What do you do when someone decides to illegally distribute your novel?

Momento Mori said:

KosseMix - you said that this was a draft that went out to betas. How much is your manuscript going to change as a result of the amendments they suggested? Is it going to be a substantial re-write or are you just tweaking bits and pieces?

If it's a substantial rewrite, i.e. you are reworking large parts of it, rewriting it, reordering scenes, changing/dropping characters, then I would just let the imbecile distributing your last draft get on with it. Once they get bored and get it out of their system it will disappear into the internet ether.

I would not personally bother with a C&D because the money you spend on getting a lawyer to do it will not be well spent as the script will just get moved onto different sites faster than you can keep up.

However, if the manuscript is not going to be substantially changed and you were looking to go on submission with it, then you need to make a decision on whether to seek legal advice because the fact that it's been disseminated on public sites could arguably use your first publication rights and prevent you from getting either an agent or a publisher (and the fact that you know it's been disseminated is something that you would have to tell them). Personally, I would probably decide to just trash the manuscript and start something else because getting lawyers involved is risky and time consuming and will use up a lot of your creative energy as well. I'd also question how sound the grounds are for taking action.

Sorry that this has happened to you.

MM

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This. Also when you submit it, you might want to think about changing the manuscript's title. A quick Google search will still bring up the old version and you don't want that to reflect on the final version.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I say we draw and quarter the poor characters. (Not really. Just watching way too many Tudor episodes.)

Open question to all: Do you think a C&D might work better if it was addressed to Facebook and the distribution site where the MS was uploaded? Also, would an alert to copyright infringement sent to the search engines (Google, et al.) help? That last one was just a stab in the dark guess.

It seems to me the main priority should be to minimize illegal exposure/distribution of your work. You'll never be able to scrub it all off the net, but if it were me, I'd try to stop it coming up on page 1 of searches at least. Rather than beg those incredibly irresponsible people to do the right thing, after having done an amazingly wrong thing, I'd go to the presumably more responsible companies they are using to screw you over and impress on them that you are not amused and feel like pursuing this.

Also, this may not be noble, but I'd give the beta one chance to apologize and put pressure on her friend to cut it out. If she didn't come through, I'd blacklist her. I'd make sure that other writers who advertise for betas know her name and not to trust her.

ETA: And I'd change the title of the final version, too.

ETA2: Also, check your local phone listings for your local Lawyers Referral Service. They're a service of state Bar Associations. If you call, you may be able to get the numbers of IP attorneys who offer free consultations - or you can get the numbers and call the attorneys offices and ask if they will give one. These are little teaser convos, usually about 15 minutes on the phone, in which you can outline your problem and the attorney can tell you if you have a leg to stand on and what your options are, as well as give a quick opinion about whatever you might be planning to do about it. -- This is assuming you are in the US. I'm not sure if other countries have something similar.