I’ve been pirated.
On Friday my friend June informed me that Flicker had been illegally posted to mobilism.org, “the single largest user-powered database of apps, games, movies and books for mobile device users of all platforms!” She received a Google alert that several of HER books were on the site, and because she’s so smart she searched several friends’ names and mine popped up.
They have a copyright policy page — interesting since I’m assuming that everything on their site is in violation of copyright — that lists the steps a copyright holder needs to take if they feel their material has been shared without permission. June and I both followed their steps and while the books were removed within 48 hours, the attitude of the moderators is what really pissed me off.
June was told that most members share others’ work to help promote authors, not to prevent them from getting profits. You have to join the forum to view the posts, which we did, and we both left comments on the posts stating that we were the author and did not give permission for our work to be shared. All of our comments were deleted, and the post with Flicker was eventually locked to prevent further comments. I guess comments stating “I am the author and this has been shared illegally” isn’t good for business.
By Sunday Flicker was removed and I’m sure in the eyes of the moderators, all is well in the world. But we’ve seen books from other author friends and those are still available for free. In the month that Flicker was on the site the post was viewed over 1100 times. I couldn’t see how many times it was downloaded, but if only a fraction of those people DID read it, that’s hundreds of dollars in sales that I won’t see.
Please share this with your author friends so they can search for their books and have them removed. The copyright holder has to be the person to contact the site, and you must join the forum to search posts.
I realize this is only one site and there are probably dozens or hundreds more out there, but every little bit helps.
I’m curious to hear from those who’ve been pirated, or find their books on this site. Let’s continue this conversation in the comments.
I’m so smart? *laughs*
Thanks, though. *smooch* 😀
It’s called an IGYBG (I got your back, girlfriend!) You would have done the same!
I sure got an aerobic workout over this the way my heart rate was going. Seeing them delete our posts made me nuts. How hard would it have been at that point to delete the illegal one? Sadly, my guess is it only made our book go faster. It’s really had to conceive that the posters don’t understand what they are doing. I will keep digging for solutions. I’m anxious to see what others have done!
Bug
Yeah, that was the most frustrating part. When I reported the post they responded rather quickly, then I didn’t hear anything until we saw it was removed on Sunday — but my posts kept getting deleted. /grumble
Nasty little beasts. Thanks for the heads up, Melanie and June!
I searched for you but didn’t see your name. Let’s hope it stays that way.
So sorry this happened (and continues to happen). Good on both of you for your vigilance.
Thanks Rhonda!
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That is so uncool. I’m sorry that you and Stalkerbug’s books got pirated. There is a special place in karmic hell for piraters. I hope all the ones that ripped you guys off go there soon. 🙂
Thanks Lisa. It was a frustrating weekend.
Real life pirates are dumb. I’d like to give ’em a swift kick in the booty for you!
Glad you finally got it resolved. What they did was not cool, but at least they had good taste.
Jerky McJerkfaces.