What's my story doing on THAT site!

[49greg]

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl101.html

Of course, that only applies to formal copyright in the U.S. If informal copyright meant anything here, then pen names would have the same rules.

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. But copyrighting in the US, for a fee I assume, seems a lot of trouble/expense for a hobby on a free site. Not that I have any knowledge of having my stuff stolen.

 

[RejectReality]

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. But copyrighting in the US, for a fee I assume, seems a lot of trouble/expense for a hobby on a free site. Not that I have any knowledge of having my stuff stolen.

Yep, and as Ogg said, even if you have a formal copyright, you're either dealing with people with big bucks that will cost you more than you can afford, or scumbags in countries far, far away who will vanish as soon as someone starts sniffing around, then reappear somewhere else the next day, doing the same thing.

 

[49greg]

Yep, and as Ogg said, even if you have a formal copyright, you're either dealing with people with big bucks that will cost you more than you can afford, or scumbags in countries far, far away who will vanish as soon as someone starts sniffing around, then reappear somewhere else the next day, doing the same thing.

They sound like they do business the same way that home builders in Vegas are reputed to - do a crap job and disappear (go bankrupt) before they can be sued and start up with a new name.

 

[oggbashan]

They sound like they do business the same way that home builders in Vegas are reputed to - do a crap job and disappear (go bankrupt) before they can be sued and start up with a new name.

That's exactly the way these sites work.

In the 19th Century the USA was the world's worst for copyright theft. They stole from Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Gilbert and Sullivan staged one of their operettas in a closed theatre in the UK to ensure primacy of copyright, before performances in the US.

It didn't stop their score being pirated in the US within hours.

Now SE Asia hosts the worst copyright thieves. DVDs of the latest Hollywood blockbusters can be bought within days of movie theatre release.

 

[sr71plt]

Is a copyright statement for a pen name effective or legal? (I think that copyrighting something in the UK is easier than in the US.)

In the United States putting a copyright symbol on your work unless you actually have applied for and received formal copyright registration has been illegal since the United States signed the Berne Convention in 1988. So, those using it in the United States without holding a formal copyright aren't protecting themselves from anything; they actually are breaking the law. Not that anyone is enforcing that law.

 

[Hypoxia]

Doing a quick Google search, I found "Jenny Be Fair" on someone's Google+ page, and it was only the second story I checked.

If you want the link, drop me a line and I'll send it along.

Yes, I'd like that link, thanks. How did you search? I've looked quite a bit and have found nothing.

 

[Mister_Chris]

When I look for my work on the web, I don't search the story title; I choose a random phrase from the story, something about 6 words long, and put it in double quotes to ensure it's in the same order. For example, to find a blatant copyright violation of this post, I'd search for "6 words long, and put it in" or something similar. Even if the title has changed or is nonexistent, searching for a phrase contained within the story seems to work.

Of course, the whole exercise is rendered pointless if you can't do anything about it. Which is why I no longer do it.

I wish there was sufficient money in my porn to justify hiring a lawyer who would make people stop making money from my porn.

Sigh - MC

 

[oggbashan]

When I look for my work on the web, I don't search the story title; I choose a random phrase from the story, something about 6 words long, and put it in double quotes to ensure it's in the same order. For example, to find a blatant copyright violation of this post, I'd search for "6 words long, and put it in" or something similar. Even if the title has changed or is nonexistent, searching for a phrase contained within the story seems to work.

Of course, the whole exercise is rendered pointless if you can't do anything about it. Which is why I no longer do it.

I wish there was sufficient money in my porn to justify hiring a lawyer who would make people stop making money from my porn.

Sigh - MC

Even if you were making hundreds of thousands a year from your writing, you would be wasting your money on lawyers by trying to enforce your copyright.

Just look at the millions of copies of erotic pictures that are posted all over the internet with visible proof of ownership.

Most of the thieves would not have enough assets to repay your legal costs, and none to pay compensation. If they are hosted in Far Eastern countries, even getting them to take your stories down is almost impossible.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I've had good luck with letting Amazon know when some of my stories were stolen and being sold by someone else. They were quick to take down the stories and apologize.

 

[SusanJillParker]

I've had good luck with letting Amazon know when some of my stories were stolen and being sold by someone else. They were quick to take down the stories and apologize.

As long as you can prove it's your work, which we all can, it would have been better if Amazon left the books there and paid you for all future royalties.

If they really wanted to make it right, Amazon would pay you for whatever royalties they paid the thief and then took legal action against him or her for compensation.

 

[Sammael Bard]

As long as you can prove it's your work, which we all can, it would have been better if Amazon left the books there and paid you for all future royalties.

If they really wanted to make it right, Amazon would pay you for whatever royalties they paid the thief and then took legal action against him or her for compensation.

Sounds good on paper but the sheer number of thieves involved will take substantial time and resources which, I don't think, Amazon is willing to invest. As long as it can get away with no losses, it won't care.

 

[Chris7sw]

Me too

I've had good luck with letting Amazon know when some of my stories were stolen and being sold by someone else. They were quick to take down the stories and apologize.

Same here - just a few of my stories have appeared elsewhere so I'm not getting too annoyed as yet.

Strange in a way that it's happening when our guru says; "That means that all data you send and receive from Literotica.com will be encrypted using industry standard encryption."
Perhaps that refers to stuff sent and received in the past few days.....

Also had a story appear at http://www.asstr.org/ - that must have been lifted from my computer itself.
As it's a story with some underage stuff in it I've never posted it online and knew nothing of it's existence on the web until someone wrote feedback to me for it! It's even got my email connection - although not one I use very often..... Most strange.....

 

[SusanJillParker]

Same here - just a few of my stories have appeared elsewhere so I'm not getting too annoyed as yet.

Strange in a way that it's happening when our guru says; "That means that all data you send and receive from Literotica.com will be encrypted using industry standard encryption."
Perhaps that refers to stuff sent and received in the past few days.....

Also had a story appear at http://www.asstr.org/ - that must have been lifted from my computer itself.
As it's a story with some underage stuff in it I've never posted it online and knew nothing of it's existence on the web until someone wrote feedback to me for it! It's even got my email connection - although not one I use very often..... Most strange.....

I still like my idea that I wrote somewhere in another thread about stolen stories.

We write a sentence and imbed it somewhere within what we write, such as, This story was written by and belongs to SusanJillParker if you purchased this book from Amazon with a different author's name on the cover, please report this story to Amazon as stolen and ask for your money back. Being that these illiterates copy and paste what we write word for word, they'll never see our coded message. It's much like what the library does with their books. This book is the property of the Boston Public Library. Please return it.

What do you think?

I'd be pissed if I was suddenly reading a book and that message appeared in bold print, "This story belongs to SusanJillParker..."