Amazingpapers.com / The Paper Experts, Inc.

I place papers on my website as a research aid to literary students. I make it very clear that the papers are copyrighted, that they may only be used for research, and that they must be properly cited. They may not be distributed or sold.

My papers have been stolen and are up for sale by a website called amazingpapers.com. This website has no contact information.

What can I do about this?

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

I should mention that I did find a 1-888 number on the site, which of course leads to a voice mail box that is full.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Start by talking to a lawyer that specialized in intellectual property.

The big question is: did you register the copyrights, or did you just put a notice? If it's the former, you have them right where you want them. If it's the latter, you'll have to see whether it'll be worth your while to hire a lawyer and take them to court. But you still can ask them to remove them.

I seem to recall there are conditions where you can register after the works are published, but I don't know the specifics.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

I beleve that skylarburris already has the power to force the ISP to block that site for misappropriating copyrighted material.

Mr. Charles E. Petit, Esq., has already created some valuable templates for sending letters to the individual/company that is using copyrighted material without permission and another for sending to the ISP should the first letter fail to resolve the issue. You can view those at anotherealm.com/prededitors/pecopy.htm

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Registration info from godaddy.com:

Registrant:
The Paper Experts Inc.

57 Timbercreek Crt.
Toronto, Ontario m1w 4a1
Canada

Registered through: GoDaddy.com (www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: AMAZINGPAPERS.COM
Created on: 05-Sep-00
Expires on: 05-Sep-05
Last Updated on: 30-Jun-04

Administrative Contact:
Inc., TPE [email protected]
The Paper Experts Inc.
57 Timbercreek Crt.
Toronto, Ontario m1w 4a1
Canada
4164920404
Technical Contact:
Inc., TPE [email protected]
The Paper Experts Inc.
57 Timbercreek Crt.
Toronto, Ontario m1w 4a1
Canada
4164920404


Good Luck!

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Tell them to cease and desist and threaten to sue.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Thank you for the helpful information!

I have sent a letter to the website contact, and if I do not receive a reply very soon I will take up the issue with the ISP.

I have sent the same letter to YET ANOTHER website selling term papers, which also has this very same paper for sale. I wonder if one sold it to another. This must be a common form of theft on the internet.

Unfortunately, when you type my full name into Google, my website is very low in the listings, but these websites containing my stolen paper come up in the top five. This hurts my professional reputation as well, because it appears I am the kind of person to sell papers to students.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Odds are that someone entered a search term that your paper contains in order to find your web site and take that article.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

I suggest you put your papers on a password protected area and give students a password.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Here is the brilliant response I received from amazingpapers:

Hello S. Burris, in no way do we attempt to purposely infringe on anybody's work. We write original term papers but please send me your document so that i can verify and remove this source from my database so that it is not available for resale. You must understand that we sell book reports on a variety of books, authors from all around the world. The works we write are not a copy of what you have written but an analysis of your work like an analysis of Tom Clancy's work or anybody elses. Please send me your document so i can check if we in fact are copying any of your work. With all due respect, i don't mean to infringe on your property but if we cite you properly then I don't see how we're infringing. The assignment was given by a professor since we've written it. Please send me your document.

Best Regards,
Marcelo Vilanez
President & CEO

The Paper Experts Inc.
www.thepaperexperts.com


So the argument is they are just discussing my paper, not that they are copying my paper. Of course, I would have no way of knowing whether or not that were true without buying the paper in question.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

So the argument is they are just discussing my paper, not that they are copying my paper. Of course, I would have no way of knowing whether or not that were true without buying the paper in question.

So, buy a copy of the paper in question -- and be prepared to take it to a lawyer. Don't screw around.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

I agree with James that you don't let them make the determination that they're not infringing on your copyright.

However, it might depend upon the price as to whether I'd buy a copy. I'm interested instead at this point as to how you know for certain that what they're offering does. Do you already have a copy? Or did they show a portion of what they have to offer on their site that you could compare already to your paper?

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

If they do have the paper it begs the question of who they bought the copyright/publishing rights from. Either somebody sold it to them or they know they lifted it with securing any rights. I guess it would be worth buying it and making a big fuss. As an academic myself I would be happy to spread the word and find out who can be complained to about this.

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

I assumed they had the paper because of the way they worded the introduction to it, with my title up on top and then "Buy This Paper" at the bottom. But, upon re-reading, it appears possible that they may actually be analyzing my paper after all (rather than copying it). So I have written again and asked that the paper be e-mailed to me for examination. I have asked also that the description be rewritten to clarify that I am in no way associated with the website, as any such association would be very damaging to my professional reputation.

The description was so poorly worded that, when I first saw it, I concluded they were selling my paper. Only after I was told they were analyzing it did the text begin to make some sense to me. Why anyone would buy a term paper from a site so riddled with errors is beyond me...well, someone who is buying a term paper to begin with may not notice. But this is really, very bad (I copy exactly):

An Analysis of The Two Contraries in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by Skylar Hamilton Burris.

This paper will analyze William Blakes "the Marriage of heaven and Hell" and use this description in reaction to another critical work on the piece. By using "The two contraries in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by Skylar Hamilton Burris w ca see an expert pint of view on the subject and get another opinion on the way that this work can be seen. 3 pgs. No bibliography provided.

Buy This Paper

Re: Amazingpapers has stolen my intellectual property

Sounds to me like they could be selling a derivative work. If so, then you still could have a cause for action. More reasons for you to check with an attorney specializing in intellectual property law.

Thanks

Veinglory, I would appreciate any input you can give me from the academic world. I have written to request a copy of the paper in question, to see if it infringes on my copyright, and I have followed up on my request, but I may have to (sadly) resort to buying it to see it. This is the latest reply I received:

Hello Skylar, I am doing my best to accommodate you but please don't rush me. I'll get to it when I can within reasonable time... like a week. I don't like people rushing me especially when I'm not doing anything wrong.

thanks,
Marcelo

Update

Well, he has made a change to the description I requested, to make it clear I am not affiliated with the site. I am glad of that, because I would hate anyone to come across it and think I was writing term papers for sale. I have had to contact him again, however, because there are TWO other websites with different URLs that have the old, horribly worded description, which are also his sites.

I still have know way of knowing, other than buying the paper, if it is a derivative work, since he has not e-mailed it to me yet, and likely will not. He says a professor assigned students to analyze my paper and that the term paper is an analysis of my paper. If that is indeed the case, then there is no copyright infringement for me to be concerned about; I have only my reputation to be concerned about. If the wording can be changed on the other two sites as well, that should not be damaged.

correction

no way of knowing
not know way of knowing

I wish this forum had an edit button!

Re: correction

I wish this forum had an edit button!

Click to expand...

It does skylar. Look to the left, under your nickname. As long as you are logged in you can edit your posts at any time.

Re: correction

Thank you. I did not see it because apparently I was not logged in. You can post replies and enter your username and password each time, so I did not realize I was not technically logged in. This makes things much easier...