Copyright Infringement Tracking Page - Erotica Podcast Network

[Kasumi_Lee]

The original thread can be viewed here, but I'm creating this new thread to keep track of someone under the name "Erotica Podcast Network" and efforts to combat his/her theft of the IP of Lit authors, some of whom are deceased (copyright continues for 75 years after the author's passing) and can therefore no longer defend their work.

I originally discovered that three of my stories were stolen by Erotica Podcast Network (EPN) and posted to Apple Podcasts, along with hundreds of other stories by dozens of other Lit authors. It turns out that the POS who's been turning Lit authors' creative work into text-to-speech podcast episodes is on several other networks besides Apple Podcasts. He's also posted the same infringing material to Spotify, Amazon Music, Listen Notes, Podchaser, and Castbox.

I've reported every single episode in two of the four shows run by EPN on Apple Podcasts to Apple's Content Review team as well as all four of the shows themselves. I'm also going to file DMCA takedown notices for each of my three stories, and if you find that your stories have been stolen in this manner, I encourage you to do the same.

More information to follow.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I've spent most of today drafting DMCA takedown notices for each of my three stolen works and tailoring copies for each of the four sites listed above excluding Amazon (all three stolen stories are NC/R stories and wouldn't be allowed on Amazon). Once everything is drafted and ready to go, I'll send them all off in quick succession.

 

[grey228]

That's shit wild. Fucker needs to burn (legally, not literally, although if he drives a cybertruck in a rainstorm, that can happen).

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

The first round of DMCA notices is away!

It turns out none of my stolen stories are on Amazon Music or Listen Notes (probably because of the NC/R nature of the content), so I can't file notices with them, but Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, and Castbox have just been notified about one of my stolen stories. Two more to go!

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Aaaannnnnd the second round of DMCA notices is away!!!

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

All three DMCA notices have now been sent!!! I've served these notices on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, and Castbox for a total of twelve notices, one per story per platform. Erotica Podcast Network (EPN) is also on Amazon Music and Listen Notes, but none of my stories have been posted there, so I can't serve them with DMCA notices.

However, it looks like EPN distributed to all the other sites through Spotify, so if my efforts are successful in nuking his Spotify account, it's possible Spotify will yank all of his stolen material from all of their distribution partners.

We now have thirty days to find out what happens.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Write a story about this, a BTB story.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Write a story about this, a BTB story.

Gotta get back to The Cuckquean's Contract Chapter Six first. I would've spent this weekend working on it if I hadn't stumbled upon this thief first.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Update on copyright claims against Erotica Podcast Network: so Castbox and Podchaser have removed my stolen stories from their servers, and Spotify notified me that the whole Taboo Stories playlist was removed proactively while they were still investigating it. That just left Apple until a few moments ago.

I had emailed Apple's Copyright team directly and they got back to me saying in so many words that because this has to do with content on Apple Podcasts, it's the iTunes Legal Team's problem and I should contact them. I've since filled out the requisite form (which I earlier resisted doing because I couldn't add as much information as I wanted to), but apparently I can submit supplementary material once the dispute has been formally opened.

Interestingly, one of my three stolen stories is no longer available on Erotica Podcast Network's Apple Podcasts playlist. Since the other two are still up, those are the ones I've filed fresh claims about.

 

[Actingup]

Update on copyright claims against Erotica Podcast Network: so Castbox and Podchaser have removed my stolen stories from their servers, and Spotify notified me that the whole Taboo Stories playlist was removed proactively while they were still investigating it. That just left Apple until a few moments ago.

I had emailed Apple's Copyright team directly and they got back to me saying in so many words that because this has to do with content on Apple Podcasts, it's the iTunes Legal Team's problem and I should contact them. I've since filled out the requisite form (which I earlier resisted doing because I couldn't add as much information as I wanted to), but apparently I can submit supplementary material once the dispute has been formally opened.

Interestingly, one of my three stolen stories is no longer available on Erotica Podcast Network's Apple Podcasts playlist. Since the other two are still up, those are the ones I've filed fresh claims about.

Fantastic results so far - great effort.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Fantastic results so far - great effort.

Truth be told, I'm much more nervous about the Apple claims. I get that the main copyright department of a Big Tech company like Apple probably has bigger fish to fry, but the fact that they passed me off to their iTunes Legal Team is still kind of frustrating. Also, I'm pretty confident I gave enough information in the online form, but the description box has a character limit which I had to adhere to. Waiting to find out if they're satisfied with the initial evidence I gave them to open an investigation isn't fun.

 

[onehitwanda]

Truth be told, I'm much more nervous about the Apple claims. I get that the main copyright department of a Big Tech company like Apple probably has bigger fish to fry, but the fact that they passed me off to their iTunes Legal Team is still kind of frustrating. Also, I'm pretty confident I gave enough information in the online form, but the description box has a character limit which I had to adhere to. Waiting to find out if they're satisfied with the initial evidence I gave them to open an investigation isn't fun.

I work for a big corporate. This is typical slippery shoulders shit from someone who doesn't want to do any actual work.

P.S you're a star.

 

[PennameWombat]

The original thread can be viewed here, but I'm creating this new thread to keep track of someone under the name "Erotica Podcast Network" and efforts to combat his/her theft of the IP of Lit authors, some of whom are deceased (copyright continues for 75 years after the author's passing) and can therefore no longer defend their work.

<snip>

More information to follow.

Not to be pedantic, as all of this is very solid effort. But copyright in the US, UK, EU, Australia, and Canada, is life of the author plus seventy - 70 - years . Not 75. Not that in either case any of these copyrights have expired at this time. Other countries range from life + 30 to life + 100 years.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Update on my claim with Apple Podcasts: Apple has formally opened a dispute between myself and Erotica Podcast Network. I'm kind of alarmed that the iTunes legal team put me into direct contact with this guy as if they expect us to resolve our differences through mediation (they CC'ed me in the email to him, so we can see each other's email addresses). Luckily, I had the good sense to provide a pseudonymous male-sounding contact email, so that way he'll probably assume I'm a guy posing as a woman instead of the other way around.

Since I'm not gonna negotiate with him, either he takes down the infringing podcast episodes himself, or Apple will remove them automatically on March 6th.

 

[onehitwanda]

Tell him that the internet says he's bad and he should feel bad.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Tell him that the internet says he's bad and he should feel bad.

I will!

 

[onehitwanda]

I will!

Tell him my cats think he's bad as well.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Tell him my cats think he's bad as well.

I'll tell him that too!

 

[Actingup]

I'll tell him that too!

Tell him that the internet says he's bad and he should feel bad.

And given the context, maybe also mention that bad boys should be punished, but he’s not going to enjoy it one little bit?

 

[grey228]

All joking aside, you need to escalate.

You may not want to, but do it. Some people do not respond to mere words and action needs to be taken.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

All joking aside, you need to escalate.

You may not want to, but do it. Some people do not respond to mere words and action needs to be taken.

I totally agree, but the maximal action I can take has already been taken. The dispute is now live, so either he takes down the episodes that are infringing my stories, or Apple will do it for him in seven days' time and (hopefully) add a strike to his account.

 

[grey228]

I totally agree, but the maximal action I can take has already been taken. The dispute is now live, so either he takes down the episodes that are infringing my stories, or Apple will do it for him in a seven days time and (hopefully) add a strike to his account.

The timer starts now! Good luck, and Godspeed.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

UPDATE: I just found another podcast distribution host where Erotica Podcast Network has stolen episodes uploaded, this one's called PodcastAI. It looks like their podcast offerings are derived from podcasters' RSS feeds, in this case Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but PodcastAI still has a local version of one of my stolen stories stored on their servers, so I've fired off another DMCA notice to them just now.

If anyone wants to check if their stolen stories are on PodcastAI, the links are below:

https://podcastai.com/shows/ybn4fm-the-erotica-podcast-by-epn

https://podcastai.com/shows/9gne9d-loving-wives-erotica-the-erotica-podcast-network

https://podcastai.com/shows/8efihe-taboo-erotica-the-erotica-podcast-network

If you feel like sending them a DMCA takedown notice, here's their legal page and their legal email address is here: legal@podcastai.com

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

My Apple Podcasts dispute with EPN is still open and he hasn't gotten in touch (not that I want him to). The deadline for him to respond is still March 6th, at which point Apple will take down the infringing episodes, so either he's cutting it close or he doesn't check his emails - or maybe he wants to keep them up for as long as possible and doesn't care if Apple removes them for him. I don't mind as long as they're gone by March 6th.

 

[PennameWombat]

My Apple Podcasts dispute with EPN is still open and he hasn't gotten in touch (not that I want him to). The deadline for him to respond is still March 6th, at which point Apple will take down the infringing episodes, so either he's cutting it close or he doesn't check his emails - or maybe he wants to keep them up for as long as possible and doesn't care if Apple removes them for him. I don't mind as long as they're gone by March 6th.

You'd listed a number of other affected writers upthread, I've checked the site directly and I'm not one of them. Although I'll check again later.

But you also highlighted some deceased writers. I don't know about Apple, I know that Amazon will not accept third-party copyright claims, it has to be the copyright owner or an 'authorized rep' (so agent or lawyer) to submit claims. For any deceased writers, that means either their heir(s) or an agent/lawyer may need to take action if the offending site isn't totally struck.

The Literotica FAQ has this:

You are also granting Literotica the right to enforce the copyright on your story should it be used without your permission by any other publication - online, print, or other media.

Unfortunately, I don't know if anyone here has any contacts to the potential heirs of these writers. Whether they were aware of their kin's work here is one thing, whether they'll care is another. And, whether Apple or other sites would accept the above as 'authorization,' and whether Literotica would take action for these deceased writers is not something I can decide.