"HOLY CRAP!" Plagiarizing romance author Becky McGraw

"Based on a novel by a man named Lear, and I need a job, and I want to be a PAPERBACK WRITER..."

Laura Harner's written 75 books in the past five years. Except...some were "based on a novel" by SOMEBODY ELSE.

That includes Becky McGraw, who gave out with a "HOLY CRAP!" when she found out.

I've been plagiarized too, Becky. I've gotten lawyers involved and gotten settlements. I remember the first time it happened, my lawyer said, "Well, what are your damages? Can you prove the plagiarism interfered with sales of your book?"

I said, "No, of course not, the books aren't in competition. My damages are that I'm pissed off, and I don't like being somebody's unwilling partner or ghost-writer. I did the research and somebody else gets a paycheck for it? I want half his advance...and how about punitive damages?"

My cases involved non-fiction. The authors couldn't find information so they went to my books and copied everything off, changing a word here or there and making the big mistake of not crediting me. A few lines of "according to author Ronald L. Smith" or "as quote in Ronald L. Smith's book..." would've made a big difference.

As for fiction, there are hack genres (romance, erotica, sci-fi, westerns) where you're expected to simply knock out purple prose or a load of cliche-ridden drivel WITHOUT resorting to the arduous task of copying/adapting/plagiarizing someone else.

It's quite pathetic when you can't simply make-up stuff (maybe steal the plot line if you must) and instead go about "adapting" every paragraph.

I'm not plagiarizing. Am I? I'm giving credit to the original source, the Daily Mail. I'm also not profiting in any way, as this website has no advertising.

Harner's excuse would be, what, that her market is "gay" fiction and so she's not competing with McGraw? True, but she's using McGraw's creativity and making her an unwilling partner. Ethics and morality aside, what Harner's done involves illegal financial gain.

It's fortunate that social media helped Becky McGraw become aware of the problem. Back in the old days, an author might not spot plagiarism except by pure accident. In one case, I was browsing a book on comedians and noticed my own writing. With no credit. In another, it was my father who bought a book and said, as a compliment, "This author obviously read your book!" HUH??

What is most unfortunate, is that the Internet is destroying book sales and allowing parasites to prosper. Why would Harner be tossing out 75 books in 5 years, except that volume is the only way she can make money? Sites such as Amazon, that might pay a dollar in royalty on an eBook, are not going to be selling more than a few hundred or a few thousand copies of somebody's niche novel. The odds keep getting lower as more and more amateur idiots flood the site with badly written garbage, and "novels" that are often less than 10,000 words.

It's possible Harner would've been less blatant if she didn't have to knock out so much for so little.

A related problem is that on EBAY, self-publishing authors are throwing their titles out there hoping for sales, and many "authors" are simply taking public domain material and putting their name on it. Some grab every article they can Google, cobble it together as an e-book or print-on-demand title, and figure no author is going to notice or be able to do much about it.

In my two cases, after all, my lawyers were dealing with actual published books from real New York-based companies. They weren't trying to track down somebody offering eBooks from a tiny town somewhere, or by somebody on eBay muddying the waters by using Sri Lanka as an address. Today? A lawyer would probably try to shake down Amazon for aiding and abetting theft (which could possibly be defended with the Digital Millennium Act's "we're just a venue" excuse). A lawyer might also be able to go after the credit card company that was accepting payment, as well as the author, and have that money re-directed to the injured party.

Oh. As for punitive damages, I was disappointed to learn that this is a gray area. "You have to prove malice," I was told. "You have to prove that it was not just some kind of mistake or innocent error in judgment." Then again, don't judges sometimes award such damages, as a warning to others that ignorance of the law is no excuse?

Re-writing pulp fiction? Oh, for shame, Laura Harner, for shame.

What next, copying stuff from Nora Roberts? "HOLY CRAP" indeed.

40 Authors suffer from SYLOSIS on EBAY

What is SYLOSIS?

It's actually a name of a HEAVY METAL BAND. They have an album called "Dormant Heart."

And in tribute, a worthy on EBAY is flooding the market with cheap dupe bootlegs of every author he can find.

Why? Well, heavy metal music does appeal to the "evil" side, heh heh heh. Har har har.

Let's see SOME of the books Mr. Sylosis is stealing:

More? Sure.

Yes, some guy in Naples, Florida (many parasites are in the South where it's very low rent) is selling out any author he can find.

For NINETY NINE CENTS.

After EBAY and PAYPAL take their cuts (they are partners in this crime) he's getting maybe 60 cents.

Still, if all he has to do is supply a download link, or e-mail the file, then ha ha. Cheap BEER MONEY!! Sell a few books, and have a beer.

Why is he still on EBAY?

Because none of the authors or publishers have noticed his auctions. Yet.

As a VeRO rep, I spot HINKY very easily. But Napoleon Hill, if he has a VeRO rep at all, can't even spot an auction that has EBOOK in the title.

UPDATE OCT 8: seller removed the dozens of auctions, probably as each individual author complained, and the seller was facing suspension. Each auction now has this notice:

UPDATE NOVEMBER 11: The seller has changed his eBay user name. Of course, if the seller stupidly tries to go back and bootleg authors who have reported him before, he will be SUSPENDED.

GOD BLESS THIS BOOK THIEF

EBAY confirms a seller that has FIVE different aliases. This is one of them.

Note the happy people who praise this "seller" for offering illegal dupes. Do they realize the stuff is illegal? "Gosh, how can it be illegal if it's on lovable EBAY?"

Isn't that lovely feedback? "GOD BLESS THIS SELLER" for providing a cut-rate collection of EVERY Paul Coelho book for under $5.00.

Note this seller preys mostly on the usual suspects: Dan Brown, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien and George Martin. With those bringing in the most money, the seller also branched out to abuse dozens of others.)

Why have FIVE aliases? Easy. If one is suspended, or "restricted" for a month, the other accounts can roll merrily along.

Like so:

Sometimes this seller has had to abandon an account because of a negative that gives the game away.

Yes, FIVE aliases confirmed. Only ONE is, as of this writing, suspended. And it's none of the above.

UPDATE: NOV 2

The good news is that several of these IDs are now SUSPENDED, and the others are dormant.

How PAULA HAWKINS is pick-pocketed by "clever" Illiterates. Say what?

Paula Hawkins, best-selling author.

Both her ebook AND her audiobooks are being sold for chump change on EBAY.

If it can be copied, it can be stolen. That's the way it is.

Here's an illiterate who is "smart" enough to know where to find free mp3 files on torrents and hidden internet forums...which he then sneaks onto EBAY so he can make some money.

Duh! "This is a downloadble" audio. "I sent it to your paypal email."

You think the ad is stupid? So are a lot of EBAY employees. It's 50-50 on whether a Hawkins fans can report this and get it removed.

Some EBAY employees would say, "Uh, it doesn't say it's a "digital download" so it's technically not in violation of our rules.

That means Paula, her lawyer, her publisher, or a designated friend or relative has to stop it as a VeRO (verified rights owner) violation.

Ever have someone come up to you and pull a con?

I have. Like: "Hey man, do you know what time it is?" "No, I'm not wearing a watch." "You wanna buy one???"

On EBAY there are some sellers like THIS:

Most any VeRO rep seeing the header on EBAY would pass it by. As in, "Oh, somebody is selling a used copy of the book and starting it at $1.99."

But read the copy for the ad:

Yes, this con-artist flashes his fake and hopes somebody will buy.

Again, it's 50-50 whether EBAY would stop the auction if it was reported. After all, this fine seller is stating he's offering an eBook, but is not saying he'll deliver it via e-mail or a "cloud" locker or some other download service.

EBAY makes sure to tell sellers how to beat the system. As in: "Your auction was stopped because you stated you were offering a digital delivery. In your ad, state you will send the file by postal mail." Or, don't state anything at all. Heh heh heh.

Again, it's up to Hawkins, her lawyer or her publisher to take a moment each week to stop this crap. Some publishers will frankly admit that they don't have the staff to bother with this. They rely on others to report auctions, as in: "Oh, let Rowling or Stephen King's people go after him. He'll get suspended if three or four people complain. So why should I be one of those?"

The answer is that the quicker these parasites are stopped the better. You don't see them pulling this with mp3 music files. For some reason, they get the idea that authors are easier victims than rock stars.

PRETTY LITTLE LIAR BOOK THIEF in ARGENTINA -- DONATES 10% to CHARITY

Oh, EBAY should be proud.

So should the HUMANE SOCIETY.

Here's a lovely Latina in Argentina, a "fairy princess," who very kindly steals from rich authors and publishers, gives 10% to dogs and cats, and the rest to herself.

The header is typical of the eBook thieves. It obviously is offering a digital download (note: NO postage charge, despite this auction being from somebody in Argentina).

The cute part is that this seller will be donating 10% of her theft to charity. So leave her alone, she's doing GOOD WORK.

Like most of the conniving con-artists offering illegal downloads from Argentina, Russia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Russia, etc. this one adds that caveat that eBay requests. You know, the one that pretends that the seller is a) the copyright owner or b) has re-sale rights and c) is aware digital downloads aren't legal so will be sending the item by mail...even though it's a digital file, and the feedback always mentions "it was easy to download, thanks."

What will end this abuse?

Authors and publishers need to check EBAY once a week and take a MINUTE to send offending auction numbers to vero@ebay.com.

It's the only sure way to defeat all loopholes.

If the author, publisher or other authorized person can state "under penalty of perjury" that the pretty little liar does NOT own copyright and is NOT authorized to re-sell pdf/mobi/epub/kindle files, the item is removed. The seller will usually be suspended if there are multiple complaints.

FOLLOW-UP, OCT 7th - This seller, reported to the charity involved, reported to several book publishers, is no longer offering illegal dupe eBooks. For the moment.

BREIN Fights GOOGLE - Where's the Publisher Equivalent Fighting EBAY?

We know the truth. "Just a Venue" organizations such as GOOGLE and EBAY are partners in crime with BOOTLEGGERS.

Google's YouTube, Blogspot and GooglePlay allow anyone to post, share and sell copyrighted material. This material then makes money for the uploader AND for Google.

Similarly, EBAY will allow somebody to get five accounts all supposedly based in Russia, or ten accounts all supposedly based in Sri Lanka, and even coach these sellers on how to bootleg eBooks with impunity. As in: "Say in your ad you own copyright or it's public domain" and "Say in your ad that you won't be offering a digital download but will send the item by mail."

Whether it's GOOGLE or EBAY the bottom line is that the giant company gets bigger. The Internet monsters have gotten to the point where they can dictate to once-powerful giants. Amazon can tell Disney and can tell book companies, "Nope, we are NOT carrying your product unless you PLAY BALL WITH US." Google's YouTube will say "Sorry, NBC, ABC, CBS, Columbia, Warners and RCA, you might as well play ball with us, and upload your product and get a few pennies in royalties, because we will make you jump through DMCA hoops on EVERY violation you want to report."

What's it take to get justice? Apparently a government agency. In Holland, BREIN is fighting Google's hypocrisy.

Where's the agency looking out for writers? Do writer's unions do nothing except take a huge fee and offer a dental plan? Does HarperCollins, Simon & Shuster and the others think that finding a "Web Sheriff" agency (like Digimarc) is enough? What does Digimarc do? Put in a digital mark on Kindle files so they can track if they're being illegally uploaded and downloaded at Kickass or Demonoid or Pirate Bay? That does NO good when those torrent sites snicker and ignore take-down requests. And where's Digimarc when it comes to filing a DMCA on eBay against a Sri Lanka seller with a long list of best-selling authors being abused?

The publishing world is SUPPOSEDLY full of bright, literate people. It's SUPPOSEDLY loaded with authors who want to champion truth and beauty, and point out injustices and make the "human condition" a little better. Instead, the scummiest Internet torrent sites and even the biggest auction site (EBAY) can get away with massive copyright abuse?

Where's the BREIN for authors and publishers, telling EBAY they can NOT allow pdf mobi epub kindle sellers to run rampant?

Where's the BREIN for authors and publishers, demanding that torrents be blocked and that every ISP shut down service to those who download from them?

Imagine what would happen if the average person couldn't easily go to torrents, forums and blogs, and download the latest best sellers. They'd buy that material, or at least take it out of the library.

BREIN is showing that GOOGLE is not GOD. It's time for politicians to pass strong laws that reduce the power of these gigantic monopolies.

There should be an American version doing the same.

It's also time that publishers and unions truly get organized and quash flagrant abuse. The RIAA can take down any seller who offers the Top 10 albums on mp3. That's why you don't see that crap on eBay, even from ubiquitous Sri Lanka sellers with a dozen aliases. Where's the publisher equivalent?

AUTHOR BE AWARE: Your Books Stolen at the Forums

A funny thing happens in the forums: authors get their books "shared" without permission.

Yes, THIS is how the books also end up on EBAY where they are SOLD without permission.

Caveat Emptor? Sure, right here:

If your book was released in ebook format, it's probably being given away on the Internet RIGHT NOW. Most likely in a forum, rather than a blog or torrent.

OK. Do I need to define my terms?

Blog: This used to be where music thieves prospered. Google's "Blogspot" was a pioneer in allowing anyone to get a blog for any purpose. Quickly, bloggers learned they could make money by stealing music, or offering thousands of porn images, etc. The blogger would put a Paypal "tip jar" on the blog. "Want more? Tip me." The blogger would also hook up with Rapidshare, Megaupload, and other "cloud lockers" that would pay the blogger for his "hard work" in upping stolen files.

Rapidshare and Megaupload are long gone, and blogs aren't so popular for copyright theft. That's because of forums and torrents.

Forums, which usually require signing up to become a member, are hidden hives for "sharing" anything and everything. "Sharers" are protected. If links disappear (get reported), the moderator can see who looked at that post, and soon determine the spy. The spy is booted, the ISP blocked, and the thievery continues. A great benefit of forums is one can type in a name and instantly get the goodies, as there are dozens if not hundreds of people all "sharing" files.

Torrents? Most, like the forums, are "private." The idea here is that instead of using a "file locker," people all hook together electronically and suck files off each other's designated "sharing file." You put your favorite mp3 music files or pdf mobi kindle book files into a folder that all your fellow torrenters can access. The more popular the file, the quicker the download.

At the moment, forums still beat out the torrents because most people don't know how torrents work and are leery of letting strangers have access, even limited, to their computers. Since individuals in forums upload their own files to their choice of "cloud" server, they alone pocket the money they get.

Back to the funny things that happen in forums. Like seeing your book being given away.

I discovered this myself. My "Horror Stars on Radio" book, from McFarland, turned up in several forums.

Take your choice on how that happened: a) the publisher sends review copy eBooks to anyone with a blog, including those who secretly hustle them around to make money for themselves, or b) somebody bought the book on Amazon and decided it was so great they wanted to "share" it with people who might otherwise not know about it. Thus, they get a hearty "thanks!" and a "wow, great book" for themselves.

As obscure as my "Horror Stars on Radio" book is, forums have others even more esoteric. In one day, September 15, a fellow posted over ONE HUNDRED text books, including these:

In order for people not to spend any bread, and to make sure nobody "spoils the fun," most pirates spread their links to a variety of "cloud" servers. Usually they stick to servers that will kick back some money to them. Speaking of bread:

Just click the link, and off you go, to a "cloud" server that might toss a few ads in your face, or hope you'll "buy a premium account" for a faster download. The deal is often that the uploader gets a penny for every download, or maybe twenty five cents ends up buying a "premium account" thanks to the enticing item.

I know, it seems very petty. Authors usually don't make minimum wage for the time they put into a book. But if you're a Communist (and many uploaders are, in theory if not in Russia) your view is "everything should be shared." And if you make a few kopeks while you do it, why not?

If you're a Capitalist, why, you rationalize that the author is rich, or should be happy to be published, and YOU living in Plano, Texas or in Sri Lanka or wherever, can help pay your low rent with a little help from energetic uploading.

Today's post was inspired by a friend of mine.

She e-mailed that she was waiting and waiting and waiting to get Chrissie Hynde's new book out of the library. She was waiting for some other book, too, and apparently the one copy was stalled. Somebody lost it? Stole it? She remarked, "I suppose I could find it on line." (Hint Hint).

She only knew of the famous torrents, the nasty-named Pirate Bay, Kickass, Demonoid, etc.

But as you see from the above, the old-fashioned "forums" that have a huge range of freebies (books, magazines, tv episodes, music, porn, plus general chat areas) are still doing well.

Yes, I found the two books she wanted and e-mailed her the links. Why? My rationalization was that she wasn't going to buy the books anyway. I was just helping out a friend who was waiting on the New York Public Library that had a long list of people waiting on one title, and had apparently lost the other title entirely.

See how easy it is to rationalize?

Ten years ago, when mp3 files became popular, the rationalization in forums, and on blogs (torrents weren't around yet) was: "This is like sharing. What's wrong with making a copy for a friend?"

The answer was that we're not talking about friends, but a conspiracy of strangers. We're talking about blogs where one egomaniac with a desire to be a "blogfather" and get tons of "nice comments" offers downloads of HUNDREDS of items, each one going to THOUSANDS of downloaders. That's massive piracy.

In an era of self-entitlement, of "Ashley Madison" websites, of hedonism, of "enjoy yourself before you're blown up or the planet starts burning from the heat," we overlook little things like copyright. The chant in the forums is "copyright is COPY WRONG," and guys like Assange are heroes, because, don't you know, copying copyrighted material is actually "freedom of speech."

And so it is, and so it goes. You, AUTHOR, are losing sales. Bookstores are disappearing. Jeff Bezos has helped turn readers into Kindlers, and real books are becoming fire wood. Used bookstores must rely on old-fashioned readers, and on sales of books that have not yet been digitized. But, ha ha, most any "public domain" book HAS been digitized by a library somewhere, and has ended up at archive.org or at the Gutenberg Project. PS, there are dedicated "sharers" out there who feel it's their duty to digitize every magazine or book they can stick on a scanner.

Meanwhile, with very little effort (just joining a few of the "usual suspect" forums, everyone has plenty to read. FREE. And the more people get for FREE the less they need to buy.

The bottom line is probably: "How can this be stopped? Isn't this a bad situation for the economy?"

The answer is that yes, it's bad, and yes it can be stopped IF governments stop being Assange-holes and understand that blocking nasty websites or shutting them down is a good idea. It's pathetically rare the number of times ICE or some other government agency blocks a site such as Megaupload. It's pathetic how many years it takes to get a site taken down and get the perp prosecuted.

Megaupload was owned by an obese German who legally changed his name to "Kim Dotcom," and ended up with the gaudiest estate in New Zealand, a palace of excess. The U.S. government, some four years later, is still wrangling to extradite him and keep his bank account frozen.

Every time the government proposes any type of new law, such as SOPA, the Asssange-holes, abetted by Google, Wikipedia and others who profit off copyright abuse, make sure it's shot down. They scream about "Freedom of Speech," forecast doom, and even "go black" for a day, encouraging the wrath of hackers and other greedheads.

Ebay has been getting away with being a mammoth fence for stolen goods, including book files, because they can claim to be "just a venue." They will say "We have no idea if Ms. Rule or Mr. Patterson or anyone else gave permission for one of our sellers to offer all their books on PDF format, delivered on a CD or thumb drive. It's fine with us, unless they tell us otherwise."

What can change that ignorant, greedy, destructive thinking? Perhaps lobbying by publishers, or by the do-nothing author unions. The fact is, EBAY chooses not to allow certain things on their site, from chloroform to used panties. They do have a rule against selling "digital downloads" that bidders can get via e-mail or a cloud service, but the current loophole is that the auction stays IF the seller states "I am the copyright owner or authorized re-seller" and/or "I will ship the $2.99 pdf file from Croatia via postal mail, because eBay policy forbids e-mailing it." Ebay conveniently ignores that the seller gets positives with lines like "thanks, great item, it was easy to download!" So it's up to the author to send in a complaint saying "I'm the copyright owner, not this seller using five different accounts..."

We've seen the utter destruction of the music world due to piracy. Record stores are gone. Out of print records are thrown all over the forum world, and you can use YouTube as a jukebox to find even very obscure singles or entire albums. Will the publishing world, supposedly full of smart, creative people, allow this to happen to them?