Lawrence Block wrote his books before he was born?

When it comes to eBay bootlegging, you can stretch the truth. You can stomp it flat. Ebay won't blink.

Here WAS a seller who was telling the most blatant and outrageous lies. Dozens upon dozens of authors, who are alive and 40 or 50 years old...were actually born before 1923 and wrote their books before 1923.

File that under "that's my story and I'm sticking to it." And eBay? They aid and abet anyone who brings in money.

The seller had a dozen CD-R and DVD-R collections of everybody's copyrighted books. Like so:

Who discovered it? ONE VeRO rep for ONE author. And no, that VeRO rep wasn't anyone from Digimarc or any of the other flashy and boastful agencies that claim they find, through technology or wizardry or a oujia board, any and all copyright violations.

Were it not for that ONE VeRO rep, this seller's junk would still be on eBay, hundreds of authors would be cheated, and a few more libraries would be dealing with letters demanding they cut back hours.

How insane is that? And here's the finish:

It would be nice if eBay wasn't like the Nazi Sgt. Schultz of "Hogan's Heroes" and blubbering "I see nothing, I know nothing" in the face of outrageous injustice. But at least they'll listen to a copyright rep if one spots something that needs to be stopped.

Too bad there are complacent, apathetic authors and publishers out there, who don't find "I own copyright" offensive, or don't see piracy as dangerous and unacceptable.

The other day I was taking a look at a typical thieving-den forum. The ADMIN announced, "Please do NOT upload anything from Disney. We want to be under the radar. We don't need the aggravation."

Wouldn't it be nice if all companies had the reputation Disney has? That a lesson Disney continues to teach is to RESPECT copyright OR ELSE?

The average person doesn't know about torrents and doesn't spend a lot of time in sneaky forums. That person probably has never even downloaded off Pirate Bay, which gleefully still thumbs their noses at copyright owners and takedown requests. People DO spent their time on eBay. They go there to buy a book at a cheaper price than Amazon, and they see somebody offering REAL cheap bootlegs with impunity. And so they buy.

And if a best selling author and a huge publisher aren't hurt too much by it, not enough to take "appropriate action," a Mom and Pop bookstore is hurt. A library is hurt. And there's a little less caring, sensitivity and morality in the world, and another triumph for greed and stupidity.

Book publishing is supposedly run by people a little more intelligent and less drug-addled than the music industry? Sometimes, especially if you check what they allow on eBay, you wonder what brainless pill-heads are on control of the literary world, and what utter bubble-wrapped impotent fools are at the NY Times Review of Books Tweeting memes all day while books burn. I mean it literally. Books are burning in landfills because it's so easy to get your fill of electronic bootlegs.

Happy New Year for Scholastic R.L. Stine Bootlegging. Heil Goosestepping over Goosebumps

Amazing. 2016, and some publishers are sending the message: "We are SO rich, we are SO busy with our $200 power lunches and standing in line at Starbucks, we won't even have an unpaid intern spend 2 minutes a week keeping our best sellers safe."

Today, FOUR different book-Nazis are stealing Stine's books. It would literally take 2 minutes to stop this farce.

An educational book company? Scholastic? WHAT are you telling the children? That it's OK to steal?

Aren't the self-entitled Millennials seeing enough of that when they sneak over to the torrents and Internet forums and see copyrighted material thrown all over YouTube?

THIS helps?

I mentioned this situation in a few previous posts. It's gotten worse. Instead of two parasites, there are now four.

The price for the Goosebumps set drops every week, while bidders cheer, "Thanks, what a bargain! My kids love this stuff!"

The problem is not whether Stine, Scholastic or his "Parachute Press" are losing a few hundred dollars a week. It's that people are losing respect for copyright, and that other authors and publishers are suffering too. The more people steal, the less they buy. The more people can get from eBay bootleggers, the less reason they have for browsing a bookstore or a library.

Frankly, I'd like to think that authors and publishers are not as stupid as the rock industry, and that instead of seeing record stores go under like the music biz did, the authors and publishers will fight to preserve the bookstores that are left, and the libraries that buy and support all authors, not just best-selling short-sighted twits.

GOOSEBUMPS, ST. JUDE "CHARITY," Scholastic and R.L. Stine Apathy

Remember school and Scholastic books? I don't recall, at a book sale, teachers saying, "Children, if you sneak a few books without paying, it's ok."

I don't recall authors coming to class and saying, "Jeez, I make SO much money, if you walk out without paying, it's ok with me."

Here's an eBay seller (and eBay is, along with Amazon, one of the biggest sales sites on the Internet, very high profile) who is stealing a Scholastic book. But more than that. This seller is claiming to own copyright. AND, this seller from Hoboken is a "Robin Hood" who robs from R.L. Stine and Scholastic and...gives 10% to St. Jude's Hospital.

Where's the 90% go? Oh, of course, to the person who claims to have written the "Goosebumps" series and controls copyright and re-sale rights. Some jerk in Hoboken.

Does Scholastic know? Does R.L. Stine know? Yes and yes.

Would they care to stop this? No, and no.

Would they authorize ME to tell EBAY that this seller actually does NOT own copyright and that the auction should be ended? No, and No.

I don't charge to do what amounts to less than a minute's work. The answer is still NO. Go figure why not. Apathy? Stupidity? No idea what a dangerous thing it is for people to get low-price pirated editions and not support the publishing industry?

How do you like that lovely CHARITY banner?

Ebay encourages sellers to donate some of their profits to a favorite charity. Conveniently, neither eBay or the charity know or care whether the item is a bootleg or not.

Ebay bidders think that this jerk in Hoboken is the real deal. And charitable, too. Gosh, a whole 10% to St. Jude. Marlo Thomas should drive to Hoboken and pin a medal on this clown.

Bootlegging is quite a profitable hobby when it comes to stealing from R.L. Stine and some others who have plenty of time for Twitter and Facebook. There are authors who will tell you what they had for breakfast, and what TV show they're watching at the moment. They don't have a minute to stop someone on eBay who is saying "I own copyright" to their work.

All this seller does is e-mail pdf files. Or give out a password to a cloud download. "I do a few of those, and I can have myself a fine, fine dinner at my favorite restaurant, me and my partner, courtesy of R.L. Stine and Scholastic. Yum Yum!"

It beats clipping coupons.

I certainly don't want to offend Scholastic or Stine by calling them apathetic, short-sighted or ridiculous.

I also don't want to offend any Muslim terrorists out there by using a Yiddish word, but here goes: CHUTZPAH.

It takes a lot of CHUTZPAH for a seller to boldly state, under possible penalty of perjury, an outright LIE.

No, you do NOT own Stine's copyright. You don't own Scholastic's copyright. You are, in essence, raping whores. You are victimizing people who don't have the self-respect to complain.

Read the caveat that EBAY will not question:

Ebay is using a worn-out legal loophole called the DMCA, to aid and abet piracy and to profit from it. Using the loophole, eBay can say, "We're JUST a venue. We have no idea if the seller is telling the truth about owning copyright, and WE WON'T ASK FOR PROOF. All we'll do is act on an e-mail or fax complaint from the copyright or intellectual property rights holder. It's their responsibility to contact us. If they don't, well, less money for them, more for us."

Scholastic and Stine could stop this nonsense. At least become two more people on a bootleggers' "don't mess with" list. So far, they aren't interested.

I guess if they saw schoolkids stealing at a school book sale, they wouldn't want to get involved either. They'd say "kids will be kids."

But the eBay seller in Hoboken is no kid.

COPYRIGHT MATTERS! The POWER of DMCA - another Ebay Bootlegger is DEAD

Ebay seller PARSBE11 is dead.

Not literally. But he's now a NARU, which is eBay-speak for "Not a Registered User."

This greedhead was selling knock-offs on any best-selling author he figured wasn't paying attention.

This included the usual suspects like obese masochist hack-writing fool E.L. James.

This seller was warned via PM's. As in:

"You do NOT own copyright as you claim. You WILL be suspended if you keep at it. Why risk losing your chance on selling those $200 sneakers you're offering, or buying more of the underwear you've just bought, just to rip off an author's royalty and sell a $1.83 download?"

Well, some people are sociopaths.

Or stupid.

The point is, if authors and publishers are offended at people using the "I own copyright" caveat on eBay, there's good news. The auctions end. The sellers do get suspended. This is not "whack-a-mole." On eBay it's not easy to get another account and do it over again.

Keep selling Harper Lee, or Charles Duhigg, and you won't last long. You get a warning. Keep at it and you get a suspension.

So PARSBE11 was exposed for being a liar, and paid the price. All the auctions had the same obnoxious disclaimer, which eBay should STOP allowing.

The good thing here, is that authors and publishers who take action can be proud of not only looking out for themselves, but others, too. This includes some who aren't aware that eBay, the biggest auction site on the Net, hasn't yet tightened up its rules and regulations to prohibit ridiculous disclaimers. That eBay is NOT Amazon and does NOT have download sales. That eBay's authors who claim to have some excuse for putting everybody's best-seller on a CD-R or DVD-R are just parasites.

Goodbye PARSBE11. And thanks to the authors and publishers who actually DO own copyright.

COPYRIGHT MATTERS!

It's easy to get a parasite squashed on eBay. It takes less than a minute for a copyright owner (or anyone authorized by the copyright owner) to send the auction number to vero@ebay.com. That's all it takes. Almost anyone can do it, except, I guess, a porcine illiterate like E.L. James, who probably gets a masochism-griven orgasm every type she reads a bootlegger's line "I own copyright" on her books.

EBAY BOOTLEGS the NY TIMES BEST SELLER LIST

Imagine going to the counter of your local bookstore with five best sellers.

You slap a $100 bill on the counter, and walk out. The cashier says, "Hey, this is counterfeit!" You say, "How do I know that? Looks good to me. I'm JUST a person, I'm not with the Treasury Department."

How far would you get before you were tackled by law enforcement?

That's the "real world."

On the Internet, EBAY gives the benefit of the doubt to anyone selling counterfeits and fakes. Despite having a rule AGAINST such things, EBAY did not stop the auction below, which is a fake, unauthorized, totally and blatantly illegal sale of copyrighted material:

Somebody is claiming to have the rights to toss THREE HUNDRED New York Times Best Sellers on a DVD and sell it? And EBAY doesn't do anything?

Can we see the fine print on this outrage?

This ad was reported and IGNORED by EBAY.

Why? They can hide behind Internet law that was created 20 years ago, before piracy. Websites are "just venues" people use. How do they know what's legal or not? They need to be told.

Compare that to your bookstore cashier, who can and WILL scan a $100 bill before accepting it. The cashier isn't saying "my bookstore is JUST a venue, I'll take anything that looks like a $100 bill, and even a coupon from somebody who says "This is from Random House and entitles me to $100 worth of their books for free."

EBAY has very few rules when it comes to digital versions of copyrighted books. The ones they have are skewed to misguided interpretation by their lowest-level employees, the ones who cast a sleepy eye at items bidders send in via "report this link," the obscure hot link faintly viewable on every eBay auction.

One laughable rule: offering eBooks via "download" or e-mail is not allowed...but if you put SEVEN THOUSAND of them on a DVD you made, that's fine.

Another laughable rule: if you claim "I own copyright" you won't be challenged. Also, you can state "I will send this item by mail" and not charge any shipping, and claim to be in Sri Lanka, and no red flag goes up, even when your feedback says "Great download, I got it an hour after I paid. Great seller! What a BARGAIN!"

This greedy seller's other ad offers, yes, SEVEN THOUSAND copyrighted mysteries for sale. All royalties and profits to HIM and EBAY.

These ads were cleverly designed so that the average VeRO rep wouldn't see any abuse...no name of a book company or author...that information hidden via a hot link to another website.

It's more than a shame that today, book companies, TV networks and even film studios are groveling in front of INTERNET GIANTS like GOOGLE, AMAZON and EBAY who control the world and make sure lawmakers do not pass any legislation against piracy and abuse.

This is why any eBook is easily available on the notorious "torrents," in private "forums," and often on impudent blogs owned by GOOGLE (Blogspot) or sometimes hosted by nose-thumbing Communists in Croatia somewhere.

This Irish bootlegger has a lot of nerve AND greed, because selling a 30 cent DVD for $12 isn't enough.

The ad includes "click here" links to THIS place:

HUH? This is just one of those mysterious websites, like Pirate Bay, that stay in business because Internet law has no teeth. What's the deal here? The "server" is in Russia or Croatia? The credit card money is diverted to a bank in Sweden or Switzerland?

Maybe Random House and Knopf and Bantam are sighing, "It's whack-a-mole, if we spend a fortune in suing some punk, he'll get a slap on the wrist and put the website back up again under a new name." Which isn't exactly true. Ask "Kim Dotcom" who ran Megaupload and is currently sweating out a life behind bars.

The good news?

A dedicated and experienced VeRO rep will find any abuse and remove it.

The "catch" is that the author or publisher has to have one.

Another problem is that in another few years, even more people will be Internet-savvy enough to find the FREE torrents and forums, ones with servers located in places where copyright is not enforced. Wait long enough and yes, eBay's cheap grifters won't be able to sell George R.R. Martin, E.L. James or Cassandra Clare (to name three fools who don't monitor the site properly) because $5 for the entire collection of an author is too much. FREE is better.

For the good of the economy, the future should see a law that lets an ISP block a rogue website, and international laws that can put a bootlegger in jail.

"Just a Venue" EBAY should be held responsible for aiding and abetting bootleggers. They should be obligated to answer red-flag queries and DEMAND to see the papers on sellers who claim "I own copyright, or the item is in public domain, or I'm an authorized re-seller."

Some anti-piracy organizations are filing suit against abusers. That should happen on eBay. There's no reason why, when eBay is in cohoots with Paypal, that sellers should be allowed to keep the money they stole. After a VeRO report proves a seller has no rights to the money, that money should be given to the rights owner, or to charity. Right now, creeps like this bootlegger of the NY TIMES list and SEVEN THOUSAND thrillers, can laugh at all the illegal money in his bank account.

But right now people on eBay can easily, unwittingly buy from bootleggers because they figure "if it's on EBAY it must be legal." They type in a favorite author, or they check what's new in the eBook category, and they find items like the above...or items similar to ones chronicled in previous posts.

It is VITAL that publishers not rely on DIGIMARC or WEB SHERIFF if it means ignoring abuse. "I can't afford to pay them $2 every time they file a DMCA" is NOT an excuse. Go get an intern to do it. EBAY is a big website and should NOT have bootlegs on it. Guarantee: that Intern will be saying, "anything else for me to do?" because if he's good, he'll eradicate 90% of the abuse in a week or two on everything the publisher is trying to sell.

Literate, quivering bunnies in the publishing world are saying, "We're in a SEA CHANGE, and we don't know the PARADIGM, or the SCHADENFREUDE." And I say take the dictionary out of your gob and face the real world. Get organized, get laws passed, and use the DMCA currently available to remove blatant abuse on EBAY.

WINNING - authors are beating EBAY book bootleggers

This could be a poster of an author, not Charlie Sheen.

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.

EBAY: "I'm HAPPY" you let a guy in Tennessee rape Philippa Gregory

Talk about cheap lying bastards. Here's a guy in Tennessee who raped Philippa Gregory for 99 cents.

Raped her intellectual property, that is. And he got a "HAPPY" comment for it, too.

From his feedback:

One of the latest scams on EBAY is sellers insisting they OWN THE COPYRIGHT to every best seller on the NY Times list.

Oh, and they own the copyright on anything else they think they can bootleg for a dollar or two. Like Stephen King:

It's pretty obvious that this is a violation of EBAY's own rule on "digital delivery."

He says "WE WILL EMAIL BOOK..."

DUH.

According to EBAY, "We have priorities." Meaning, it might take up to a week before a complaint is acted upon.

The person at EBAY I spoke to also admitted that sometimes the item is NEVER stopped. "Report it again."

You see, they are very busy at EBAY, and it's not that they ignore or trash complaints they just, well, say "REPORT IT AGAIN."

They might also not even want to talk to you, and instead put you on hold for literally a half hour, while blasting music and constant "Your call is important to us, stay on the line" messages.

Meanwhile, the HAPPY customers of this HAPPY seller can go check and see who else he's raping with his lies about owning their copyright. Yes, that OWNING COPYRIGHT line is prominent (red lined for your benefit)

A seller like this also gets the benefit of many "warnings" and then "restrictions" (ie, seller can't post for a week or a month). Ultimately there's suspension. But the suspension would come a lot faster if authors get involved and send DMCA's through the vero program (vero@ebay.com).

While it's not going to hurt Stephen King much if some cretin in Tennessee offers up $1 or $2 copies of HIS books, the more that "HAPPY" EBAYERS get for chump change, the less they buy.

Worse, if they do buy, they'll "be sure to buy again" from the cretin in Tennessee, who will surely have something on his list of 30 or 40 books that will be worth the $1 bid. If not, he'll happily take requests, and go to the sneaky torrent sites or forums where he can get his free downloads of most anyone's book, and then bring it over to eBay.

Meanwhile new authors, mid-list authors, and others who rely on people buying their books, get nothing. Potential readers are too busy reading bootlegs and bragging how they just finished the new Andy Weir and the latest masterpiece from E.L. James.

You'd think that when a creepy liar blatantly says of Stephen King, Andy Weir, Paula Hawkins and everyone else, "Attention Ebay Staff: I am an Authoried Reseller..also the copyright holder..." authors would literally call him on it. Just out of pride of copyright. It's the BEST way to handle it.

I've called EBAY. I've said, "He's telling YOU, EBAY STAFF, that he's authorized. Why don't you call him and demand that he fax you that authorization?"

Because EBAY would rather get a commission on a dollar from a redneck thief in Tennessee, and because EBAY doesn't want to pay employees to lose sales. Ebay would rather have the serenity of being "just a venue," that acts only when they absolutely have to.

Andy Weir, Philippa Gregory, etc., you may have your hands full with writing new books, answering fan mail, Tweeting, playing with your websites, doing phone interviews, etc. etc. But you still can deputize a relative or a fan to be your VeRO rep. That person would be glad to check eBay once a week for ANDY WEIR eBook or ANDY WEIR kindle and take a minute to forward the auction numbers for removal.

I've seen eBay piracy of mp3 files and music dwindle to near nothing. The same can happen with this new phenomenon of digital theft of copyrighted books.