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PIRACY - What's In It For You
Oh my GOD! This is amazing. Fascinating! Enervating! I stupidly or not stupidly published my book/distributed it as few "final drafts" because I thought Indie's get galley proofs too. Well, we do not and many of the reviewers had a jolly good time "reviewing" it=needs editing which is the meme right now for indie books. Nothing about the content...or very little. Everybody just LOVES to say "needs more editing" if it is an Indie book, and boom, there's your "review". So there are a few versions of my book out there. This was the first mistake. Will not make again with next novel, pending. Also, I have been told to "assume your ebook will get pirated at some point and there will likely be NOTHING you can do about it" from an attorney I talked to about illegal downloads of my book. I am also looking into this and it is mind boggling. Will update as I peel back the layers...Thanks for posting this!
Greg wrote: "I could be wrong about onlybooks.org and sanet.me. But here is my problem. The sanet.me site says it offers my book as a PDF download. I sent PDFs to a few friends during editing - that's it. Nob..."Greg, hard copies of your book get sold or given to bookstores, fyi. I am not sure what the bookstores do with them but once they are considered "used" books, I believe some of the protective rights are removed. Go to Amazon and see if any of your books for sale are "used". Also, some people are entering giveaways in order to sell the "used" books to bookstores. Give human nature the tiniest dark crack to slither into and it will. I am learning all this and it is blowing my mind. Mostly I am thrilled people want to read my book but so much for quitting the day job!
At least for "Bullseye Breach," every single hard copy book in the world is legit. They were printed in Peoria, IL., a truck brought them to Itasca Books in Minneapolis, and I signed a bunch of them at the warehouse the day they came in. I could probably contact Mark at Itasca Books and find out where every single copy went if I wanted to. I did see some on the Amazon marketplace marketed as used - but there were no used books anywhere on the planet when it first released, so it was always a mystery to me why these guys marketed it that way. Those other web sites I mentioned claim to be peddling pirated eBooks. That's a whole different thing. First of all, they shouldn't even have a copy of my eBook. Second - why the weird TLDs? TLD - Top Level Domain. Dot com is a TLD. Dot org is a TLD and dot org domain names are supposed to be used for nonprofits. Dot us is a TLD - us is the Internet country code for the USA. But dot me? I had to look that one up and it belongs to the country of Montenegro.
So why does a dot org website sell pirated eBooks it's not supposed to have? And why does somebody register a domain name with the country of Montenegro and set up a website to sell pirated eBook copies? Probably because the name registrars in that country are either clueless or can be persuaded to look the other way for a low price.
I doubt any of those three sites I mentioned earlier really have eBooks - one for sure is botnet bait and the .me and .org ones probably also have some kind of malware angle.
- Greg
Ya know... Somebody ought to write a fictional novel about malicious software and cyber crime.
Speaking of piracy, or attempted piracy, I found a little encouragement concerning my own book: http://www.precisionengine.com/libri-...
The first thread that came up for me started: "So, I've been to every site practically out there, because I want to download the book To Summon The Blackbird by Ken Doggett for free. All the links I've found contains a survey (which if you give out your personal info, it'll charge you). It also only gives you the first few pages. I'm frustrated and tired, but I don't have enough money to buy the freaking book. Help??"
The first thread that came up for me started: "So, I've been to every site practically out there, because I want to download the book To Summon The Blackbird by Ken Doggett for free. All the links I've found contains a survey (which if you give out your personal info, it'll charge you). It also only gives you the first few pages. I'm frustrated and tired, but I don't have enough money to buy the freaking book. Help??"
Ken wrote: "Speaking of piracy, or attempted piracy, I found a little encouragement concerning my own book: http://www.precisionengine.com/libri-...The first thread that came up..."
This is referral spam that is designed to make you think there is interest. I think we had a thread about it.
Never heard of that, but this link does seem to change every time I click on it. How does it help them if I think there's interest in it? Do they expect me to sign up?
Edit: I did another search, and found a thread on the same site about this book that predated the book's release--Jan 19, 2015. Has the cover and everything, which is impossible if it were legitimate. "Postby » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:58 pm
I read it no less than five times. And I always learn something new."
Edit: I did another search, and found a thread on the same site about this book that predated the book's release--Jan 19, 2015. Has the cover and everything, which is impossible if it were legitimate. "Postby » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:58 pm
I read it no less than five times. And I always learn something new."
Mod
I was finding the same thing yesterday, Ken. One of them did predate the book they were "discussing". Christina is right. There was a thread about it a few months ago. I'd forgotten.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Greg wrote: "At least for "Bullseye Breach," every single hard copy book in the world is legit. They were printed in Peoria, IL., a truck brought them to Itasca Books in Minneapolis, and I signed a bunch of th..."Just FYI: I'm a domain reseller. I can sell a domain with just about any TLD you want (.ninja?). I can put any info in the whois you want. All I get is an annual notice that the whois data is supposed to be correct (if you love spam, do this). Country TLDs were restricted at one time, but I'm not sure about now, or how they establish that. I'm not even sure .me refers to Montenegro (I should check).
This is the whois on tzar media (sorry about the text wall). They listed an address in Houston, and it's registered thru Enom (who I used to deal with). Note the phone number.
Domain Name: TZARMEDIA.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1749703531_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2015-07-08T08:17:31.00Z
Creation Date: 2012-10-03T20:25:05.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2018-10-03T20:25:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTrans...
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: TZAR MEDIA
Registrant Organization: -
Registrant Street: 538 WEST 21ST STREET
Registrant Street: #77490
Registrant City: HOUSTON
Registrant State/Province: TX
Registrant Postal Code: 77008-3642
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.3023195112
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: INFO@TZARMEDIA.COM
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: TZAR MEDIA
Admin Organization: -
Admin Street: 538 WEST 21ST STREET
Admin Street: #77490
Admin City: HOUSTON
Admin State/Province: TX
Admin Postal Code: 77008-3642
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.3023195112
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: INFO@TZARMEDIA.COM
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: TZR MEDIA
Tech Organization: -
Tech Street: 538 WEST 21ST STREET
Tech Street: #77490
Tech City: HOUSTON
Tech State/Province: TX
Tech Postal Code: 77008-3642
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.3023195112
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: INFO@TZARMEDIA.COM
Name Server: A1.VERISIGNDNS.COM
Name Server: A2.VERISIGNDNS.COM
Name Server: A3.VERISIGNDNS.COM
Name Server: U1.VERISIGNDNS.COM
Name Server: U2.VERISIGNDNS.COM
DNSSEC: unSigned
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@enom.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
Last update of WHOIS database: 2015-07-08T08:17:31.00
Greg wrote: "I could be wrong about onlybooks.org and sanet.me. But here is my problem. The sanet.me site says it offers my book as a PDF download. I sent PDFs to a few friends during editing - that's it."I've heard 2 things: 1) that many of those claims are fake; 2) that people "might" convert an eBook to PDF and post it on a torrent site. Personally, I think it's unlikely people would go to the trouble. Christina mentioned before (I think) that many of these are fake inventory to attract clicks. That may be the case here.
I imagine our books are all over the place by now. A year I found it on on site, I wrote the info email and they (claimed) promptly removed it. Their site listed only 69 downloads, so I didn't follow up.
Figured I should answer the question of this thread. (I hope no one minds.) A really cool eyepatch. Of course, they also cut off your leg and feed it to a shark. So I'm sort of divided.
As a software developer, I've had my stuff pirated, posted on websites with others claiming to have written it. When I tried to defend it (by writing a post about the pirate), I was tracked down, called at my work, and received death threats.I guess I'm a little more laissez faire nowadays, but it'd be different if was my livelihood.
Hello it is Brian, I won't bother posting google results about any site now since it is hailed as incomprehensible spam, but I do know for a legal fact sellers advertise PDF type downloads specifically for Ipads, iphone, and other Ereaders as well. I think the confidentiality agreements between amazon and its affiliates makes it impossible to track down and separate pirate from affiliate (if google searched right you can of course ferret them out). Then it leaves you to question your level of trust in the publisher; I don't trust mine.
Brian wrote: "Hello it is Brian, I won't bother posting google results about any site now since it is hailed as incomprehensible spam, but I do know for a legal fact sellers advertise PDF type downloads specific..."Amazon does not sell PDF files of their kindle books and they certainly do not allow anyone to sell the books that are enrolled in their KDP Select program.
Re: Brian - And even for eBooks not enrolled in the Amazon KDP program - I did not grant permission for any of those outfits to sell my intellectual property. Amazon affiliate or not, if they're selling IP without the producers' permission, then we producers need to defend ourselves.OTOH - if they're 2-bit download sites using TLD country codes from some other country and hidden identities, they're probably just botnet bait and don't offer anything anyway.
- Greg
Hello it is Brian, I am sorry I didn't know all the facts behind the KDP program, I thought I did my google queries quite thoroughly but I am really loss now. I might as well forget about the book stuff it will save a lot of stress, I will make a coffee and see if anyone uploaded a new Alone episode on youtube it is a great survival show. Have the best day or night wherever you are.
You know, you can just go to the History channel website and watch your show without having to wait for someone to violate copyright and upload to YouTube... But given that you've been trying to convince us that piracy sites are legitimate, well...
B.B. wrote: "That is awful :( "Thanks, yeah, a little terrifying.
Christina wrote: "You know, you can just go to the History channel website and watch your show without having to wait for someone to violate copyright and upload to YouTube... But given that you've been trying to co..."Most require amazon seller licenses that is what confused me.
I just googled my book title, Misty Lake, and found a link to a youtube video posted by Raymond Pierce that, when you watch it, is an automated voice asking you to click a link that takes you to a website called books.thewholesaletime.com. The website, of course, wants you to sign up to have access to my book as well as, I'm sure, countless others. I have no idea who Raymond Pierce is, have never heard of this website, and, naturally, never gave anyone authorization to distribute my book. Has anyone else run into this?
I googled my book and found two sites claiming free PDF downloads: pdfsofbook.com and ebookost.com I don't know if these are affiliated with the company you guys are talking about, but I tried to flag my book on one of them and got error- page not found. I don't want to actually click on the book though. Too scared…lol
Ya know . . . What if everyone in this group were to contribute URLs they've found to a website listing all these pirate sites, maybe even with a little note on the front page about pirates and theft. And then, once the site is up and running, everyone promotes it heavily - here's a list of websites promoting pirated copies of our material. That gets on the news and generates a bunch of good PR for indie authors.
Is this too creative?
I've found that websites that offer a free PDF of my books offer only free books with similar names. I haven't found any sites yet that actually offer a free download of my books.
Pirates will always be there. [shrug] Be brilliant and it won't matter... imho
and here I was being told how great digital piracy was because "obscurity". This really ruined my dreams :/
For the writers who don't care about piracy, they can always write something like this:
Me: Hi. (*wiggles her fingers to the room*) My name is Donna and I...I am a victim of piracy. Group: Hi, Donna!
So, this was a list of authors I never wanted to be a part of. Yay, me!
That's right.
I'm a victim of some ____ (I'll let you fill in the blank with your choice of epithet) using my work, my sweat, my tears, my money, my BLOOD to rip off other ____s. I feel utterly sick to my stomach. I just wondered, if any other victims on here reached any resolve, or if their baby is still being used to draw credit cards to these websites/still being sold illegally without royalties, without compensation, without giving a damn that they are infringing upon your copyright. I doubt this will be the last time this happens because let's face it...the world is full of ___s.
I have reported all the URL sites to Google, phoned and emailed the company directly. I know I'm going to see Santa sunbathing with his jingle bells out before I receive any compensation. Hell, I just want them to take my name off anything connecting me to their dirty website.
Hey, look. It's 5 o'clock! Time to crack open something that will get me drunk.
Pirating is a sad fact of the digital publishing business. You can issue DCMA takedown notices. It may work. You can report pirate videos on YouTube. They may take them down. But they're kind of like roaches. They'll keep popping up. You'll give yourself a hernia if you keep looking for them. Spend your time writing and educate readers when you can. The ironic thing is a lot of these sites are often malware or phishing sites that will hack the illegal buyer's computer. So that's one bit of justice :) and if you share that tidbit of info on your public pages, it might deter a few cheaters.
Just remember that most people who will get your book on a pirate site might not even give it a second look if they'd have to buy it so you're not losing anything.Mysti is right. A lot of those sites are only there to hack the illegal 'buyers'. They just get what they deserve.
Mysti wrote: "Pirating is a sad fact of the digital publishing business. You can issue DCMA takedown notices. It may work. You can report pirate videos on YouTube. They may take them down. But they're kind of li..."So very true. It clearly was a cockroach when the only answer given to me by the "supervisor" was to sign up for their site and give them my credit card number. I laughed. After fifteen minutes of that runaround on the phone, the woman had the nerve to transfer me so I could rate my customer service. Uh...was it really not that clear?
Mysti wrote: "Pirating is a sad fact of the digital publishing business. You can issue DCMA takedown notices. It may work. You can report pirate videos on YouTube. They may take them down. But they're kind of li..."Yes. I used to freak a little when I saw my book pop up on various "Free e-book" sites. Then I realized (1) That they all wanted you to sign up and hand over personal info first, and (2) The sites had clearly scavenged data wholesale from publicly-available info on Goodreads - covers, blurbs, bios and reviews - to make themselves look legitimate.
They weren't singling my book out, practically every title I tried was there, and I'd happily bet all my author earnings (ha!) that they had no PDFs to offer to those stupid enough to enroll.
Mod
Don't.
Most people know this already, it is a total scam. Even the people that do pirate know this. Those sites pull information that is public, like GoodReads reviews for example, to auto-generate many pages of links, to get anyone to click, and more often than not - the target is you. Who has more interest in keeping your book safe than you?
I am pretty sure any book that is for sale will get these. It is just the nature of it. Unfortunate, but true. I honestly doubt many books are actually pirated properly beyond the super big names.
YouTube is easier to fight pirates, but still hard depending on what happens. Videos are easy to get claims on, There is a button, you click it, they look into it... but the click baiters are sneakier than that. I had a long standing ticket because someone was daily 'livestreaming' my book's info in a click attempt, and hundreds of others. You cannot report livestreams on youtube, and it was a mess. I eventually got the account banned, so I stopped hundreds of click bait livestreams (you're welcome!)
You might find someone who has your information in their profiles, or other things you can't click. YouTube does not make it easy, but at least you have a chance. I suspect most of the pirate sites have a link to 'report piracy' that is actually just a link to get your info.
Maybe ignore it? It is hard I know.
For the most part I think piracy is bad however can be embraced as long as the person pirating it is getting nothing our of it. To me there's two types of book pirating:1.The ones who put your book on a site(without your knowledge or consent) and sell it and make money off it and get all credit and exposure. (The ideal definition of Book Piracy)
2. The ones who put your book on a site without your knowledge but set the prices so high that you know there's no way they are making squat off your book. If anything it serves as a dormant vessel sitting on their virtual shelf collecting dust.
V.M. wrote: "Hey SIA members, I have to bring to your attention the glory that is PIRACY.What is PIRACY you ask?
Well it's when you steal and list Indie Author books FOR FREE on your various websites and allo..."
Anyone ever seen this one?
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/D...
It's a right mess, but it offers one of mine for free when I know darn well it's only free on Kindle Unlimited ...
I found my story on tzarmedia and reported it to IC3, the FBI internet crimes investigation unit.The more of us who report the company, the greater chance of success.
Hopefully a thorough investigation will lead to proof of lost earnings and maybe we can recover at least some of the lost earnings from out books in a class action lawsuit,
It's quite complicated. I'm a little in doubt if it's good or bad. When my book happened to appear in four sites I felt like someone had kicked my puppy. Badly. Amazon was the one that interfered. But I'm Brazilian and as they are in the country only for about four years and when it happened they were here for less than one, they were a bit cautious. They sent me a message telling me that they wouldn't pay royalties because the book was free on some other sites. I got really mad. They were the only one to have it! I told them I had trusted them and the platform had been breached otherwise my book wouldn't have jumped from my computer into the NET. Two hours later the book wasn't available on the other sites and I was paid. I'm not sure how it happens but I'm sure Amazon is reliable. Maybe somebody who understands how Internet works could explain better? Is there anyone around who could shed the light in my ignorance ;)
Last year when I just published my novel through CreateSpace and put it on the amazon market I was curious after a few weeks to see if it popped up on a google search. All of a sudden I was linked to ebay and this dude had the audacity to sell five of my books way beyond the amazon asking price. I notified ebay about this, that he didn't have the permission to sell my book like this and all they said was "He's not violating any rules." But not soon after that the ebay listing disappeared....I've yet to find my book on any "free" ebook sites.
Okay I take that back, apparently I have to include a bunch of other things in the search to get my book....
Apparently my book is for sale on the Aussie ebay O_O
Mod
That isn't piracy Ellen. People do that constantly on eBay.
They sell things they don't have for a crazy price. Then, if it does sell, they buy it and send it.
You would get the royalty, but the customer would be fleeced.
Unfortunate, but not illegal.
You would be hard pressed to find a book that this isn't happening to.
I agree with C.B. I found three of my books for sale on eBay UK, US and Aus. They buy your book through Createspace and then resell them via eBay. If you read through the listing you'll normally see a little blurb at the bottom stating they are resellers and authors receive the royalties they are entitled to through the printer. I just bought 10 copies of my own book and listed them for sale on eBay $5 cheaper than the other resellers to see if I can make some easy money for myself!
It's not piracy to re-sell your book, it's actually good for you. They buy your book, don't they? By working to re-sell your book at a higher price, they serve you even better with free marketing. Don't book-stores do the exact same thing? Buy books at a discount then sell them?For all I care, ebay customers can buy a thousand of my book and re-sell it, fine by me.
yeah part of me knows this but I dunno, it sucks seeing your book for that high a price on a site you never wanted it to be sold on. Then again, might as well take your example Ben and put some of my books up cheaper than they do ;) Might as well throw in an autographed one or perhaps two...
Mod
You sly boots!
Ha ha, yeah I thought why not, I noticed my zombie book sells quite well on eBay in the U.K where Amazon isn't as big a presence as the U.S. You can also put a note in asking for a review, thanking them, and also a small printed page of any other books you have. It also helps by creating another location where your name and book title is listed.
Also, they are selling my books for approx $15 plus postage. It cost me $45 for 10 of my books directly from Createspace and you can buy padded envelopes off of eBay in bulk cheap. Even if you sold your books for only $1 profit, there isn't a lot involved in it, time wise and could be a great way to get in touch with people that will read and review your book.
You could also list your website with other books for sale etc. Just a good exercise in creating a bigger author presence without much cost involved.
Ben wrote: "Also, they are selling my books for approx $15 plus postage. It cost me $45 for 10 of my books directly from Createspace and you can buy padded envelopes off of eBay in bulk cheap. Even if you so..."
That's pretty smart xD Sadly it's a bit more for me since I have to ship them abroad to me but I'll have to look into this next month when my vacation money comes in!
Thanks for the MOD and others. I have copyright material allegedly on TZARMEDIA.COM. I've sent off angry emails to info@tzarmedia.com and abuse@enom.com. Other than this, I don't know what I can do. I'm willing to pool together for a class action suit if the piracy can indeed be proven. Tzarmedia.com may have taken samples and excerpts that are posted on my website. In which case, they're doing me a favor because I include links to my AMAZON sales page.
Thank you to everyone who has commented in this thread, especially Greg. I have just quickly read through after discovering my latest book 'Of A Dark Heart' was popping up in Google as a free PDF on a site connected to TzarMedia. I have now sent them an email requesting it be removed.Is there anything else I should/can do?
Also can I ask if others (again, a shout out to Greg here) had any success having their books removed from the scam sites after notifying TzarMedia?
Thanks,
Chris Foster
Poet, Novelist, Dream maker
Hi Chris,Had a similar experience. Sent emails to TzarMedia and spoofed them via Twitter. They claimed they got material from another source. This I confirmed and got a blogger to take my PDF offline. I don't know if TzarMedia still has a copy, but it doesn't show up in Google search. TzarMedia and Mouner Cloud Library are close to Darknet affiliates, so there's very little anyone can do about them. They probably don't reach that many seekers.
Greg wrote: "Looks like that booksonline.website link is having some trouble this morning. And running on a CentOS server? Sheesh! Here is the result of a bit of detective work. Looks like these guys are hostin..."I tracked down ads for my book to .xyz, google.docs and Digital Ocean, all leading from one to the other by links (which I hand copied, rather than clicked) on each site. Checked the IP addresses and found that most were MY computer's IP!!
I'm the only one in my house with access to my computer, and my internet access is strictly via my phone's hot spot which is set to allow only my laptop. On top of that, the signal isn't strong enough to go from one room to another, with or withOUT walls, so not sure how that happened.
So I slapped off my internet access, ran full diagnostics and full scans for viruses, worms and PUPs. I then reported to every piracy reporting site I could find to report on. 'Twas an all day affair!
There is one thing that did come to my attn...most of the domains ken back to other countries than the US or UK. Hopeful that there is no real download capabilities.
To date, I've only done eBooks for Amazon and Barnes and Noble. That's it. So where did the sanet.me guys get their eBook copies? They didn't get 'em from me!
The same goes for onlybooks.org. Where did these guys get an electronic copy of my book? I didn't send anything to them.
And as for that kickass-torrent.ytsre.eu site - just open that site and let it sit there for a while. Pretty soon, you'll see a popup that says your flash is out of date or some other such nonsense. Yeah, right. Uh-huh. That site is botnet bait.
- Greg