Piracy - Astatalk site post re. my book

It's pretty standard. Get ready for it.

You can try to ask them to remove the request, but at this point they haven't broken any copyright violations. You may have to wait until the actual book is posted (if ever), and then send the host site (not Astatalk) a DMCA take down notice. Just Google 'DMCA take down' for more info.

Good luck (And congrats on your release! Try to enjoy it. )

Piracy is something most publishers take very seriously: I'd always send my publisher the information and let them handle it as a first option. They're more used to it, and have more clout.

Old Hack said:

Piracy is something most publishers take very seriously: I'd always send my publisher the information and let them handle it as a first option. They're more used to it, and have more clout.

Click to expand...

Actually, I've found most of the smaller publishers tend to let the authors chase these down. In any case, it is a problem to do so. Me, I start at whois.net and chase down the domain name and ip address. One of my favorite take-downs started with a pirate based in Turkey whose domain name cross-referenced over to another legitimate domain in regards to the IP address. The fun continued as GoDaddy said they only sold the domain. In the end, my pirate's file server was sitting out in a popular Dallas data center - which is where my own take-down took hold.

The sad truth is, you can't really stop this stuff. The technology has to get to the point where a DRM can be unobtrusive to the buyer and simply not worth cracking to a pirate. Good luck with that.

Kerry

Hello, Kate,

Actually, there is a lot you can do, but you need to be in an active group because if several complaints come in at the same time, an entire account is more likely to be deleted per TOS. It's simply less trouble... and the law, if it is obvious that a user is a repeat offender/pirate.
Copy your DMCA notices here:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[SIZE=+0][email protected]

File an online complaint here:
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx[/SIZE]

Join the authors' yahoogroup AuthorsAgainstEBookTheft.
Most important of all right now is for you to write to the government about COICA

http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2010/10/05/commerce-seeks-comment-protecting-copyrighted-works-internet

Not only write to the noi
[email protected]
which is accepting comments from copyright-activists and concerned parties, but also tell the Senate Committee

Sponsor:
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Cosponsors:
Lamar Alexander [R-TN]
Evan Bayh [D-IN]
Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]
Thomas Coburn [R-OK]
Richard Durbin [D-IL]
Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]
Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
Charles Grassley [R-IA]
Orrin Hatch [R-UT]
Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
Herbert Kohl [D-WI]

You can also complain to CopyNot
If the pirates who are attacking you are also sharing CISCO or MICROSOFT intellectual property, sick the big dogs on your pirate.

Look up the server, and complain to whoever hosts the pirate site. Also complain to Twitter if they have Twitter functionality, and to Google if their messages about your book turn up in Google searches.

There's a lot more info and help for authors, so do not despair. The more of us who have the courage to stand up, the more likely it is that honest, reasonable people (the majority) will understand the unfairness and injustice of piracy.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

I forget who said it, but there's an apt quote on e-publishing. "The main obstacle for an author isn't piracy, it's obscurity". I wouldn't worry about it. I suggest thinking of it as an indicator of your overall popularity.

Not to come across as a completely spineless pro-piracy advocate, but I think it's fighting windmills. I've yet to experience the "honour" of being requested on a piracy site. Of course it'd annoy me whenever somebody acquires my work without reimbursing me or my editor. But if people try hard enough they can find anything pirated.

I think the best tactic is simply to point out in blogs and interviews that you make very little money from your writing and that it's hard to make a living this way. The people who care about you and your books might think twice before pirating, ie shaming the pirates. We all know that nobody will produce consumer media if nobody pays for it. So it's in ones self interest to pay for it. ...and of course, those who don't care... well... they don't care anyway. So there's no point trying to attack or win them over.

You can fight, but they'll just repost. I've learned this to my annoyance. I've had Astatalk in particular take down numerous uploads of my books. 24 hrs later they're back up again. Honestly, I gave up. I try to console myself with the fact these thiefs would never have paid in the first place. Although its still hard when I see my newest release available less than 12 hours after it became available.

Dear Local Auto Dealership,

Take comfort in the fact that I stole a BMW Z-3 off your lot. It means your cars are very popular, and not fading into obscurity that everyone wants one so much.

Please also take comfort in the fact that I never would have actually BOUGHT this car.

I'm not screwing YOU, I'm screwing the bigwig car company! Those CEO fatcats who make all the money.

Also, I'm sure you'll feel even more popular when I stick this car into my amazing replicating machine (patent pending and don't you dare think of ripping me off!) and make copies of the car, and hand them out for free to everyone in my neighborhood. And on the internet. How cool is THAT?

I know you'll feel good knowing many people are enjoying your fine automobile. People who wouldn't have ever bought one, of course.

Thanks!

Signed,

A Car Pirate

One old trick to help combat piracy is to upload your own promotional copies of your books to sites that pirate your work.



For example upload/share multiple listings of your book, that contain only the cover and the intro pages … with links going back to your site. This method helps to dilute the real copies of your book that are out there. If you upload enough different copies, most down-loaders will give up before finding the real copies.

They pirated mine, as well (Shadowplay). I've followed their process for notifying them of the violation and sent three take-down notices. Guess what? Shadowplay is still on their site.

After doing some more digging, it turns out that astatalk.com has, big surprise, an IP address based in the Cayman Islands. It also consists of layers within layers, like a rotten onion. Dig far enough and you'll find a site called 10xdownloads.com. It's so blasted convoluted, I talked with my publishing attorney and here's what he said:

I looked into sending a takedown notice to 10xdownloads.com. Thought you’d be interested in their page on the topic (see below). I am sending them the notice shortly, but I expect it will be denied. These sites are set up to disclaim liability for infringement, even when they are posting the download link. Basically, the master file (your book) is resting on someone’s computer in their home or office (the “host”). The host decided to share it with others through one of these sites. However, the sites only post links to allow users to download the file directly from the “host." The file itself never passes through the site, and thus, the site owners claim they are only acting as road maps, helping users connect and share files directly. This is what the disclaimers below are referring to. Also, these sites are hosted in countries with questionable jurisdiction and incomplete copyright protection schemes. Here is the domain name owner information on 10xdownloads.com:
Registrant:
Oleg Veselov ([email protected])
Moscow, Tverskaya,10
Moscow,110987
Tel. +7.4955123456

So, any cease and desist letter would be threatening a Russian individual with United States copyright law. You can imagine why they don’t take threats seriously. I know it is beyond frustrating, but I wanted to be pretty clear in setting your expectations regarding combating this breed of online piracy: for the time being, it is nearly impossible to do so with the new wave of file-sharing sites that don’t touch the copyrighted files themselves.

Here's what I found on the site regarding take-downs:
(10xdownloads.com’s message re: takedown notices is below):

We take copyright infringement VERY seriously !!!
Please note that we DO NOT host any files or copyrighted material on this website. We DO NOT host torrent files, torrent hash data, and or any torrent metafiles. Furthermore, we have absolutely no control over removing any content from any other site. If you found us using a site that linked to us, then please contact THEM.

That being said, you CAN NOT in "good faith" believe that any copyrighted work that you believe is being infringed is not authorized to be displayed on our site.

If you still insist on sending us a notice of content removal, then we provide a copyrighted content removal service to copyright owners or their authorized representatives.

If you wish to report a copyright infringement that you have found on this website, please send us a formal request which our Copyright Abuse Department will thoroughly review. As an important reminder, WE DO NOT HOST any copyrighted materials on this website and we must, as such, thoroughly review all copyrighted content removal requests.

To begin the copyrighted content removal request process, please send us a proper copyrighted content removal request. A copyrighted content removal request MUST HAVE ALL of the following information or our Copyright Abuse Department will not be able to properly review your request…..

Important Notice
Anonymous or incomplete messages will not be dealt with.

We don't react to threats and will ban your email address from ever reaching us. Please be polite, and REMEMBER, WE DO NOT HOST ANY FILES!

Please »click here to request any removal of copyrighted content.

I recently found out that a number of authors have somehow gotten Astatalk to put them on a "restricted list," which means that the moderators will delete both the links people put up for these folks' works and the requests themselves. The site is down right now, or I'd see if the mods would say what you have to do to get on their list (which they probably wouldn't--they don't seem to even like to talk about the fact that there is a restricted list, and have ignored multiple requests to post the complete list).

To find out more, Google astatalk banned authors or astatalk restricted authors. I think I'll try to contact one or more of them to find out what they did, and ask if they won't mind sharing.

Not every book cover is "public domain". Book covers are copyrighted and licensed, sometimes only for a limited number of specified uses. So, if a site displays your cover art, they might be infringing that copyright, even if they don't actually host your book.

Check that out.

Great info Rowena. I hadn't thought about approaching from that aspect.

My two cents...

Piracy is frustrating but in many cases it's not worth spending too much effort fighting it. Think of it as shoplifting: it's annoying as hell, it takes money out of your pocket, but fighting it on a case-by-case basis takes far more time and money than it's worth.

I'd report it to your publisher, because that's easy, and if anywhere you're being pirated has a community board, I'd step in as an author and, VERY non-confrontationally say, "Look, I'd appreciate it if you didn't pirate my book." Some authors have had some success with that.

But ultimately, there is no waterproof business model. With brick and mortar you've got losses from breakage, non-payment/default of bills and shoplifting. With internet stuff you've got piracy.

A request at astatalk is a warning only: somebody wants your book for free. What you have to keep an eye on at astatalk is releases, which means somebody is offering your book for free.

What I do...

I joined astatalk under a dummy email. I do not post. Ever. Because the moment I do, astatalk will have my IP and could potentially ban me (which happened to a writerly compadre). And so I lurk, following the links to pirated copies of my books at the download sites (filehat, zippyshare, etc) and send my take-downs (through my writerly email) to them, the source. I keep a copy of my generic take-down letter on my desktop so all I need to do is fill in the new link and copy/paste into their report/complaint/contact-us. Takes all of 5 minutes out of my day. Depending on the file sharing site, the file can be gone in as little as a couple hours or as long as...Hm...I've got one up now that's been waiting to be taken down for almost 4 days? But I think that's because of the weekend (not business days).

If it's your first time sending a take-down letter to a specific file sharing site, check their requirements and follow them to a T. If they require the inclusion of a particular sentence, c/p that bad boy into your take-down letter. The only time I would ever recommend not following their requirements is when those jack*sses demand your "TRUE NAME" which IMO is just a sly trick to try to sway you from bothering them with complaints about wholesale theft (which is what pirating is, AFAIC). I've been dba (doing business as) Kari Gregg for quite awhile now, for business purposes my "TRUE NAME" is Kari, so that's what these sites get: Kari Gregg. Zero problems with the take-downs thus far. You will need a P.O. Box unless you want the file share sites to have your home address, though. I've yet to stumble across any file share sites that didn't ask for an address + phone.

That said...I'm still fighting them tooth and nail (not just at astatalk), but you may as well be prepared. As soon as you have a pirated file removed, they'll upload another one, maybe 2 or 3. Or 10. I've seriously lost count of how many times my Spoils of War has been pirated. (A lot.) And filehat has a counter so when your book goes up there, you'll know exactly how many copies have been downloaded, which is the worst. File sharing sites should not have counters, evah. Much writerly crazy-making ensues.

But I think it's important to keep sending the take-downs. Don't give up. That's what they want: to wear you down so they can have at your hard work with impunity. Don't let them.

As for the belief that pirating is sort of a backhanded compliment or a measure of your success...Golly gee. Being considered worth stealing has always been one of my writerly goals. [/sarcasm] Er...No.

If it makes you feel any better, I'd gather most people into pirating are going after games and music, not books. reading likely isn't something on the top of their collective agenda. I suspect most of them are more worried about securing copies of this year's Call of Duty game.

Most people genuinely interested in your book will likely buy it. don't get me wrong, go after the pirates posting your work, but at the same time, I doubt it will affect sales too much.

Bookmark said:

One old trick to help combat piracy is to upload your own promotional copies of your books to sites that pirate your work.



For example upload/share multiple listings of your book, that contain only the cover and the intro pages … with links going back to your site. This method helps to dilute the real copies of your book that are out there. If you upload enough different copies, most down-loaders will give up before finding the real copies.

Click to expand...

A few years ago I used to make and sell digital 3D content for Poser (3D animation app). I found a lot of my stuff on p2p so I just uploaded my own files, same size, same names, just empty (handy being a programmer too). Not sure how many people downloaded and shared them, but I'm sure it wasted a lot of people's time and bandwidth

Alainna said:

Dear Local Auto Dealership,

Take comfort in the fact that I stole a BMW Z-3 off your lot. It means your cars are very popular, and not fading into obscurity that everyone wants one so much.

Please also take comfort in the fact that I never would have actually BOUGHT this car.

Click to expand...

To play devil's advocate, many of the pirates see it as a victimless crime. They're wrong, but they see it that way.

The theory is that if you take the BMW, that'd be wrong. You're directly taking a physical object which could otherwise have been sold to someone, but which now cannot. Stealing a physical book, likewise; you've stolen an /object/, and the company now has one less /object/ to sell.

But digital stuff is all just /information/. If you pirate an MP3 or an eBook, there's still an infinite number of copies remaining for the folks to sell. So they say "well, I wouldn't have bought it anyone, so no one was hurt; it's not like I really /took/ anything."

Of course, they sometimes feel differently when the shoe is on the other foot.

My personal favorite story was about an iPhone tool called Crackulous. This guy created a tool that stripped the DRM off of iPhone and iPad apps, so that any one person who bought an app for the iPhone could drop it into Crackulous and have a DRM-free version you could then install on any iPhone without having to buy the app. When app developers complained, he justified it with the sort of examples above... there was no real victim, people were doing it just to have trial versions of the app, etc.

Now, the Crackulous guy actually /sold/ this software, I should note. So eventually, the inevitable happened, and someone pirated Crackulous. They removed the registration check and just posted the app for free, for anyone to download.

And the Crackulous author exploded, ranting about how his work was stolen and how now he wasn't being paid for all the work he did on the tool.

Mm. Tasty karma-and-schadenfreude sandwich. NOM NOM NOM.

I have yet to find a legitimate reason for DRM, it doesn't stop pirates - they have software to strip it off. I have bought ebooks and because of DRM I can no longer read those books. Foolishly I paid for those books, if I'd have downloaded them from a pirate site there would have been no restrictions. I can't get my money back now that I can't read them. The only people DRM harms is the foolish law abiding customer who is treated like a criminal who can't be trusted because they dare to buy an ebook.

Anyway I think that going after Astatalk is nice an all but it's one of a thousand sites. Are you going to go after them all? If you spend all your time issuing take down notices or looking for pirates when are you spending time writing?

And if you want to talk about karma what about the author who talked to the folks pirating his work and actually saw his sales increase?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...hor-joins-discussion-watches-sales-soar.shtml

AlexPiper said:

Mm. Tasty karma-and-schadenfreude sandwich. NOM NOM NOM.

Click to expand...

I'm also fond of that example. Funny how only someone else's hard work is without value.

FWIW, I'm 100% against DRM. I think it's silly and stupid and punishes those of us who buy our books legitimately.

As for how much time it takes (away from writing) to do the take-downs...5 minutes every morning. If I'm feeling energetic, I might invest an additional 5 minutes at night to check on any take-downs I sent that morning.

I waste more time on Farmville, honestly. (Stupid horses.)

para said:

I have yet to find a legitimate reason for DRM, it doesn't stop pirates - they have software to strip it off. I have bought ebooks and because of DRM I can no longer read those books. Foolishly I paid for those books, if I'd have downloaded them from a pirate site there would have been no restrictions.

Click to expand...

My approach was that I wrote a little tool for myself called Compendium. When I plug my Kindle into my Mac, Compendium finds all the new books on the Kindle that it hasn't seen before. It pulls the books off the Kindle, strips the DRM off and turns the books into standard Mobipocket, then stuffs them into an archive directory (filed by author).

If for whatever reason, Amazon goes kerblooie or the Kindle gets shut down, I'm not out the hundreds of dollars I've spent on Kindle books over the past two and a half years. I still have mobipocket versions I can read on basically anything out there, in my own archive. But I'm still supporting authors by buying the eBooks.

Wow...

That is the most elegant thing I've heard for dealing with Kindle DRM (which I hate for no real reason except I hate DRM in the abstract).

Is Compendium for Macs as well? And is there a way to sweet talk you into sharing?