Ebay, Paypal and the BOOTLEGGING of CHRISTINE FEEHAN

Being an author is, surprise, a full time job.

You need to WRITE. You need to use Twitter, Facebook and everything else to network with fans and the media.

You kind of expect your publisher to look out for such things as BOOTLEGS and PIRACY.

But most publishers don't care that much. They could do the minimum, and have an intern in the legal department check eBay, for example, and take the ONE MINUTE needed to report and remove violations.

Some obnoxiously snotty employees could direct their so-called piracy experts to stop auctions reported to them, and if the company charges a few dollars too much per stoppage, find somebody cheaper.

Meanwhile...how about this?

Three suspiciously identical bootleggers from SRI LANKA have all been preying on one particular author, Christine Feehan. ALL have the nerve to state in their ads that they "own copyright." ALL have the nerve to admit that they are offering "downloads" (in violation of eBay's "digital delivery" policy) and ALL pretend that they are located in New Mexico (because Sri Lanka bootleggers have a very smelly reputation on eBay at this point).

Hello, ANGEGMAS, KUSA.JANIT and PRIYA_SANJA:

Priya_Sanja, with several negatives, isn't bootlegging anyone at the moment, but is NOT SUSPENDED.

Last week, this was the typical "buy it now" (as the other two do) with the fake New Mexico location:

Aside from lying about their location, and offering e-mail or download items (eBay insists the items be sent by postal mail), the sellers also lie about a basic fact: OWNING COPYRIGHT.

Why is there so much bootlegging on eBAY?

First, few people know the items are illegal. A seller claims to "own copyright" or be the "authorized reseller," and some stooge in the legal department, or even a naive author, thinks, "oh, some kind of deal was made."

Second, EBAY does not consider it a high priority to remove "digital delivery" violation auctions. First off, they are "just a venue" and don't patrol the site. If a fan or an author reports the item, it's 50-50 whether an eBay employee will take action. An actual excuse is "we have millions of auctions, we sometimes have such high traffic with complaints and we don't have the staff." Aw. And you make a profit on every bootleg.

Sometimes fans will buy a bogus item, then file a complaint with eBay and Paypal for a refund, while leaving a negative on the seller. Enough negatives and complaints and the seller may cease, or get suspended.

The better way of handling the problem is the VERO (Verified Rights Owner) program. Authors should join (contact vero@ebay.com for more information), demand a publisher have a VeRO rep IN the office, or ask around and see if another author has a VeRO rep who might be willing to take on another client. Often VeRO reps do this, even at no charge, just to have more power in getting a seller suspended.

When an author might make only a dollar in royalties, why should somebody on EBAY make $15?

Ebay bootleggers help themselves but nobody else. Authors and publishers get nothing. Worse than that, the bidder gets so much cheap reading, there's no need to buy more. These sellers are offering the entire output of Christine Feehan. It could mean a reader has enough to last a year or more. If somebody takes out a free book from the library, at least the library bought that copy, and supports thousands upon thousands of authors. Bootleggers are just craven, selfish parasites.