Charlie's infamous "WINNING!" line, was a brag about his quality of life.
Well, the quality of author lives gets a lot better when they don't see scabs and parasites bootlegging on EBAY, which is the highest profile Internet site for STEALING BOOKS.
Many "happy" bidders never heard of "digital downloads" or "cloud lockers" or even pdf, mobi and epub files...until they searched for a favorite author and discovered a "wonderful bargain price" on a book. Huh? $1.00 or $2.00 to own the latest best seller? And I can read it on my laptop? Whee!
SUSPENDED:
ALSO SUSPENDED:
Not suspended, but no longer abusing authors, is Clint in Tennessee. He had the nerve to say "I own copyright...I am an authorized re-seller..." on dozens of bootleg auctions. Unfortunately this is a new caveat-gambit that many parasites are using now. BUT...
...after a few VeRO complaints sent to Ebay he pulled the dozens of offending auctions. Like so:
Gosh, a guy in Tennessee pulled all his auctions because he suddenly realized there was an "error" in his listings.
The "error" was stating "Attention EBAY, I own the copyright or have re-sale rights or the item is in public domain."
It would be nice if, when an auction like this is reported, eBay would call or PM the author and say, "OK, fax us the signed document stating you are authorized." But they don't.
They expect authors to do the work of sending in a DMCA to vero@ebay.com.
It's unfortunate that it's a burden on authors, but we all must use "vigilance." The good news is that anyone can be a VeRO rep. An author who is too busy or too disgusted to check eBay once a week can authorize a friend or relative. I rep dozens of authors, actors and actresses (FREE) because I have perfected easy ways to find and remove the auctions. (If you want my help or advise, e-mail me at CYKOTTICK at HOTMAIL.COM)
We're WINNING because more authors are now aware of the problem and are routinely taking a few minutes a week to check Ebay and type in their name and add EBOOK or KINDLE or PDF to find the abusers.
Publishers unfortunately don't seem so motivated, because they seem to use professional "Web Sheriff" type companies that charge a few bucks per stoppage. You'd think they'd at least get an intern to help. Thing is, if the biggest names were covered (Rowling, Patterson, King, James, etc.) as well as anyone on the Times best-seller list, these parasites wouldn't have anyone to exploit.
And if eBay didn't allow these parasites to use caveats like "I am the copyright owner" with impunity, or "I will send this PDF file by mail, not digital delivery," this problem wouldn't even exist.
Cynics and apathetic loafers will say, "oh, it's WHACK-A-MOLE, it's not worth the effort."
It is worth the effort, and sellers DO get suspended, and others DO cease and desist. I've seen it in my FIFTEEN YEARS as an eBay VeRO rep.
Some months ago, there were over 40 sellers from Sri Lanka (or pretending to be) throwing every Stephen King, James Patterson, J.K. Rowling book on eBay. You could get an "entire collection" of an author's work for $3.99. Now? Most are gone. Most weren't suspended, they just gave up because they kept getting reported.
REPORT auctions. Join VERO (vero@ebay.com). Fans who see auctions that boldly state "I'll send your file by e-mail" or "free shipping item will be sent to you" can use the "report auction" link, and report the item as a violation of "digital delivery."
It works.
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