Scam Warning

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

My fellow village friends, this is a reprint from my SharingwithWriters newsletter. I thought it important enough to publish it twice:

 

Is Your Book Being Given Away Free without Permission?  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An online business, 2shared.com, seems to be in the business of giving away books—perhaps your book—without permission. I suggest you check out the site and see if your book is listed as well as subscribing to an Google Alert or some other alert program so that if it should be (and they continue to use your title), you will know about it. Here is a letter I recently sent to them (and copied my lawyer son!). Once is forgiveable. Twice is not. Twice YOU need to know about it!

 

Dear Sir or Madam:

 

You (and someone else) is offering my The Frugal Editor free without my permission at this URL: http://www.2shared.com/xxxxxxx

 

This book is copyrighted material. If anyone would like permission to offer an excerpt complete with buy information and credit information, I would be happy to give them permission to do so at [e-mail]. But I am asking that you immediately cease and desist offering a free download of the book at this site and not to publish anything of mine without prior permission.

 

Please note this is not the first time this has happened at 2shared.com. My Frugal Book Promoter was also sold/given away without my permission recently.

Sincerely,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author
Copyright holder

One of my trusted newsletters subscribers sent me a link to a more formal (and legally correct) letter you can use for a template if you wish. For copyright reasons, I will not publish it, but if you'd like it, please e-mail me at [e-mail]. And if you'd like me to subscribe you to my letter (it's full of promotion tips, scam alerts, and even tips for improving your craft! (-: ), just put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and send the request to this same e-mail address.

 

And, PS. There is lots more on plagiarism in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) . Check the index for pertinent entries.

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

Karen and all, if you want to do a search try this one instead (http://www.4shared.com/). I'm wondering if they have several names so they are a moving target. 

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

Paidra, I couldn't agree more. If we let the plagiarists and the scam artists keep us from using the amazing power of the Internet, we bow and let them win.  No way. I love the word obscurity. I would rather have a few people get my book free than lose the power to present something I want to share and know will help others.

[Karen Cioffi]

I tried to view the site, but when I go there it's just an opt-in page to upload books. How do we get in to see if our books are being offered?

[Paidra Delayno]

I would have to say that unfortunately, the things you point out are simply the cost of doing business in today's market place.  Obviously, the problems you address go way beyond simple irritations, but think where we would be without the Internet.  We do have the option not to use the many wonderful advantages (ie. blogs, websites, social sites, article sites, etc, etc.) but where would authors be without them.  Obscurity comes to mind.  For the few who make it to the top this is not a problem, but for the rest of us....... 

[Vivienne Diane Neal]

Carolyn, Thank you for this valuable information. I plan to visit this site to see if my books are there. If so, I will certainly contact them with a cease and desist letter.

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

Karen, I hear what you're saying. Then there are the ones that take your articles, reviews, excerpts, etc. and run them through what appears to be a translation service and they come out looking as if you don't speak (or write!) English.  And, yes. our names appear with them. And some sites make it impossible to even find who runs them. I think it should be a law (in spite of the wide-open-West attitude of the WWW) that every site should have authentic contact information.

[Karen Cioffi]

Carolyn, this is such a horrible consequence of the internet. For all its good, there is some rotten stuff that goes on.

I'm not sure if Whois will be helpful. I've had several sites take my articles and spin them horribly AND leave my name attached to it, some site obscene. When I contacted the hosting sites, they said there was nothing they could do. I'd need to get an attorney.

Unfortunately, I think it's a battle we can't win. Keeping alerts will help find some of the problems, but if the site owner isn't ethical, then you have a problem.

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

I have to agree, David. If just one site "got" me twice, I shudder to think what else is out there.

[David Ivester]

Hello Carolyn,

I agree with you completely, and am ready, willing and able to participate in an industry task force.  I honestly think we are just seeing a very small portion of what is out there.  Google alert is definitely a great tool.  We just need to have a game plan to put an end to the piracy.

[Carolyn Howard-Johnson]

It is hard to fight, David. But the more each of us do, the better for the industry as a whole.  Even patrolling our own work is a job. But Google Alerts (or other alert service) can sure help us with this. Another tip. When we see someone touting our books on Twitter, be sure to click through before you thank them. It may be the person who has posted your book trying to up the "royalties" they get from posting on this site.