They also give idiots like SANDRO CAMARO warnings, and warnings and warnings. Ebay can be very nice to their sellers, even nickel and dime morons like Camaro:

"We stop the auction and give an electronic warning. Then another. Then another. If the seller does not comply, we may restrict the number of auctions. We may then suspend them for a day. Then a week. Then a month. Then, perhaps, permanently."

Meanwhile the seller and EBAY and PAYPAL share the illegal profits. Heh heh.

THE BOTTOM LINE?

THE BEST WAY TO STOP THIS CRAP IS TO EITHER BE A VERO REP OR ASK ONE FOR HELP.

Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson and a few others...if they had a friend or a fan send in a DMCA (you don't need to be a lawyer) the pirates would disappear. A formal DMCA carries weight. It gets sellers suspended faster.

I know this because I've been a VERO rep for 15 years (Verified Rights Owner Rep). Violations on my actress friends, my comedian friends, etc., shrink to almost nothing within a week. Maintenance is a couple of minutes a week or a month after that.

If a big publisher like Doubleday-Dell-Penguin-Birdbrain assigned an intern to handle this, the weasels in Sri Lanka, Albania, Canada etc would run away and never come back.

MY STANDING OFFER is I will rep any author being bootlegged on eBay. FREE.

I do this because it doesn't take a lot of time. Call it my "doing something for charity." My "paying it forward." You name the cliche.

I don't tell people who I rep. No strings are attached to this. The copyright or intellectual property owner is free to choose somebody else any time. No contracts.

All I need is a signed letter (snail mail or email) or authorization. And then: NO MORE PIRACY. Usually a fast suspension for the seller who NEVER comes back. If they try, I have records of who they are and where they are, and they are knocked off again. THEN they don't come back. Ebay and Paypal require a fresh credit card, name and address every time. That also helps.

GET VERO PROTECTION. Be your own VERO rep. OR, use me, as I know all the search tricks. Somebody doesn't put EBOOK in the header, and sneaks the words "download" on the photo and not in the text? I find the illiterate weasel anyway.

If you want my help, just send an email to CYKOTTICK at HOTMAIL.COM. Or contact VERO@EBAY.COM to find out more about the program.

The "wild wild Internet" should not include the easily accessible high profile sales on EBAY. This is where people should buy the actual hardcover book. If not, they can get a REAL download at ITunes or Amazon. Or if they can't afford it, go to the library, where every click of the turnstile helps them help others.

BARNES & NOBLE IN TROUBLE - EBAY & George R. R. Martin NOT HELPING

Today's TRENDING TOPIC ON TWITTER?

Barnes and Noble is in trouble. The kneejerk response is, "Gosh! Gee! Too bad! Will hate to see it go!"

A few have made lame suggestions: "Diversity and sell toys. I got it: sell coffee, like a Starbucks, and have space where people can lounge around and meet each other!" Except there ARE Starbucks all over the place. This is supposed to be a BOOKSTORE.

Can a BOOKSTORE survive in this digital age? Mussolini Bezos kept flogging KINDLE on the front page of AMAZON until millions of morons began buying them. Piracy of digital media doomed Tower Records and Blockbuster Video, and tossing around copyrighted material and photos (called "fair use" by ignorant bloggers) has turned newsstand magazines anorexic and shut down many newspapers. Everything from Penthouse to Christian Science Monitor is "online only, no REAL PRINT edition."

Yes, the digital age may well signal a "new paradigm" in the "trope" of the "zeitgeist," and the "underpinning" of it is that PEOPLE DON'T WANT BOOKS, DVDS or CDS anymore. What doesn't help is: PIRACY and CRAPATHY.

It shouldn't be SO appallingly simple to get a cheap bootleg book download on EBAY of all places.

What you see above is a blatant list of download-bootleg books from an EBAY seller. There are many of them.

People who wouldn't think of stealing a book out of a store, are led to believe EBAY pirates are legit. Why? Because they are on EBAY and one ASSUMES that they wouldn't be there if they were illegal. No, EBAY proudly says "we're just a venue," and are under NO obligation to ask sellers to prove the have written contracts to copy copyrighted work.

Anyone typing in "GEORGE R.R. MARTIN" or "E.L. JAMES" *to mention two well-fed apathetic authors) will instantly notice "EBOOK" or "E Book" or "KINDLE" or "EPUB" next to one of their book titles. Happy to get a download for as low as 80% off the Amazon or iTunes price, and thinking the authors and publishers get royalties, EBAY PATRONS BUY. Only EBAY and the parasites who offer the bootlegs make money. You see why EBAY isn't so dedicated to honesty?

Sadly, CRAPATHETIC book publishers such as Random House-Doubleday-Dell-Penguin aren't asking some low-paid intern to file DMCA's. It takes less than a minute. I do it all the time for myself and various authors and celebrities I know. I can tell you that when enough complaints come in, the seller IS suspended and DOES NOT COME BACK. But...

...the fat cats at the publishing houses, which are owned by diverse corporations, figure they'll always have a job somewhere in the organization. So what if the book division fails. They can sit behind a desk and count some beans.

Book publisher lawyers and publicists etc. are often arrogant. THEY aren't going to waste their time filing DMCA's when they can take a two hour lunch, or watch Internet porn. Some bitch named Andrea, who has some important title at a big publishing house, emailed me a frosty "thanks but no thanks," when I offered to send in DMCA's or do all the work so that an intern would simply have to forward my DMCA to EBAY. Herattitude was: mind your own business. We are aware of the problem...but don't care. This, from the publishing business, which is supposedly full of intelligent, sensitive book lovers.

Fat George Martin and fatter E.L. James could easily assign a fan to be their VERO (Verified Rights Owner) rep on eBay. It doesn't require a lawyer. You can "phone a friend." All eBAY needs is for the copyright owner to write, on letterhead, a note saying "this person is my VERO rep." Then EBAY stops the auctions. But that's too much for George R.R. Martin, E.L. James, and too many other authors and book companies.

"Oh, short-sighted businessmen...nothing lasts forever," sang Joni Mitchell. But you can download that song off a blog, forum or torrent, FREEEEEEEE. And is she making new music? No, she's too pissed off to bother.

Ignorant fat cats will say, "Oh, it's whack-a-mole, it's not worth the trouble." I know they're wrong. Ebay will suspend sellers who keep on bootlegging, and since eBay does require credit cards and ID to sell, it's easy to suspend a new account should a seller try to sneak back.

An irony is that unlike GOOGLE, where YouTube and Blogspot bootleggers flourish, eBay actually has some moral rules. While it's not against GOOGLE rules to offer downloads, it's actually AGAINST eBay rules. If your ad says you are selling DOWNLOADS, the auctions can end. Heh heh...but they have to be reported. That's either by a VeRO rep or by anyone using the obscure "REPORT ITEM" link on every EBAY ad. So why is it that so many eBay sellers, like SANDRO_CAMARO, have been doing just that for years?

Because eBay "is just a venue, and we have millions of new auctions every hour," phone support will tell you. They'll also admit that some low-paid wretch in Utah, Guam or Pakistan might not have enough time to get through the workload of items reported. So, try again.

I've been told by eBay employees that "PIRACY is a LOW PRIORITY." Meaning, their staffers are more likely to quickly end auctions involving drug sales, lock-picking devices, used underwear, etc. Stealing copyrighted work? Meh. Authors should keep their day job. It's nothing to write a book. It's just typing.

Here's an ad from SANDRO_CAMERO, illegally copying a book called..."STICKY FINGERS."

Anyone looking for a new or used copy of Joe's LEGIT BOOK, sees THIS parasite's auction. "Hmm, E-Book...I didn't know you can get a download E-Book on EBAY...wow, and for 75% off what AMAZON or iTUNES charges!"

You notice, maybe, that there's a REPORT ITEM link in the corner of the ad. OK, what happens if you click that link?

You get a confusing pop-up menu to follow.

Now what? Keep going. Go to the menu, scroll down, and down, and down dozens of categories, looking for where you might report this piracy. And, no, FRAUD is not the one. COPYRIGHT? No, try again.

Now what? KEEP GOING...

There. You've gone through all the hoops, because you either don't like parasitic thieves like CAMARO, or you're a fan of the author, and you're sad that the author's book company is not doing anything, and the author is either unaware of the thievery, or busy trying to write and promote and make a living to take a minute to file a DMCA...to help himself, other authors, and BARNES AND NOBLE.

What happens next? Nothing, usually. There's a 50-50 chance the auction might actually be taken down. It depends on how BUSY the employee who received the complaint is. Ebay claims they suspend repeat offenders, but they do NOT state HOW many OFFENSES are needed. It might depend on how much money they are making off the seller, how many auctions the seller runs, or if there's some quota system and employees can't knock off TOO many creeps per week. Ebay is like Scientology...they do not like to discuss anything and their phone support number will get you a polite stooge who will say "Sorry, I can not divulge that information..." no matter what you ask.

And yes, here's MORE of the seller's items for sale...

Well, well, WHAT A SURPRISE...the seller is siphoning off money from obese George R.R. Martin, and whale-like E.L. James.

Martin and James are way too busy eating. Or being on TWITTER. Did they notice what is TRENDING ON TWITTER TODAY? The problems of Barnes & Noble? Meh. These authors are too well fed to care at this point. They surely don't care about their fellow authors either.

Raymond Chandler, in "The Maltese Falcon," had Sam Spade declare it was "BAD FOR BUSINESS" when "one of your own" gets killed. You do something. It's "BAD FOR BUSINESS" when parasites on eBay steal away sales, because when people get books cheap, they do not support the book publishers, who in turn, give even less of an advance to most authors on their list.

The fact that George R.R. Martin and E.L. James are corpulent crapathetic toad-turd traitors to the book business, to bookstores, and to their fellow-authors, is pretty damn sad. Is Rowling or Stephen King doing much either? A few best-selling authors do seem to tell their book publishers: "DO SOMETHING." But not enough.

EBAY is in the Top 5 among retail sites. It should NOT have bootlegs. It's bad enough that so many people know exactly where to go to the secret forum, the torrent, or the GOOGLE blogspot blogs, to get free ePub and Kindle books from entitled assholes who think everything should be free, and they're being Che Guevara or Robin Hood by giving it all away and screaming "Copyright is COPY WRONG" from their hiding place in mommy's basement.

It's bad enough that Google puts "report abuse" on blogs now, but if you go through the hoops, you're told that you must be a copyright owner to report a violation, that they won't bother asking a free blogger if he has permission, and that, if you actually ARE a copyright owner, you might get ignored anyway or told "we don't believe you, send us a copy of your copyright from the copyright office via a lawyer."

Meanwhile, gosh, gee, too bad, R.I.P. if Barnes and Noble goes under. Liked to go there, like I did Toys R Us. But hey, Jeff Bezos' AMAZON has what I need...and so do freebie parasites on the Internet!"