Louise Taylor Warning

[Jake Marlow]

I wanted to give the other authors on here a heads up that someone calling themselves "Louise Taylor" is skimming stories from this site, packaging them into collections she's claiming she wrote, and then selling them in the Kindle store on Amazon. She nicked one of my oldest stories here, "Truth or Treat." I only figured it out because she named the collection after my story. I bought it from the Kindle store and there it was, right in "her" ebook.

She has 83 titles she's published there since May 1, 2010. That's amazingly prolific. You might want to check it out and see if you can find any of your stuff there. I've submitted a takedown request to Kindle's Copyright office.

JM

 

[jomar]

Send a pm to Manu...they're working on another poacher at Amazon so they can do this one too.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I took a look; "she" sure is prolific! And able to write in some many styles with such varied quality and diverse voices!

Plagiarism is made easier by e-publishing; perhaps the owners of the sites who offer plagiarized works should bear a bit of the responsibility. After all, in cases like "Louise Taylor," it's clear enough to anyone that the work isn't hers.

 

[Scotsman69]

Thanks Jake

I've tried to get into Kindle but I can't find an author index. (I'm an older guy and a bit challenged by aspects of the online world.) So I can't even find a list of what 'she' has published as her own, let alone identify whether of the stories are mine.

Can anyone help please? Many thanks.

Scotsman69

I wanted to give the other authors on here a heads up that someone calling themselves "Louise Taylor" is skimming stories from this site, packaging them into collections she's claiming she wrote, and then selling them in the Kindle store on Amazon. She nicked one of my oldest stories here, "Truth or Treat." I only figured it out because she named the collection after my story. I bought it from the Kindle store and there it was, right in "her" ebook.

She has 83 titles she's published there since May 1, 2010. That's amazingly prolific. You might want to check it out and see if you can find any of your stuff there. I've submitted a takedown request to Kindle's Copyright office.

JM

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I've tried to get into Kindle but I can't find an author index. (I'm an older guy and a bit challenged by aspects of the online world.) So I can't even find a list of what 'she' has published as her own, let alone identify whether of the stories are mine.

Can anyone help please? Many thanks.

Scotsman69

I'm older too, so don't worry. I found "her" by going to the Kindle Store at Amazon.com and entering "her" name in the search box.

 

[Jake Marlow]

Apparently Literotica does go after these skimmers and I alerted them. Looks like she's skimmed mostly stories from 2000-2003, probably hoping the authors are no longer active. I'll let you guys know what response I get from the Kindle Copyright office.

 

[oggbashan]

When my stories are "borrowed" they don't usually remove the copyright notice.

Is that a lack of intelligence or a sign of shame?

Og

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[bronzeage]

When my stories are "borrowed" they don't usually remove the copyright notice.

Is that a lack of intelligence or a sign of shame?

Og

I think the people who do the actual C&P work on these pirate ships do not actually read the stories, and if they do, English is their second language. A word like "copyright" might not mean much to them.

 

[Jake Marlow]

I don't generally mind borrowing if A) I'm credited and B) it's not a pay site or someone is selling it in some other way. This pretty much violates both of those big time.

I also saw one of my for sale ebooks on BitTorrent, which I guess means I've arrived.

 

[sr71plt]

Did you actually file for and have in hand a formal copyright document on the stories? If not, it's all bluff and moral suasion in keeping anyone else from using them.

 

[Handley_Page]

Question:
Would it be 'legal' to "publish" an Anthology of erotic stories
(edited by L., blah blah).

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Question:
Would it be 'legal' to "publish" an Anthology of erotic stories
(edited by L., blah blah).

not without permission of the holders of copyright on the stories anthologised.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Did you actually file for and have in hand a formal copyright document on the stories? If not, it's all bluff and moral suasion in keeping anyone else from using them.

Pilot, could you cite some current laws that indicate filing for copyright is still necessary? I'm getting some conflicting information both ways and neither side seem to be lawyers.

 

[Darkniciad]

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#register

Do I have to register with your office to be protected?
No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.

In other words -- no, you don't need to file to have copyright. You just have to file in order to have legal standing to do anything about someone infringing upon it.

 

[sr71plt]

Pilot, could you cite some current laws that indicate filing for copyright is still necessary? I'm getting some conflicting information both ways and neither side seem to be lawyers.

There would only be new laws if there were any change in the situation. The U.S. Congress/courts continue not to have any stomach for seeing any more of this running through the courts than they already have. The Berne Convention was signed to claim some standing for getting after other countries violating U.S. copyright, but no teeth were put into applying the Berne Convention inside the United States.

Any change will be reflected in the instructions on the U.S. Copyright office's Web site--and, as Darkinaid has quoted, there has been no change from "you have to hold formal copyright to get a court date." And if you can't get a court date any "I'll sue" leverage is just bluff and self-delusion.

This Louise Taylor, incidentally, scary thought, could file for formal copyright for these books and have more standing in court than the original author would. There would be no legal proof there was a prior legal author.

This all, of course, applies just in the States (but the OP indicated that's where he was). The UK doesn't have formal copyright.

The upshot is that if you slap it on the Internet for free use, either get it formally copyrighted (not likely), or don't plan to do more than go through the motions to protect it.

 

[Jake Marlow]

You actually do not have to formally register anything to sue. You just need concrete, documented evidence that you created something first. Yes, the simplest way is to file with the copyright office, but there are other ways. I used my date of original posting here for my proof. And yes, I did file a complaint with Amazon's copyright office.

And the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes all this so much easier, because under DMCA all you have to do is serve notice you've been infringed upon and they are supposed to take it down. The other party can appeal it, but the burdon falls on them under DMCA to prove they have to right to use it.

To go to court you need to prove a loss from the theft. I suppose if she sold any copies I could try to go after a percentage of the sales (I'm not the only author in that collection), but it's so tiny it's not worth it. I will be happy if Amazon takes it down.

 

[sr71plt]

You actually do not have to formally register anything to sue.

A little hard of reading the official Copyright Office Web site? (As related to the U.S. market?)

Go ahead and try it. No skin off my nose (but don't forget that you were told where that would get you).

I know it's a bluff; the guy who is stealing and republishing probably knows it's bluff. So, that would only be the bluffer who didn't know/accept that it was a bluff. We have other names for such people.

 

[Trudy_Antone]

Wow. Opportunist biatch. Wish I'd thought of that! Quite a few stories here I'd love to claim as my own but conscience and ethics...

And good thing (or bad thing) I've got nothing up worth stealing.

Does anyone know the minimum (required) length of a Kindle Book? And how to submit?

 

[sr71plt]

Wow. Opportunist biatch. Wish I'd thought of that! Quite a few stories here I'd love to claim as my own but conscience and ethics...

And good thing (or bad thing) I've got nothing up worth stealing.

Does anyone know the minimum (required) length of a Kindle Book? And how to submit?

You could track this (and more) down through the Amazon.com Web site.

 

[Trudy_Antone]

Thank-you Sir Pit!

 

[Jake Marlow]

Copyright registration is required when seeking legal fees and statutory damages and only applies to "published" works anyway. Prior to February of this year, works exclusively posted online were not considered "published" for this reason anyway. And it looks like blogs still might not be protected. One could file for injunctive relief without being registered with the copyright office or without being published. As I said I wasn't seeking any money, because it's not worth it, my "poor man's copyright" is fine for my purposes.

However, thank you for getting me to look further into this because now that I know works distributed exclusively online can be protected and I've copyrighted my website, which contains all of my stories.

 

[sr71plt]

Copyright registration is required when seeking legal fees and statutory damages and only applies to "published" works anyway. Prior to February of this year, works exclusively posted online were not considered "published" for this reason anyway. And it looks like blogs still might not be protected. One could file for injunctive relief without being registered with the copyright office or without being published. As I said I wasn't seeking any money, because it's not worth it, my "poor man's copyright" is fine for my purposes.

However, thank you for getting me to look further into this because now that I know works distributed exclusively online can be protected and I've copyrighted my website, which contains all of my stories.

Good luck with that. Sometimes bluffing works.

(Including the bluff that you can copyright a Web site. )

 

[Jake Marlow]

Here's the Copyright Office circular for copyrighting websites, for those who are interested.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf

 

[sr71plt]

Here's the Copyright Office circular for copyrighting websites, for those who are interested.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf

A. It only covers the snapshot of the Web site exactly as it is when the Copyright Office receives it. Nothing added later.

For all online works other than computer programs and databases, the registration will extend only to the copyrightable content of the work as received in the Copyright Office and identified as the subject of the claim. The application for registration should exclude any material that has been previously registered or published or that is in the public domain. For published works, the registration should be limited to the content of the work asserted to be published on the date given on the application.

B. Your assertion was that you had already gotten copyright for the Web site (which I guess you also are asserting has all of the stories you are talking about as content). I have copyrighted material. It takes months to get a formal copyright.

C. Don't expect anyone to believe that you have applied and paid for formal copyright unless you really have. And they will continue to assume people are bluffing on this until they start producing formal copyright titles.

D. Don't expect anyone to believe you are going to court over a story you've slapped on a free-read Web site--because they'll give you the horse laugh.

E. Don't expect a court to give you the time of day for ownership of a story you've slapped on a free-read Web site.

F. If you think otherwise on any of the above, cite court case law on this having been done.

I can see where you'd use these claims in some sort of bluff (which often works). I can only laugh at you if you actually believe your own bluff.

Come back and tell folks how this can be done when you've done it and won a court case to your satisfaction. Until then you are leading folks down the garden path of a false hope and feeling of protection that does not exist. You don't get it. The courts don't want to get into this dark pit.

(P.S. None of this applies to the Louise Taylor books, incidentally. You can't post-date the effect of copyright. Your formal protection starts on the day the formal copyright is granted. If "Louise" is "smart," she's already filed for copyright on the books. First in, first validated.)