Literotica Flagrantly Violates Author's Copyright

[Cybele_mj]

"Priestess of Cybele" has been published by Literotica in direct violation of author's explicit submission request. It is therefore in violation of copyright. News of illegal activities such as this will be publicly promulgated on other Internet sites. As the author of this piece, I demand that it be taken down at once!

 

[TxRad]

"Priestess of Cybele" has been published by Literotica in direct violation of author's explicit submission request. It is therefore in violation of copyright. News of illegal activities such as this will be publicly promulgated on other Internet sites. As the author of this piece, I demand that it be taken down at once!

Did you post it here or someone else. If it was someone else, please PM Laurel and let her know. Please include a URL where it is posted under your name if possible. If you posted it and want it down, resubmit it with the words delete next to the title and in the comment box. Lit is not in the habit of posting stolen stories knowingly. In fact, it fights sites all the time that steal from here.

 

[Cybele_mj]

Clarification on copyright violation

Clarification:

I myself wrote the story and submitted it to Literotica with some very explicit caveats. For example, I asked it not to alter the story in any way, but to check in with me first if that was on the radar screen, etc. I asked it to do that a message attached to the submission itself and yet on another occasion.

Literotica cavalierly ignored my requests, publishing the story in a significantly altered form without giving me the courtesy of an email or heads-up. The story is ostensibly mine but what has been published is not my story due to what I would characterize as very serious negligence and "exhuberance" on the part of Literotica's editor.

I have subsequently asked Literotica to remove the story, and it has not yet done that, deepening my concerns about copyright infringement. Obviously, due to the subject matter and because I really do wish to be measured in any response, while yet protecting my own interests, I am not about to threaten legal recourse. On the other hand, I am increasingly seeing Literotica as a very dangerous diversion for any serious author.

Anyone wishing to ensure that what is published looks even remotely like what has been submitted is advised to avoid this literary venue. Anyone wishing to ensure that the publisher respects the author's requests is advised to avoid this venue. Anyone who cares a hoot about copyright infringement is advised to stay away.

Caveat emptor applies.

 

[sr71plt]

This is a Web site posting some 60 stories a day, not Random House. You expect too much, and it's bad form to slap this on the forum rather than taking it up directly with the Web site administrators. Besides, there's a FAQ here that gives guidance on deleting your stories yourself. It's your own problem if you can't read instructions. Do your own work.

 

[slyc_willie]

Anyone wishing to ensure that what is published looks even remotely like what has been submitted is advised to avoid this literary venue. Anyone wishing to ensure that the publisher respects the author's requests is advised to avoid this venue. Anyone who cares a hoot about copyright infringement is advised to stay away.

Caveat emptor applies.

I detect the aroma of sour grapes.

I guess I must be one of the lucky ones, since not a single word of any of my 58 submissions has been altered by Literotica.

 

[XXplorher]

Literotica is most definitely making money off you. In many languages even. Is your material being ripped off? Depends on what you consider yours and worth suing for...

It might just be a blessing of exposure. Depends on what yer after, eh?

 

[michchick98]

Clarification:

I myself wrote the story and submitted it to Literotica with some very explicit caveats. For example, I asked it not to alter the story in any way, but to check in with me first if that was on the radar screen, etc. I asked it to do that a message attached to the submission itself and yet on another occasion.

How was the story altered? If you submitted it with specifics or a note to the moderator in the NOTES field, then it should've been posted with the specifics. If it wasn't contact the site administrators. I know I posted a direct link to PM Laurel in a different message yesterday, but if you have a problem with finding that link again, just find her user name somewhere in these forums, click on it then click on the link that says SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE.

Beyond that, I'm still confused what your issue is? This is a FREE site, it's not one of the big publishing houses. I'm wondering, also, if you had certain things that were to be included in the story, why didn't you just include them before you submitted it? The moderator(s) who approve(s) the stories are not editors. They post the stories as they are submitted or reject them if there is something that sends up a "red flag."

Literotica cavalierly ignored my requests, publishing the story in a significantly altered form without giving me the courtesy of an email or heads-up. The story is ostensibly mine but what has been published is not my story due to what I would characterize as very serious negligence and "exhuberance" on the part of Literotica's editor.

Again, PM Laurel if you have issues with the version of your story that was posted. I know I've had problems in the past, but only because I uploaded a .rtf file with HTML formatting instead of incorporating it within the story. Once I edited it properly and added the formatting, it posted correctly, as it should have. The mistake was the fault of no one but myself.

I have subsequently asked Literotica to remove the story, and it has not yet done that, deepening my concerns about copyright infringement.

If you did it the proper way (include - DELETE after the title) it will take the same amount of time for your story to be deleted as it did for it to initially be posted. 3-5 days, sometimes longer if there is a contest going on. Patience isn't one of your strong suits, is it?

Obviously, due to the subject matter and because I really do wish to be measured in any response, while yet protecting my own interests, I am not about to threaten legal recourse. On the other hand, I am increasingly seeing Literotica as a very dangerous diversion for any serious author.

What legal recourse? By signing out an ID and posting something to Literotica, you are agreeing to THEIR terms of service and giving THEM permission to publish your work. You still own the rights to it, although unless you paid for copyrights to the particular story, you only hold the intellectual property rights, which (as sr71plt has pointed out on more than one occasion) won't hold any merit in a court of law.

Anyone wishing to ensure that what is published looks even remotely like what has been submitted is advised to avoid this literary venue. Anyone wishing to ensure that the publisher respects the author's requests is advised to avoid this venue. Anyone who cares a hoot about copyright infringement is advised to stay away.

I've been posting stories here for over three years and with the exception of what I mentioned above (which again, was my fault) I've never had any of my stories altered by Literotica in any way, shape or form. They appear as I originally submitted them.

Caveat emptor applies.

So what exactly am I buying? And what exactly am I supposed to beware of? Idiots who are full of big words and frilly sentences, but have no clue what they're talking about? Yeah, okay, I can beware of that. Thanks for the warning.

I detect the aroma of sour grapes.

Ditto!

I guess I must be one of the lucky ones, since not a single word of any of my 58 submissions has been altered by Literotica.

Ditto again!

 

[oggbashan]

"Priestess of Cybele" has been published by Literotica in direct violation of author's explicit submission request. It is therefore in violation of copyright. News of illegal activities such as this will be publicly promulgated on other Internet sites. As the author of this piece, I demand that it be taken down at once!

YOU have made several mistakes.

1. You didn't read the FAQs or the extensive How To advice on this site before trying to post complicated formatting.

2. You assumed that the loss of formatting was "in direct violation". It wasn't. It was a result of YOUR mistake in submitting it incorrectly and not checking with the preview function.

3. You attacked the site for YOUR mistake and compounded your error by making defamatory statements.

4. You have annoyed many people who enjoy this site. As a newbie to Literotica you should have done your homework before trying to do something complex without help. Help and advice is available.

5. YOUR mistake was correctable. It still is. Why should anyone wish to help someone who has started on Literotica by having a two-year-old's temper tantrum?

6. YOU need to apologise and edit your posts to admit YOUR error.

Og

 

[LOAnnie2]

You should have submitted the story in Word as opposed to what was likely a plain text pasted into the form. Yes, this would have taken longer, and yes, you would have had to look up the faqs to find out how to submit the story this way, but formatting and the like would have been preserved, and if it was impossible for it to be preserved, then they likely would have rejected it.


I think the biggest thing to remember before you go crying all foul and slandered and copyright violation is that Literotica is a free site, and it's run by only a handful of people. Literotica is not out to steal from you or to get you in some vast conspiracy. Sometimes people just make mistakes, or can't do what's wanted.

 

[Liar]

Clarification:

I myself wrote the story and submitted it to Literotica with some very explicit caveats. For example, I asked it not to alter the story in any way, but to check in with me first if that was on the radar screen, etc. I asked it to do that a message attached to the submission itself and yet on another occasion.

Literotica cavalierly ignored my requests, publishing the story in a significantly altered form without giving me the courtesy of an email or heads-up. The story is ostensibly mine but what has been published is not my story due to what I would characterize as very serious negligence and "exhuberance" on the part of Literotica's editor.

People are jumping the gun in this thread I think. You hasven't actually specified... how was the story altered. Did they change the content, or did they change the formstting? Or something else?

There are things that the site witholds the right to do with stories submitted. One is change the formatting to a uniform style for the site. Authors are supposed to format their stories in accorance to this.

The other is to refuse stories thst don't meet Literotica's content standards. Meaning, acceptable level of correct EWnglish and punctuation, no plagiarism and acceptable themes (for instsance, no underagre sex).

If the alteration is in formatting, then you don't have a case. You can of course still remove your story if you so wish.

I have subsequently asked Literotica to remove the story, and it has not yet done that, deepening my concerns about copyright infringement. Obviously, due to the subject matter and because I really do wish to be measured in any response, while yet protecting my own interests, I am not about to threaten legal recourse. On the other hand, I am increasingly seeing Literotica as a very dangerous diversion for any serious author.

Literotica is a small business and the administrators are swamped with work, so getting in touch can be a bit of an excersise in patience. How have you, as you say, contacted the site? Though email? What adress?

Oh, and since you did submit the story yourself, you have full control over getting it removed via the regular story processing process. How to do that is in the sites FAQ, and others have replied here telling you how to do it.

 

[oggbashan]

In the duplicate thread in the Editors' Forum, Cybele made it clear that formatting and font was the issue:

Format Question

Yours is a reasonable question. I will answer by stating again what the work itself was very, very structured. This work, while long, is very minimalistically executed, even to the point of its initially being presented as a poem or proem.

Before hitting the "submit" button, I told Literotica to contact me if it seemed to be necessary to change the structure due to reformatting, fonts, etc. I asked it not to publish the work if it had to do that. It ignored my requests and it published it anyway. The line structure was changed, of course, and the structure fell apart.

That's not just a matter of literary vanity, though there's nothing wrong with that. The issue has to do with a wanton disregard that Literotica showed for not just one very insistent request not to do that without first advising me, but after two.

I am not suggesting that anything untoward was done intentionally. On the other hand, the editor was insensitive, disrespectful and impetuous, totally disregarding very explicit directives from me in the process. S/he didn't act from malice. Stupidity seems to have been the M.O. here.

Am I angry? Seething, rather. I asked Laurel awhile ago to remove the piece and get an acknowledgment to me. Thus far, that still hasn't happened.

So at this point, yes, I am warning people. Moreover, these warnings will appear elsewhere on the Internet, in appropriate forums of course, until "Cybele" is deleted.

Literotica uses a standard default font. IF Cybele had looked at other people's submissions and/or the FAQs first, Cybele would have realised that what was being asked was not practical.

Og

 

[Liar]

In the duplicate thread in the Editors' Forum, Cybele made it clear that formatting and font was the issue:

Ah. Missed that. Thanks.

 

[randallangdon]

Very clear

Lit is very clear. If you're trying to maintain control over your work, don't publish it on the site. I have been nothiing but satisfied with Literotica. But, then again, I'm not out to make money or get famous.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I think Lit needs to screen these people better. The Lit Tree seems to be baring a lot of NUTS.

 

[Epmd607]

Lit is very clear. If you're trying to maintain control over your work, don't publish it on the site. I have been nothiing but satisfied with Literotica. But, then again, I'm not out to make money or get famous.

I'm out to get rich and famous writing dirty porno stories.

 

[Mandala40]

If you really value what you post here, you should get a Copyright before you post it. This website explains how:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4839755_get-a-copyright.html

 

[driphoney]

So I pay $45 per 'claim', would that be for each chapter? each story? And I make how much off my free story posted on a free site? Some folks have over 300 stories posted. They'd go broke!

I do hope someone who actually knows about copyright posts soon. Will be interesting.

 

[sr71plt]

So I pay $45 per 'claim', would that be for each chapter? each story? And I make how much off my free story posted on a free site? Some folks have over 300 stories posted. They'd go broke!

I do hope someone who actually knows about copyright posts soon. Will be interesting.

The electronic registration fee is only $35 and you can bundle just about anything you want into one "work" for registration (calling it an anthology) and get it all covered in one fee. (I once registered six novels in a series as one work--one fee covering all.)

Not that I suggest registering it before submitting it here. Even if you held registered copyright, chances are slim to poor that you'd track down someone who stole it and even poorer that you could get any recompense out of them. You'd have to got to court, and if anyone's ever, ever, ever gone to court on a porn story they had submitted to a free-read site, I certainly haven't heard about--and I would have, because it would have been the talk of the blogs. You can't get redress for something with no monetary value, and by submitting it to a free-read site, you've declared it valueless in monetary terms.

The answer to protecting your work from all theft, if that's paramount for you, is just not to post it to the Internet to begin with.

 

[driphoney]

The electronic registration fee is only $35 and you can bundle just about anything you want into one "work" for registration (calling it an anthology) and get it all covered in one fee. (I once registered six novels in a series as one work--one fee covering all.)

Not that I suggest registering it before submitting it here. Even if you held registered copyright, chances are slim to poor that you'd track down someone who stole it and even poorer that you could get any recompense out of them. You'd have to got to court, and if anyone's ever, ever, ever gone to court on a porn story they had submitted to a free-read site, I certainly haven't heard about--and I would have, because it would have been the talk of the blogs. You can't get redress for something with no monetary value, and by submitting it to a free-read site, you've declared it valueless in monetary terms.

The answer to protecting your work from all theft, if that's paramount for you, is just not to post it to the Internet to begin with.

I, and probably most posters here, have two choices: keep it and share it with a handful of friends, or post and let a few more people read it. Maybe I improve, get a serious backlist, maybe I develop a following, and then need to start protecting my stuff because then it has some value. Until then . . . .

 

[The Mutt]

Proem?

 

[foldedpaper]

Presumably a cross between poem and prose!

My view is that if you can't tell which it is, chances are its not either and therefore heads for the "delete" zone. Why do a small minority insist on making what I have found to be a friendly, helpful, enjoyable site a war zone?

If you don't like it, leave.

If you have such exacting standards, go to a professional publishing site (no offence to all involved in Literotica - I think you do a hard job and do it really well!)

 

[LaRocha]

Presumably a cross between poem and prose!

My view is that if you can't tell which it is, chances are its not either and therefore heads for the "delete" zone. Why do a small minority insist on making what I have found to be a friendly, helpful, enjoyable site a war zone?

If you don't like it, leave.

If you have such exacting standards, go to a professional publishing site (no offence to all involved in Literotica - I think you do a hard job and do it really well!)

You don't have to visit the message board. There are plenty content to read and write on the main site, never knowing the fantastic nonsense that goes on here. I like spectacles, personally.