Removing all of my stories from this site...

[LucilleCF]

I doubt many of you are aware of me or have read any of my stories; I haven't been active on this site for quite a while. However, I feel that I should leave some kind of explanation for few of you who were aware of me and may be wondering what happened to me.

In short, I'm going to be purging all of my content from Literotica. I was recently made aware of the fact that some very unscrupulous individuals make a practice of stealing stories from this site and then selling them as their own work. At first, I thought it was something I didn't really have to worry about. I was too small to warrant that kind of attention. But, out curiosity, I decided to google one of my stories and found that it had been translated into Russian without my knowledge and was being sold.

Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but it really rubbed me the wrong way that someone else was being paid for my work.

So, to prevent this from happening in the future, I'll be taking my proverbial ball (my stories) and going elsewhere. Thanks for all the feedback, both good and bad. There was a time when I really needed it, but that time has mostly passed.

Good luck to you all.

EDIT:
A good point was made. Deleting my stories would remove the only evidence I have that I am the original author. So I guess they'll have to stay...

 

[jaF0]

Once something is posted on the web, it's duplicated, saved, distributed and archived in multiple places rather quickly. Some sites scrape the web almost hourly and keep archived copies available to the public. Your story might hve been copied from here, but there really isn't any way to be sure.

Note that even if you remove them from here, they will remain in their original form on sites like the Wayback Machine.

 

[SimonDoom]

Wouldn't there be the same risk of this happening elsewhere?

 

[LucilleCF]

Wouldn't there be the same risk of this happening elsewhere?

Forgive me. By elsewhere, I meant sites that require you to pay before you read, like Smashwords.

 

[LucilleCF]

Once something is posted on the web, it's duplicated, saved, distributed and archived in multiple places rather quickly. Some sites scrape the web almost hourly and keep archived copies available to the public. Your story might hve been copied from here, but there really isn't any way to be sure.

Note that even if you remove them from here, they will remain in their original form on sites like the Wayback Machine.

Noted. But I only posted the story here, so I'm confident that this site was the source.

 

[jaF0]

Forgive me. By elsewhere, I meant sites that require you to pay before you read, like Smashwords.

How would that stop scraping or copying?

Noted. But I only posted the story here, so I'm confident that this site was the source.

You didn't understand. YOU may have only posted it here, but that doesn't mean bots didn't scrape and distribute it to many places, any of which could be the source for what you found.

The instant you press 'Enter', you lose all control.

 

[LucilleCF]

How would that stop scraping or copying?

It wouldn't. But at least they wouldn't be the only ones getting compensated for my work.

You didn't understand. YOU may have only posted it here, but that doesn't mean bots didn't scrape and distribute it to many places, any of which could be the source for what you found.

The instant you press 'Enter', you lose all control.

...But they couldn't have scraped it from this site unless I posted here. So that still makes this site the target for the scraper.
To be clear, I'm obviously not holding Literotica responsible. It's just that I am now aware of how much I underestimated the risks involved with posting here.

 

[LoneMilf]

The risk you describe is that of posting anything online. Anywhere. Ever.
It doesn't really have anything to do with Literotica. If you post somewhere else in the future, they will just get copied from there instead.

 

[LucilleCF]

The risk you describe is that of posting anything online. Anywhere. Ever.
It doesn't really have anything to do with Literotica. If you post somewhere else in the future, they will just get copied from there instead.

As I have said, posting to a pay site like Smashwords has the benefit of paying me for my work, which offsets the risk. Posting to free sites only has risk.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As I have said, posting to a pay site like Smashwords has the benefit of paying me for my work, which offsets the risk. Posting to free sites only has risk.

Assuming anyone buys anything from there.

And I can tell you that bots scrape just as much from any "legit" book site as they do from here.

Every book has a preview, right? Yes, they do.

I've seen my book titles duplicated over and over, and when I go look, guess what: someone is "selling" the first thousand words of a 30,000 word story collection, scraped from those previews. So, if anyone is buying (which I doubt), they're being ripped off.

I think you're worrying pointlessly. I'd rather have 10,000 Views of a story here - which I reckon means 2,000 people read the whole thing - than ten people buy a book for a buck. I've made more money finding it in the street than I've made "selling" books.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Heck, I have stuff on Amazon that you have to pay for that's been copied. Doesn't make any difference where you distribute it from. There's a plethora of sites than scan published books and distribute them for free as well. Literotica. Smashwords. Avon Books. Doesn't make any difference. Yeah, you'll make some money publishing through Smashwords and why not, but having it copied from Literotica isn't really a valid criticism.

All that said, good luck with publishing your stories and I hope you do well

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If you leave your stories posted here they will stay as proof that they were posted here first. If you erase them, you destroy the evidence against the plagiarists and they get away free.

 

[LucilleCF]

If you leave your stories posted here they will stay as proof that they were posted here first. If you erase them, you destroy the evidence against the plagiarists and they get away free.

...This is actually a very good point.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I had a story pirated that I found for sale on Amazon. The fake author also pirated twenty other stories from here. When all of us showed them that the stories were on Lit. they agreed to take them down. And that 'author' has also now disappeared. I think you might be wise to leave your stories here, so can at least prove where they originated.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've thought a lot about this issue, and I take ethics of it very seriously. It's terrible that people do this. They're the equivalent of thieves.

But on the other hand . . . what do I lose if someone copies my story and puts it elsewhere? If they claim credit for it and it makes money, that's crappy. In seven years I've seen this happen once to one of my stories, and I complained and it was removed. But if someone where to reproduce my story under my name on another site, I wouldn't care much. It just means more people will read it. I don't get paid a dime for any of this anyway, so it's not as though I'm losing anything.

To me, the risk of the story getting swiped and republished elsewhere is amply worth it because this site offers the opportunity of having so many more readers than another site, especially one that requires readers to pay money to read.

 

[ronde]

It's unfortunate, but writing stories on any story site is the equivalent of parking your car on a dark street with a sign in the windshield that reads, "The keys are in the ignition and the tank is full. Please don't steal my car."

For a variety of reasons - they don't have the ability to write, they're looking for some quick cash without doing any work to earn it, or just because they can - there will always be people who snatch stories from one site and post them as their own work on another. It's impossible to stop even if you hired an army private detectives to track down the offenders and an army of lawyers to bring suit against them. In the end, you'll just end up poorer and your stories will still get stolen.

It's happened to me at least twice that I know of. The only real risk is that whoever stole the story could possibly accuse you of stealing it from them, but that's not likely to happen since they'd have to prove they published it before you did.

Why not look at stories that get stolen as a type of flattery? I doubt anybody is stealing stories that aren't rated fairly high. Just accept that it's going to happen at least some and keep on writing.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

If you leave your stories posted here they will stay as proof that they were posted here first. If you erase them, you destroy the evidence against the plagiarists and they get away free.

This right here, you have time/dated proof you are the original creator of the content. That said, a few details about Smashwords:

Erotic Content: This content does not show on the roster nor will it be featured on the main page of the platform, because Smashwords does what it can to limit minor access to adult content. Your work can still be found via search of either your non de plume or your publishing title.

Compensation: Smashwords/D2D take 15% of earnings. So if your base rate is 4.99 you receive roughly 2.9 or so for every sale made. That’s my margin for my stories published there, and if you have a decent following you can make a bit but the website largely relies on erotica authors to filter their own audience to their content. Alternately; you can offer your ebooks entirely for free on this site, with the added support of an ISBN to help removing pirated content from anywhere else on the web.

Non-exclusive Publishing Rights: Smashwords/D2D do not require your publications to be exclusive to their platform: you can publish anywhere. So you don’t have to pull your work from Literotica to publish it on Smashwords. They do require you to have novel covers, so you’ll have to procure that before you can publish.

Hope some of this is helpful!

 

[djrip]

I doubt many of you are aware of me or have read any of my stories; I haven't been active on this site for quite a while. However, I feel that I should leave some kind of explanation for few of you who were aware of me and may be wondering what happened to me.

In short, I'm going to be purging all of my content from Literotica. I was recently made aware of the fact that some very unscrupulous individuals make a practice of stealing stories from this site and then selling them as their own work. At first, I thought it was something I didn't really have to worry about. I was too small to warrant that kind of attention. But, out curiosity, I decided to google one of my stories and found that it had been translated into Russian without my knowledge and was being sold.

Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but it really rubbed me the wrong way that someone else was being paid for my work.

So, to prevent this from happening in the future, I'll be taking my proverbial ball (my stories) and going elsewhere. Thanks for all the feedback, both good and bad. There was a time when I really needed it, but that time has mostly passed.

Good luck to you all.

EDIT:
A good point was made. Deleting my stories would remove the only evidence I have that I am the original author. So I guess they'll have to stay...

How did you Google it? I'm curious how searching for your story turned up a Russian translation. Was the title still in English and that's what you searched? Did you run the Russian through a translator and see that it translates back to something close to your story? (Or do you speak Russian?) How do you know the Russian story was your story? Wait, were you able to see the Russian text, or would you have had to buy it? Or, was it there in English and Russian both? Just curious, as I can't quite figure out how it would have worked. Now I'm curious if I'm published in Russia!

 

[StillStunned]

Today I found one of my stories on someone's site. My name here was credited as "Featured Writer", and linked through to my profile here. Still, it was posted without my consent. Most importantly, there was a copyright notice on the page.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Even should the stories be encrypted by the site when you post them on paysites, they can still be stolen. Even if they are encrypted, the right thief can steal them. There is no security, which prevents plagiarism. Even if you purchase a copyright, it is possible it will be stolen, and you'll have no recourse for recompense if it is posted in an unfriendly country.

 

[LucilleCF]

How did you Google it? I'm curious how searching for your story turned up a Russian translation. Was the title still in English and that's what you searched? Did you run the Russian through a translator and see that it translates back to something close to your story? (Or do you speak Russian?) How do you know the Russian story was your story? Wait, were you able to see the Russian text, or would you have had to buy it? Or, was it there in English and Russian both? Just curious, as I can't quite figure out how it would have worked. Now I'm curious if I'm published in Russia!

It was odd. The content of the story was all in Russian, but the name was in both Russian and English. Probably wouldn't have found it otherwise.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Removing all of my stories from this site...​

Hi, hun.

Where ever you publish, even behind a paywall, you run the risk of being plagiarized. The only solution is to not publish.

Em

 

[LucilleCF]

Hi, hun.

Where ever you publish, even behind a paywall, you run the risk of being plagiarized. The only solution is to not publish.

Em

I really don't understand why people keep saying this.

I'm not trying to avoid plagiarism entirely. My point was that a pay site would at least give me the chance to get compensated for my work. To simplify it:

Free site: I publish > Someone steals the story > They get money for my work > I get annoyed because someone else is getting money for my work while I get nothing.
Pay site: I publish > Someone steals the story > They get money for my work > Not as annoying because I can also get money for my work.

Yes, the situation is similar on a pay site but it is not the same.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I really don't understand why people keep saying this.

I'm not trying to avoid plagiarism entirely. My point was that a pay site would at least give me the chance to get compensated for my work. To simplify it:

Free site: I publish > Someone steals the story > They get money for my work > I get annoyed because someone else is getting money for my work while I get nothing.
Pay site: I publish > Someone steals the story > They get money for my work > Not as annoying because I can also get money for my work.

Yes, the situation is similar on a pay site but it is not the same.

Then you know what to do. I wish you luck .

Em

 

[jsmiam]

don’t misunderstand people being jaded by reality with people being unsympathetic. People are attempting to relay this:…

…Pay site: I publish > Someone steals the story > They get maybe a dollar if they’re lucky for my work > Not as annoying because I can also get maybe a dollar if I’m lucky for my work. …

A small handful of people make a little pocket money selling erotica. The rest of us are dreaming. (And so are most of the thieves.)

The one mitigating factor regarding the plagiarist, is that somewhere out there, some of the them are professional hackers with an army of hacked computers under their control, and through one form of click-fraud or another, they may make more than a dollar.

Do whatever you think is right. People are mostly just trying to say, “happens to us all.”

For what it’s worth, you’re a good writer, keep it up if it makes you happy, wherever it makes you happy.