Help! My Story was stolen and is being sold on Amazon!

[sexvoyeur]

Hey fellow authors! I would appreciate your help or advice. I recently discovered that a story I published on Literotica on 4/1/2005 titled An Adventure in Vegas has been stolen and is now being sold as an eBook on Amazon! Some character names were loosely changed and dialog was alternated here and there, but the main theme and concept is a complete and total ripoff of my story. The "author" is Scarlett Duffy and she (or he) retitled my story as Shared in Sin City: A Couples Journey. This is a blatant copyright violation of my story! I submitted a copyright complaint to Amazon but nothing thus far. Any other advice? Also, if anyone is willing to post a 1 star rating reinforcing the story has been ripped off and plagiarized on the Amazon website, it would be appreciated!
Thanks all!
Sexvoyeur

 

[AchtungNight]

This happened to me with “Beijing Streakers”. In my case, a copyright claim to Amazon got the story taken down and the thief’s account deleted. Probably helped that I had characters based on celebrities and the text was pretty much unchanged from Lit. Not sure what to do about an original work getting stolen. Good luck.

 

[Actingup]

There have been various threads on this, and in particular this pinned thread started by site co-founder Manu in 2014. There have also been lots of discussions about stolen stories being published on YouTube - I had one stolen ('A Game of Snooker') and then deleted after I put in a copyright claim. I was really pissed off because it was my most popular story, very carefully constructed and very highly rated for Loving Wives (which is why it was stolen). It really does feel like a violation when that happens.

If you'd like us to comment on the Amazon version, could you please link to your original story and to the ripoff, with some text to illustrate?

Good luck with this!

 

[sirhugs]

there is a pinned thread:

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...omplaints-how-to-fight-stolen-ebooks.1055555/

 

[StillStunned]

Hey fellow authors! I would appreciate your help or advice. I recently discovered that a story I published on Literotica on 4/1/2005 titled An Adventure in Vegas has been stolen and is now being sold as an eBook on Amazon! Some character names were loosely changed and dialog was alternated here and there, but the main theme and concept is a complete and total ripoff of my story. The "author" is Scarlett Duffy and she (or he) retitled my story as Shared in Sin City: A Couples Journey. This is a blatant copyright violation of my story! I submitted a copyright complaint to Amazon but nothing thus far. Any other advice? Also, if anyone is willing to post a 1 star rating reinforcing the story has been ripped off and plagiarized on the Amazon website, it would be appreciated!
Thanks all!
Sexvoyeur

I had the same experience about a year ago. I came across an e-book on Amazon that was a collection of ten stories, including at least three of mine (possibly four, with one having a different name).

I filed a copyright notice through the product page - so not through Amazon's copyright information page - and linked to my author page here on Lit. The book was taken down within about three hours.

On the one hand it was flattering that someone thought my stories were good enough to steal and sell. On the other, I was still the victim of theft. I was very pleased with how swiftly Amazon acted.

 

[sexvoyeur]

I had the same experience about a year ago. I came across an e-book on Amazon that was a collection of ten stories, including at least three of mine (possibly four, with one having a different name).

I filed a copyright notice through the product page - so not through Amazon's copyright information page - and linked to my author page here on Lit. The book was taken down within about three hours.

On the one hand it was flattering that someone thought my stories were good enough to steal and sell. On the other, I was still the victim of theft. I was very pleased with how swiftly Amazon acted.

Thanks for your response. I filed a copyright notice through the product page as well about a week ago. Unfortunately, my stolen story is still listed for sale on Amazon.

 

[SebastianHolt]

Hey fellow authors! I would appreciate your help or advice. I recently discovered that a story I published on Literotica on 4/1/2005 titled An Adventure in Vegas has been stolen and is now being sold as an eBook on Amazon! Some character names were loosely changed and dialog was alternated here and there, but the main theme and concept is a complete and total ripoff of my story. The "author" is Scarlett Duffy and she (or he) retitled my story as Shared in Sin City: A Couples Journey. This is a blatant copyright violation of my story! I submitted a copyright complaint to Amazon but nothing thus far. Any other advice? Also, if anyone is willing to post a 1 star rating reinforcing the story has been ripped off and plagiarized on the Amazon website, it would be appreciated!
Thanks all!
Sexvoyeur

I should write a book about this!!!! First off, someone said that you need to file a copyright complaint and get the book banned from Amazon. Really easy to do, and I have had to do this too many times. Had two friends that together we formed a publishing company. I was smart and had all the things that could go wrong drawn up in the corporate documents so when these two bitches decided not to pay me what the business owed me... i went nuclear on them. The agreement was simple - the author takes the biggest cut, but the business also gets a cut of the sales to help cover business costs, help with promotions, and we wanted to do a book tour... all those things take money. So our first book (that I wrote) sold > 10,000 copies in 1st QTR. Well, I guess they thought we could share my royalties, too. Money can be the root of all evil so one has to be ready. Thankfully, they were not prepared and surrendered. you have to fight for what is yours

 

[Cinnyperez]

I'm sorry this happened to you. Not that I think my lit writing is good enough to be stolen, but how do I keep that from happening to me?

 

[SkyBubble]

This happened to me with “Beijing Streakers”.

I think I read that one; that's an Olympics story, right?

 

[AchtungNight]

I think I read that one; that's an Olympics story, right?

Yes. Olympic champions and Dynasty Warriors’ descendants in crazy shenanigans. It was a fun time to write.

 

[DeMont]

Hey fellow authors! I would appreciate your help or advice. I recently discovered that a story I published on Literotica on 4/1/2005 titled An Adventure in Vegas has been stolen and is now being sold as an eBook on Amazon! Some character names were loosely changed and dialog was alternated here and there, but the main theme and concept is a complete and total ripoff of my story. The "author" is Scarlett Duffy and she (or he) retitled my story as Shared in Sin City: A Couples Journey. This is a blatant copyright violation of my story! I submitted a copyright complaint to Amazon but nothing thus far. Any other advice? Also, if anyone is willing to post a 1 star rating reinforcing the story has been ripped off and plagiarized on the Amazon website, it would be appreciated!
Thanks all!
Sexvoyeur

@sexvoyeur,
The first thing you need establish is your copywrite ownership. Do you have original dated documents in your possession that could be used to identify the story?
Secondly, have the "thieves" changed the material by, nominally, more than ten percent?
Respectfully,
D

 

[ChloeTzang]

thinking about it, the title of this thread would make a great story for "Crime and Punishment"