Almost all authors (especially ebook authors) will experience book piracy. Here are a few tips I’ve developed to deal with copyright violations in a quick and stress free manner.
First of all, leave your emotions behind. Writing is a business, and all business owners deal with theft.
Most pirate sites do not actually host the illegal files—they’re forums of users who provide links to the actual file storage where they’re kept. These are the agencies you need to contact, not the pirates or even the forums’ moderators. Most of those moderators know exactly what’s going on and their goal is to keep your files available.
By setting up a document with your copyright notice ahead of time, you’ll only have to spend a few minutes of your time following the Google alert and pasting your cease and desist notice in a message to the file host.
- Set up a disposable email box at yahoo or Google. Both have their benefits. I like yahoo because I can sort messages into folders and because of its notepad tab. Google has Google Docs and you’ll be using Google alerts to search for your books, so keeping everything under one user ID might help you stay organized. You’re going to use this email to contact the file storage company in a polite manner.
- Set up your Google alerts. (See the Google Alerts page for more on this)
- Set up a user ID at the pirate site that DOES NOT contain your real name or pseudonym. You’re going to use this ID to check links, but you ARE NOT going to communicate with other users or the moderators (no matter how tempted you are).
- In your Google Docs account, create a document for each book with your takedown request when the book comes out. Include the copyright notice from your book’s copyright page. Now it’s ready when you need it and all you have to do is copy and paste.
- Follow the link* from the pirate to the file site, and send your takedown notice to them. Include the pirate’s link in your email!
Someone asked me how they can tell if the pirate site is actually a forum and their books are being stored somewhere else. The answer is you’ll be able to see this when you look at the pirate’s listing of your book and click the link. For instance, my books were offered at Astatalk, one of the worst pirates sites on the internet. However, my books were actually stored at 4shared and zippyfiles, both legitimate file hosting sites. There are countless others: box.net, mediashare, etc., but don’t despair; the fact that these are legitimate companies works to your advantage.
When contacting file hosting companies, be polite. Remember, they have nothing to do with the pirating of your books-they’re just hosting files for registered users. I myself use box.net to backup my manuscripts. The difference is my account is private and no one can access my files but me (and of course, I have the rights to my own files).
*The book crusader advises you to use caution when following any links from pirate sites. By turning on the status bar on your browser, VIEW: TOOLBARS: STATUS BAR you can see the link address in the bottom of your internet browser before clicking on it. It’s always good advice to have a trustworthy virus protecton program on your computer.
For more about me and why I’ve put this article here, see About Me.
This site will evolve over time, but not without help from you. Please use the comments section on these pages to leave your input. Use the “Share your story” page to do just that.
Please note, any comments that appear to be from a pirate will be deleted.
~Because deleting pirates is what I love to do.
Sink Their Ships 