In an attempt to see if there was a way for authors to periodically check that their works weren’t being pirated on sites like this, I tried Googling the names of a couple of the books on this site’s list and nothing weird came up on Google; everything looked legit. I also tried Googling coanalratts but that didn’t come up either. How is this pirating outfit’s info so well shielded? I can Google myself and just about see what I had for breakfast!
The only trouble is, I heard somewhere (kboards, I think), that if you go to these sites and enter the name of your book, they”ll just use it to steal it if they haven’t already done so. Don’t know if this is true, but it sounds all too likely.
I think a lot of these sites are running on “affiliate” moneymaking schemes that they signed up for, as offered by the real criminals who are stealing the intellectual property of writers who give away their works, or sell them cheaply enough for the thieves to still make money off them. (When I studied marketing and professional selling at university, I learned never to try to compete on the basis of price. Publishing piracy is another reason to take that lesson to heart: Why make life easy for criminals? But, I digress.)
This is why it’s so important for writers to register their copyrights, especially if they give away their work. In the USA, it’s easy, inexpensive – only $35 – and it’s the best way to defend copyright. Writers who are reluctant to register, who think they’ll wait for infringement to happen before doing a retroactive registration, and who believe they can successfully defend their copyrights by having a dated printed manuscript and/or early versions archived on their computers, have another think coming. It is very easy for tech-savvy thieves to manipulate metadata, to misrepresent dates of creation and ownership of stolen virtual documents.
Reblogged this on Wendy Anne Darling and commented:
Authors should check to see if this site is infringing their copyright by giving away unauthorized free ebooks. If so, please report them!
Thanks for this informative article Chris. Unfortunately as soon as one of these sites is shut down (as they should be) another one springs up, hydra-like. Lets hope that WordPress removes the sites in question. Kevin
On 10/19/14, Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog….. An Author
About six months ago, I found my books on a site selling free ebooks and demanded that they remove them. The problem is this, however. When a person clicks on an ebook they want, they are taken to a second site and what they actually get is a program download. I haven’t taken the next step because I don’t want to infect my computer with any virus. The bottom line is that this site was not giving away the ebooks at all but I did not want my books associated with them in any way.
About a month later, I checked back on that site and it no longer exists. However, a mirror site is still up and running under another name. These people will never stop with their scams on the public.
Don’t take that next step, Martha! We went through this same situation earlier in the year with a site called General eBooks that was a scam. If you clicked on the links, or complained about your books being infringed upon, the site collected your email address and my computer become infected as a result. Spam began being sent from my email addresss. We did discover though that we could report these sites. Not sure that really helped to get rid of this one we were fighting, but we did manage to get the word out to many other authors about this problem of copyright infringement. At least authors are aware of their existence and know that the sites are actually just scams.
Yeah. That was what I was afraid of. An author can fill out this for each site, but the condition is that the author needs to be one of the ones whose copyright has been infringed upon.
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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In an attempt to see if there was a way for authors to periodically check that their works weren’t being pirated on sites like this, I tried Googling the names of a couple of the books on this site’s list and nothing weird came up on Google; everything looked legit. I also tried Googling coanalratts but that didn’t come up either. How is this pirating outfit’s info so well shielded? I can Google myself and just about see what I had for breakfast!
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Reblogged this on Lit World Interviews and commented:
Check out the article with two Illegal Book Sites and add this one too it.
http://forum.mobilism.org/portal.php?mode=articles&block=aapp
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The only trouble is, I heard somewhere (kboards, I think), that if you go to these sites and enter the name of your book, they”ll just use it to steal it if they haven’t already done so. Don’t know if this is true, but it sounds all too likely.
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It just keeps getting worse doesn’t it? 😦
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I think a lot of these sites are running on “affiliate” moneymaking schemes that they signed up for, as offered by the real criminals who are stealing the intellectual property of writers who give away their works, or sell them cheaply enough for the thieves to still make money off them. (When I studied marketing and professional selling at university, I learned never to try to compete on the basis of price. Publishing piracy is another reason to take that lesson to heart: Why make life easy for criminals? But, I digress.)
This is why it’s so important for writers to register their copyrights, especially if they give away their work. In the USA, it’s easy, inexpensive – only $35 – and it’s the best way to defend copyright. Writers who are reluctant to register, who think they’ll wait for infringement to happen before doing a retroactive registration, and who believe they can successfully defend their copyrights by having a dated printed manuscript and/or early versions archived on their computers, have another think coming. It is very easy for tech-savvy thieves to manipulate metadata, to misrepresent dates of creation and ownership of stolen virtual documents.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Wendy Anne Darling and commented:
Authors should check to see if this site is infringing their copyright by giving away unauthorized free ebooks. If so, please report them!
LikeLike
Thanks for this informative article Chris. Unfortunately as soon as one of these sites is shut down (as they should be) another one springs up, hydra-like. Lets hope that WordPress removes the sites in question. Kevin
On 10/19/14, Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog….. An Author
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About six months ago, I found my books on a site selling free ebooks and demanded that they remove them. The problem is this, however. When a person clicks on an ebook they want, they are taken to a second site and what they actually get is a program download. I haven’t taken the next step because I don’t want to infect my computer with any virus. The bottom line is that this site was not giving away the ebooks at all but I did not want my books associated with them in any way.
About a month later, I checked back on that site and it no longer exists. However, a mirror site is still up and running under another name. These people will never stop with their scams on the public.
LikeLike
Don’t take that next step, Martha! We went through this same situation earlier in the year with a site called General eBooks that was a scam. If you clicked on the links, or complained about your books being infringed upon, the site collected your email address and my computer become infected as a result. Spam began being sent from my email addresss. We did discover though that we could report these sites. Not sure that really helped to get rid of this one we were fighting, but we did manage to get the word out to many other authors about this problem of copyright infringement. At least authors are aware of their existence and know that the sites are actually just scams.
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These are connected to WordPress. You should be able to report them.
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Every WordPress using author should also report them Charles, then WordPress will HAVE to listen and deal with them.
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I agree. Especially if that author finds his or her book on there. Not sure how to search that first one. Found a volume of Sin City there too.
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Yeah. That was what I was afraid of. An author can fill out this for each site, but the condition is that the author needs to be one of the ones whose copyright has been infringed upon.
https://wordpress.com/abuse/
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I’ve added a short guide to reporting them Charles.
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Cool. I couldn’t find myself on the sites. Then again, the first one has no search function or archive.
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