Plagiarist #667

[Blind_Justice]

Hey gang,

seems like I've made it to the big leagues. Some "Jake Harris" dude has ripped off my "Ghost in the Machine" series and blew it up to a 600+ page Kindle product. See here:

https://www.amazon.com/Gideons-Craft-Jake-Harris-ebook/dp/B085WHNB3T/

Didn't change any names and his attempt at writing an enticing blurb is downright insulting! There are no "alpha males" in that story, nor are there "beautiful bimbo babes".

The "Look Inside" snippet is ripped straight from GITM chapter 9, page 2.

I've already placed a copyright claim with amazon, I also let them know that the real story can be had for free over here. Now, I've tried to find if that fuckwad has taken anything else from either me or you fine folks, but my google-fu is severely lacking. "Jake Harris" seems to lead anywhere but to a straight answer. Anyone willing and able to cyber-sleuth a bit for me?

And also a heartfelt "Thank you" to the kind Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous who tipped me off. Too bad you didn't leave a return email for a more personal reply.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What a douche-bag. Hope you're successful getting him taken down.

 

[Blind_Justice]

It's proving more of a headache than I anticipated. Since I'm no commercial author and don't have an agent, the red tape is mounting up rather quickly. Hopefully the people in amazon's customer support team are able to sort this mess for me. Maybe it's time to have a KDP account. *sighs*

Edit: Nope. Chatting under my wife's name allowed for some interesting moments, but no resolution.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I think people had success by telling Amazon that was available free elsewhere.

 

[NotWise]

I think people had success by telling Amazon that was available free elsewhere.

That. Plus, if enough authors complain, then Amazon might get a clue. If you're writing under an unregistered pseudonym then reporting plagiarism doesn't have much effect, because you can't prove that you own the copyright.

The Amazon page for the guy that republished one of my stories is gone, but I don't know why. I think he stole everything he published. Maybe he finally stole something from someone who could prove they owned the copyright. Maybe the preponderance of evidence convinced Amazon, or maybe he decided to retire.

 

[Blind_Justice]

The main thrust of my OP is a) giving due notice that someone again is pilfering stuff off Lit and b) asking for help in finding more of this "Jake Harris" guy to make sure no one else got ripped off by him. Like I said, my search engine magic is lacking. If I learned anything from reading similar topics here then it is the fact that plagiarists don't just take one, especially if they are in it for a quick buck. There's a good chance I'm not the only "donor".

I wonder why he chose my oldest story though. It's very uneven in terms of quality.

 

[NotWise]

The main thrust of my OP is a) giving due notice that someone again is pilfering stuff off Lit and b) asking for help in finding more of this "Jake Harris" guy to make sure no one else got ripped off by him. Like I said, my search engine magic is lacking. If I learned anything from reading similar topics here then it is the fact that plagiarists don't just take one, especially if they are in it for a quick buck. There's a good chance I'm not the only "donor".

I wonder why he chose my oldest story though. It's very uneven in terms of quality.

There is a "Jake Harris" who publishes joke books and books of pick-up lines on Amazon. This may be the same "Jake Harris," who was on the TV show "The Deadliest Catch." His catalogue looks authentic, and it doesn't include your story. I don't see anything else by the same "author."

 

[RejectReality]

I didn't see anything else under that name that looked like erotica when I looked either.

That being said, Amazon's author links are absolutely fucking horrible. If you click on a specific author's name, it should return only work by that author, not a search as if you had used their pen name as keywords. What the fuck were they thinking? If you wanted to search, you'd have used the bloody search engine. When you click a link, you expect specific information.

They obviously get some kind of value out of it, or they wouldn't be doing it. But it's about as user-unfriendly as anything I can think of.

 

[Blind_Justice]

There is a "Jake Harris" who publishes joke books and books of pick-up lines on Amazon. This may be the same "Jake Harris," who was on the TV show "The Deadliest Catch." His catalogue looks authentic, and it doesn't include your story. I don't see anything else by the same "author."

That name is probably just a smidge less common than John Smith. Too bad amazon has no "disambiguation" feature or unique author IDs.

 

[KeithD]

That name is probably just a smidge less common than John Smith. Too bad amazon has no "disambiguation" feature or unique author IDs.

Even the U.S. government can't manage to do the "wisdom of Solomon" judgments on ownership of written material. That's why the U.S. government will only get involved when a formal copyright has been registered. That's the one proof Amazon would be able to accept as well. Their other choice would be just not to accept any of the business--only distribute from mainstream publishers with lawyers who keep it all on the straight. The messier it gets, the more likely that's what they'll do--just not accept the business. Be happy you can use them for as long as you can--and maybe do what I do--get it into the marketplace before anyone who steals it knows it exists.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Okay, here is amazon's absolute mindfuck of an answer to my claim:

Thank you for your message. In reviewing your claim, it appears that your objection is to the title of this book and/or its inclusion of similar content to your own work. Please note that copyright protections do not extend to the title of a given work and only cover your own particular expression of an idea.

It is not possible for us to do a comparison of the texts. If, after you have reviewed the complete text of each work, you believe that the book(s) referenced contain text you wrote without your permission, please submit a new notice of copyright infringement and include specific examples for review. For information regarding submitting a notice of copyright infringement, please see the link below:

http://amzn.to/1PV0fVY

We do not need you to provide an additional signature as long as you send the above information from this e-mail address. Also, please be aware that the publisher of this title will be provided your e-mail address to contact you in the event that they disagree with your claims that they have stolen your work.

ASIN(s): B085WHNB3T

Emphasis mine

Are they actually telling me I have to buy that ripoff and provide them with specific citations? And then go through that whole rigmarole AGAIN?

Anyone know a hacker I can hire? Time for a tailor-made computer virus.

 

[KeithD]

Amazon's response is quite reasonable. They can't take anyone's unsupported word and nothing other than formal copyright in hand and demonstration that material has been stolen is proof of anything. You have to show them proof--and, yes, starting with your claim the content has been stolen. You haven't demonstrated you've even looked at the other content. Yes, to do that you'd have to buy the book and compare. That's just too bad for you. It's not Amazon's responsibility to do this research.

Do you own a formal copyright on this material? If not, it's just your word against anyone else's and it's not Amazon's responsibility to research and adjudicate this.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I did use the "Look inside" option. It's my text all right, except for two names changed. Everything else, down to the quirks my editor left (like no question marks) is intact. So I buy the book, copy paste the contents and put it next to the corresponding snippets of my files?

Even if I had a formal copyright, I have no idea if the German version of it would be good enough. Well, time to support that scammer then.

 

[KeithD]

If you are able to see any part of the content and compare, that might be enough and you could have another go at Amazon on that basis. Just be aware that anything they do for you short of your slapping predated proof of a formal copyright registration on them is more than they are obligated to accommodate--or believe--so dumping blame on them for anything is counterproductive. It's not Amazon's fault that it's so easy to steal what you've put on the Internet for free use/copying. It remains a good possibility that when this becomes too much of a hassle for Amazon, they'll just stop handling self-published works.

 

[Blind_Justice]

That would be absolutely no skin off my back.

I bought the book, I've set up a new copyright infringement notice with all required legal statements and provided eight lengthy citations from his work plus my versions of them with links to the source, including some where I point out how he failed to properly "steal" from me (for example, he missed several instances of mis-spelled character names). I hope that's decisive enough.

Formally applying for copyrights - especially now - would bankrupt me. What is it? 30 dollars per work? With nearly 50 submissions, that's money I just can't spend.

Thanks for your comments, Keith. I mean it, no snark at all.

 

[KeithD]

The last I checked, it was $35 per registration. But you could register 1,000 stories (or more) under one title (e.g., "Stories by X of the Twenty-First Century"). I registered six novels in a series, nearly half a million words, under one registration a decade and a half ago.

One thing to keep in mind, which doesn't seem to have occurred to the thieves yet: they could do the same in the United States. They could swipe 1,000 stories from here in one dive, put them all under one title, and file for a formal copyright for one $35 go. If the U.S. Copyright Office didn't see that there was a prior copyright on any of this material (or could be shown there was--you have to file copies with the registration request; you could point to prior registration of a single story in the series you covered), they now would be legally owned by that thief. Nothing you could do would supersede the thief being the first there to file formal copyright.

I'm not suggesting people run and file formal copyright. I'm suggesting they get real about their proprietary rights to material they've slapped on the Internet for a free read and steal. Your knowing you created it doesn't mean that either the U.S. government or Amazon should accept that just because you say so. The thieves will say so too. Neither the U.S. government nor Amazon have either the responsibility or capability to sort this out. This is exactly why the U.S. government will not provide a court date unless at least one of the parties produces a formal copyright registration. The courts couldn't cope with he says/she says cases. They certainly wouldn't do it for material valued at zero because it was given away for free on the open Internet.

 

[KeithD]

I'll go another step into the "let's be real" world on this issue. Even, if you are in the U.S. system, if you get a court date and hold a formal U.S. copyright, you'll get a horselaugh from the judge because you valued (legally--and you're now in a court of law) your material at zero worth. You gave it away for free on the open-access Internet. The most you could get is court costs and the material taken down (to reappear the next week in a whack-a-mole process--perhaps even by the same person), and that's after you have publicly identified the real you with what you've written and if you've managed to track down the real person who swiped your material (lots of luck with that) and got them into a U.S. court--if they even are accountable to a U.S. court.

Holding any evidence short of a formal copyright registration in the United States puts your effort at the bluff level in the United States. Sometimes bluff works, so no reason not to try it. But you shouldn't be bluffing yourself in the process and live in a bubble where you assume that you have functional rights and others have responsibilities that don't exist in your case. And holding a formal copyright is just a first step in a very tricky, hazy process.

 

[Ada Stuart]

I did use the "Look inside" option. It's my text all right, except for two names changed. Everything else, down to the quirks my editor left (like no question marks) is intact. So I buy the book, copy paste the contents and put it next to the corresponding snippets of my files?

Even if I had a formal copyright, I have no idea if the German version of it would be good enough. Well, time to support that scammer then.

Well, I wouldn't buy the book, no.

And I agree with KeithD that it's a battle that we're probably bound to lose, but I still find it annoying to allow a thief to benefit from my work - even if they are available for free.

So, it seems that the more fuss you create, the more likely it is that Amazon will remove the book.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the book page, you will find several links to "Report an issue". I've used all of them and eventually the books have been removed. You can also do the same on the other Amazon sites (UK, etc).

Hopefully, the thief will think twice about stealing your works next time.

In my experience, they have stolen older stories and during a period I wasn't posting anything. That makes me suspect that they do that deliberately since they are more likely to get away with it.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Well... Success!

Hello,

Thank you for your message. Please be advised that we are in the process of removing the following Kindle titles from sale on all Amazon sites:

B085WHNB3T

It typically takes 2-3 days for the changes to be reflected on the sites. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

Complaint ID: 6937532051, 6937332861

Best regards,


Regards,

Amazon.com

And all within ~2 hours. Good guys 1 - Scammers 0

 

[Bramblethorn]

One thing to keep in mind, which doesn't seem to have occurred to the thieves yet: they could do the same in the United States. They could swipe 1,000 stories from here in one dive, put them all under one title, and file for a formal copyright for one $35 go. If the U.S. Copyright Office didn't see that there was a prior copyright on any of this material (or could be shown there was--you have to file copies with the registration request; you could point to prior registration of a single story in the series you covered), they now would be legally owned by that thief. Nothing you could do would supersede the thief being the first there to file formal copyright.

I suspect the reason they don't do it is not "hasn't occurred to them" but rather "not cost-effective". Sure they could pay $35 (recently increased to $45, IIRC?) to effectively acquire legal ownership of a bunch of unsecured stories. But why bother? As we've seen, they can just sell other people's stories without paying. Most of the plagiarised authors probably never find out, and when they do, the culprit can just create a new identity and steal a new story for less trouble and $45 cheaper than registering a copyright.

Plus, filing means more of a paper trail, and it seems safe to assume these aren't the kind of people who want to leave too much evidence of who they are.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Plus, filing means more of a paper trail, and it seems safe to assume these aren't the kind of people who want to leave too much evidence of who they are.

I wonder what financial cut-outs they use to get whatever bucks they get. To register an Australian PayPal account, for example, you have to tie it to a bank account - and the taxman sees the PayPal income and auto-fills the tax form.

 

[lovecraft68]

I wonder what financial cut-outs they use to get whatever bucks they get. To register an Australian PayPal account, for example, you have to tie it to a bank account - and the taxman sees the PayPal income and auto-fills the tax form.

Amazon does't take paypal because it was at one point owned by E-bay Amazon's mortal enemy.

But you do have to set up a bank account to be paid by amazon, and setting up a new one every time you get busted seems like a lot of work.

More so...if you have an amazon account blocked? Good luck getting another one, its not easy.

But that's if they block the account. A few years back-not sure if you were here-I found someone through SW contacting me, that someone from lit published one of my stories there.

I checked that name on amazon and it was someone who was a volunteer editor for years, she had 300(not kidding) e-books on amazon, many stolen from lit authors.

It took awhile, but they got them taken down-Laurel got involved back then-she went from 300 titles down to like 12...and they never cancelled her account.

Amazon is inconsistent, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[KeithD]

But you do have to set up a bank account to be paid by amazon, and setting up a new one every time you get busted seems like a lot of work.

Doesn't affect you if it's your publisher interfacing with Amazon.

 

[lovecraft68]

Doesn't affect you if it's your publisher interfacing with Amazon.

I'm speaking more to people who do it themselves.

I do both, I have a ton of smut I handle myself on amazon/sw and a few other sites, but a few more serious works under another name a publisher handles for me.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

The way I see it...

I give away my stories because people get to read them. I don't sell them because the costs would outweigh the profits. (Cover design alone is several hundred dollars (I have 0 art skills) not to mention the marketing, formatting, in-depth editing, etc...

For the return I see in the twitter writing community It would take decades to make a decent profit.

If someone else thinks my story is good enough to sell and does the work, hey more power to them.

Besides who has the kind of time to search the millions of self-published titles to see if one of your stories is included. I have better things to do with my time, like write another story.

That being said, anyone who steals another intellectual property and claims it as their own is lower than the Marinaras Trench.