Is Amazon Ripping Us off?

[Boxlicker101]

There have been many threads here complaining that plagiarizers are selling our works on Amazon. However, this is something different. Is it possible Amazon is the ripoff artist, selling stories we have written and keeping all the proceeds? Here is something I found:

http://www.amazon.com/two-better-tha...rhf_ee_p_img_1

This is a novella I have posted here named "Hot Blonde Student in the Middle." It is one of a series of stories about sex between the student and a man in the high school she attends. They list the author as "box 101" and list no publisher or other identifying info.

I don't mind them selling it if they give me a cut.
__________________
100% smut or stroke, and proud of it.

The Rest of My Smut

Dirty old man.

 

[damppanties]

Link doesn't work, box.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't think Amazon gets down into the weeds like it. It's probably some one using their regular services.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Link doesn't work, box.

It worked before.

http://www.amazon.com/two-better-than-threesome-ebook/dp/B006HWXICW

Try it again.

 

[damppanties]

It worked before.

http://www.amazon.com/two-better-than-threesome-ebook/dp/B006HWXICW

Try it again.

Ok, yes, did this time.

Have no idea if it's amazon like you think or someone else as sr pointed out. Write them and ask?

ps. Needs a better cover. Black haired guy is horrid. What is that hairstyle?

 

[Boxlicker101]

Ok, yes, did this time.

Have no idea if it's amazon like you think or someone else as sr pointed out. Write them and ask?

ps. Needs a better cover. Black haired guy is horrid. What is that hairstyle?

It wasn't my cover either. The girl should have been blonde.

How do I write to Amazon? If it's that simple, why aren't more people writing and complaining?

 

[Boxlicker101]

Here's another one that looks like they are giving Literotica some of the credit.

http://www.amazon.com/Taboo-Charmin...PK0/ref=pd_sim_kinc_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

 

[damppanties]

How do I write to Amazon? If it's that simple, why aren't more people writing and complaining?

This might help.

More people don't know they've been ripped off? For example, I don't do Google searches of my stuff at all. *shrug*

 

[HeatherVivant]

I don't think it's Amazon since Amazon doesn't require a publisher to be listed for a submitted story. The person who published it did have to assert whether or not they held the rights to the story, or whether it was public domain. I'm not sure what writing published on Lit is considered--does the author retain the copyright, or does it transfer to Literotica?

Either way, it should be possible to have Amazon remove it if you can demonstrate that you retain the rights. I would bet they would also close down the offending account for a terms of service violation if they fraudulently represented the work as their own.

 

[sr71plt]

*sigh* And around and around in circles we go.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I don't think it's Amazon since Amazon doesn't require a publisher to be listed for a submitted story. The person who published it did have to assert whether or not they held the rights to the story, or whether it was public domain. I'm not sure what writing published on Lit is considered--does the author retain the copyright, or does it transfer to Literotica?

Either way, it should be possible to have Amazon remove it if you can demonstrate that you retain the rights. I would bet they would also close down the offending account for a terms of service violation if they fraudulently represented the work as their own.

It is Amazon who is ripping us off. They are doing so by making a profit on our work when they let unscrupulous plagiarists, such as Robin Scott and Maria Cruz take works from Literotica and claim to be the authors. Some of us have repeatedly told them about this, only to be ignored.

 

[sr71plt]

God, get some perspective, Box. You don't have any more legally accepted PROOF that it's yours than they do. One of these days, some prankster is going to go around and willy nilly claim what you are ripping them off (assuming you had an e-book on Amazon) and, by your perspective, Amazon (or here, Literotica--which has been known to do that without any proof, by the way) should just take yours down with no more legal PROOF than their say so. Boxlicker 101 isn't even your legal name (I'm assuming). Boxlicker 101 isn't a legal person; it has no legal standing.

Get a clue folks about posting to the Internet. Don't expect the courts (or businesses bound by law) to give a shit what happens to what you post there for free use.

The more likely upshot from Amazon is that it just won't take a book from anyone who doesn't provide legal identify documentation, proof of formal copyright, and a licensed publisher. I would assume that's not exactly what we here want to happen.

 

[LOAnnie2]

God, get some perspective, Box. You don't have any more legally accepted PROOF that it's yours than they do. One of these days, some prankster is going to go around and willy nilly claim what you are ripping them off (assuming you had an e-book on Amazon) and, by your perspective, Amazon (or here, Literotica--which has been known to do that without any proof, by the way) should just take yours down with no more legal PROOF than their say so. Boxlicker 101 isn't even your legal name (I'm assuming). Boxlicker 101 isn't a legal person; it has no legal standing.

Get a clue folks about posting to the Internet. Don't expect the courts (or businesses bound by law) to give a shit what happens to what you post there for free use.

The more likely upshot from Amazon is that it just won't take a book from anyone who doesn't provide legal identify documentation, proof of formal copyright, and a licensed publisher. I would assume that's not exactly what we here want to happen.

By that argument the movie, music and video game industries are in the wrong too--there's no person. Nom de Plumes are a perfectly legal and legitimate outlet for writing under copyright law and have been for forever.

And under the DMCA, they have to treat takedown notices as though they're legitimate, otherwise Amazon loses Safe Harbor provisions (it's the same reason that you see movie companies get growled at by people for issuing takedown notices of videos that reference their work--they look for the words and issue it, Google has to comply).

So yes, he can simply sign a form saying he has the right to speak for the copyright holder, and that the story is up illegally. In fact, Amazon has a whole section of their help page guided to saying exactly how to do this. To go with your point pilot, Boxlicker101 may not be a real person, but in all technicality he is the legal copyright holder. And the person behind Boxlicker101 could easily speak for the legal copyright holder.

And besides, if they want proof it's actually not too hard, I was talking with a Robin Scott fan and got them to realize she's a phony over Twitter by doing a very simple thing--I linked the original story on Lit, the story on Amazon, and the forum post from the author pointing out that it was stolen. Maria Cruz and Robin Scott are terrible at this, they steal from many different authors, so it's not hard to say, "Look, she claimed to write these 20 different stories from 20 different authors."

 

[lovecraft68]

I juts put my first work on Amazon. All they ask for you to prove you have copyright is to click a box saying you do. And no one ever lies right?

Here's a conspiracy to get you guys going round and round, maybe lit is selling them on Amazon

 

[sr71plt]

As I said, here we go again. Nothing like the ignorant telling the courts what they're going to do.

To make a pen name or a stage name or an entertainer's name legal, you have to register it legally.

I'll stick with reality and not play myself for the fool on these matters. You'all can go on and play in your self-delusional little worlds.

 

[damppanties]

As I said, here we go again. Nothing like the ignorant telling the courts what they're going to do.

To make a pen name or a stage name or a song name legal, you have to register it legally.

I'll stick with reality and not play myself for the fool on these matters. You'all can go on and play in your self-delusional little worlds.

But you won't leave them alone to play in their self-delusional little worlds! You and your rolling eye smileys. Tch.

 

[sr71plt]

But you won't leave them alone to play in their self-delusional little worlds! You and your rolling eye smileys. Tch.

I'll come in right at the beginning to establish that they are clueless to reality, and then I'll back off as they spin their self-delusional fantasies.

The reality is that Amazon already is responding beyond what law will support. When this gets more complicated and they begin to see what a morass it is, they're just going to pull the plug on all of us. The more someone hassles them about this, the more bullet holes "someone" is putting in his/her own foot.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[lovecraft68]

Unfortunately the more this happens, the more people are going to

A. Get fed up with seeing their stuff somewhere else and stop putting it here to be lifted.

or

B. Decide that if someone is going to make a few dollars off their work why shouldn't it be them and... stop putting it here.'

In either case the more frequent this gets, I think it is going to start having an effect with the amount of work(or at least quality work) posted here.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[LOAnnie2]

As I said, here we go again. Nothing like the ignorant telling the courts what they're going to do.

To make a pen name or a stage name or an entertainer's name legal, you have to register it legally.

I'll stick with reality and not play myself for the fool on these matters. You'all can go on and play in your self-delusional little worlds.

Trust me, Amazon would NOT want to lose their safe harbor status--it would allow lawsuits for anything that wasn't 100 percent legitimate and Amazon wouldn't be able to stop it. If a site like YouTube lost its safe Harbor provision Google would shut it down permanently within minutes.

You don't seem to understand this part either: Amazon's systems allow people to easily post anything as an ebook whether they own it or not. Anyone can file a DMCA takedown notice as well--there's thousands of fake ones every year. It's just as easy to.

But you know, if you really want to stay deluded, I guess we need to have a contest to see who can make the most money off of Pilot's stories, since he's already basically admitted defeat.

Just because you put something on the internet for free does NOT mean you give up your rights to it. If you want to give up your rights to your works I'm sure we can let Robin Scott or Maria Cruz know it's fair game.

Though in an easy to prove that the selling is not allowed, I wonder, if you resubmit an already published literotica piece to edit it, does it retain the old date? If it does retain the date, it'd be very easy to put a disclaimer at the beginning that Robin Scott, Maria Cruz, Amazon, whoever, doesn't have the right to sell the work (assuming you're not doing so, so someone like Erin can say "Stories published on Amazon only under the name Erin C Short"). By keeping the old date and appearing before it showed up on Amazon, you'd have all the evidence you needed right there that the author does not approve the work.

 

[sr71plt]

I'll happily stay "diluted."

I'll not have the problem with Amazon, dear. All of mine are already published before being posted here and were available on Amazon through my publishers prior to anyone else being able to put them there. That makes Amazon's decision on which of us to deep six simple. (I could have a different problem with Amazon over this down the road--but not the rip-off problem.)

You go ahead and believe what you like, try to get it enforced when/if it happens to you, and then enforced again when the thieves just do a repeat, and report back to us. In the meantime you can live in your own little "diluted" world. There are plenty of other folks in the same world with you--not that any of them have ever managed even to get into court over a problem like this.

 

[LOAnnie2]

I'll happily stay "diluted."

I'll not have the problem with Amazon, dear. All of mine are already published before being posted here and were available on Amazon through my publishers prior to anyone else being able to put them there. That makes Amazon's decision on which of us to deep six simple. (I could have a different problem with Amazon over this down the road--but not the rip-off problem.)

You go ahead and believe what you like, try to get it enforced when/if it happens to you, and then enforced again when the thieves just do a repeat, and report back to us. In the meantime you can live in your own little "diluted" world.

Wow, one spelling mistake corrected to the wrong word by autocorrect and you have to be an asshole about things. My God, I wish I were as perfect at everything as you. Please, teach me the ways of grammatically-correct cynical douchebaggery, I am ready to learn.

How about perhaps before saying it's never gonna work, why don't you try it? Create another amazon account, post one of your stories up there under a slightly altered name (even if it's already for sale), wait a week, and send them a DMCA takedown notice as according to their policies.

 

[damppanties]

Please, teach me the ways of gram(m)atically-correct cynical douchebaggery, I am ready to learn.

God, sr, that's a vanity quote for a sig if ever there was one.

LOAnnie, not making fun of you here, you just got sr in a nutshell right there. Good stuff.

 

[LOAnnie2]

God, sr, that's a vanity quote for a sig if ever there was one.

LOAnnie, not making fun of you here, you just got sr in a nutshell right there. Good stuff.

And that's what one gets when they answer in a browser that doesn't have autocorrect like I was earlier. *sigh*

Though I wonder if I'm the only one that finds it ironic that he's defending his "no one will ever care so don't bother" attitude when he readily admits to not having a dog in this fight (since he has legit publishers backing him up)?