COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ALERT - Apple Podcasts

[StillStunned]

I don't know whether to be upset or happy that they didn't rip off any of my stories, lol

Having your stories stolen is one of those things you feel conflicted about. On the one hand: hey, write your own stories, you thief! On the other: hey, someone things my writings are good enough to make money from!

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Just found a stolen story series called Chastity's Lessons that is misattributed to me, but the Literotica link shows it was written by @Goldeniangel

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Uggggh. Thanks for the heads-up.

If you're in the mood for a project, I'd encourage you to file a DMCA takedown notice directly with Apple. It's longer and more cumbersome to prepare than using Apple's online form, but you'll be able to include more background information about exactly how the infringement works and what Literotica does and doesn't allow regarding copyright.

You can download a Word doc template and type it up manually (ADD YOUR ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE AND DATE AT THE END), and then email it to copyrightnotices@apple.com or you can fill out Apple's version of the DMCA form here.

I'm going to file separate DMCA notices for each of my stolen stories to create three strikes against this channel, just as soon as I've finished reporting all of the other episodes based on stolen stories for copyright violations.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Please see the new thread I've created to track this issue here.

 

[Ian_Snow]

There's "dead" and then there's "mostly dead".

If I'm being compared to Cary Elwes, I'll take it. Haha.

 

[erialfor]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Kasumi. I appreciate it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't know, maybe its me, but the disclaimer the site has, crediting the author, crediting lit, and saying to go support the author-as in check out their other works on the site they credited-seems less nefarious than flat out pirating like all those You tube sites are doing.

Should they have asked permission? Yes, of course, but its free advertising with the proper author and original content site being referenced.

Beyond that, I'll day for the 100th time, if you don't want your stories pilfered, don't put them on a free site like this where anyone can just swoop in and take what they want. Is that fair? Not at all, but neither is reality or life.

 

[StillStunned]

Beyond that, I'll day for the 100th time, if you don't want your stories pilfered, don't put them on a free site like this where anyone can just swoop in and take what they want. Is that fair? Not at all, but neither is reality or life.

That still doesn't mean we should sit back and do nothing if we see it happening.

 

[lovecraft68]

That still doesn't mean we should sit back and do nothing if we see it happening.

Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

But if you leave a $100 bill on the sidewalk and someone takes it, who's fault is it, is another way to see it. Counting on everyone being honest out there is only going to lead to finding out people aren't honest.

I said fairly recently on another thread that if you google your work it can lead to a lot of frustration and chasing things like this down, because the site is not going to do it for you.

Ignorance is bliss, if someone has something I put here, oh, well, I gave it away here, why will I all of a sudden care if its free somewhere else, as long as my name is credited, and in this case it, and Lit itself, is.

There are more important hills to die on.

 

[Imstillfun]

I’m with lovecraft, nothing I can do about it, so I’d rather not know.

 

[Imstillfun]

I just went and listened. Ewwwww….hearing my stories read in a sped up, male voice is not erotic at all. But they did attribute it to me with a link to the story.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I just went and listened. Ewwwww….hearing my stories read in a sped up, male voice is not erotic at all. But they did attribute it to me with a link to the story.

Attribution does not mean they're allowed to use your stories without your explicit permission. If you're in the mood for a legal writing project, I'd encourage you to file a DMCA takedown notice for each of your stories. You may want to set aside a day or two to get all the details right, because you'll need to explain what Literotica's copyright policies do and don't allow, the way these text-to-speech pirates operate, and then add all the links to the infringing content and the original content.

You'll also need to add an electronic signature with the date to the finished DMCA notice and then send it to podcasting platform (each notice has to be tailored to each platform). I've can share a version of the template I've been using so you can adapt it for your own purposes if you like.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I don't know, maybe its me, but the disclaimer the site has, crediting the author, crediting lit, and saying to go support the author-as in check out their other works on the site they credited-seems less nefarious than flat out pirating like all those You tube sites are doing.

Should they have asked permission? Yes, of course, but its free advertising with the proper author and original content site being referenced.

Beyond that, I'll day for the 100th time, if you don't want your stories pilfered, don't put them on a free site like this where anyone can just swoop in and take what they want. Is that fair? Not at all, but neither is reality or life.

The disclaimer is meaningless. Literotica is a "free" site only in the sense that it doesn't charge to read or publish here. Taking stories from Lit without the author's permission is against both Lit's policies and the law. You can still file a DMCA notice, although you'll need to add some extra language to explain everything.

Should you lock up your house to stop thieves breaking in? Of course. That's doesn't mean a break-in is your fault if you don't or that the criminals are therefore justified.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Latest update.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

I just went and listened. Ewwwww….hearing my stories read in a sped up, male voice is not erotic at all. But they did attribute it to me with a link to the story.

He could at least have used the read aloud feature in MS Word. The female voice sounds so much sexier.

 

[RejectReality]

There's nothing wrong with taking a little victory lap if you manage to get one of these thieves pulled down, or to be dedicated to that end. What LC is saying is to count your blessings they're at least crediting you by pen name here, as most of them claim credit by omission. There's some small chance that listeners may search you out from that information and actually find you here. Doesn't make it right, but in the grand scheme of thievery, this is at least slightly less offensive.

The other thing he's warning about is going down the rabbit hole. As quickly as one thief goes down, two more or going to replace it like you're cutting off Hydra heads. Much of the time, one of those regrown heads is going to be the same one you just cut off. Many will already have another account activated and ready to start loading the moment they get a takedown, because they've been expecting it. If you let yourself get obsessed with this, you'll spend every waking moment playing an endless game of whack-a-mole.

Once you put something out there on the biggest free erotica site there is, it's going to get stolen. There's nothing anybody can do to stop it, so you have to accept it at some point.

 

[StillStunned]

I’m with lovecraft, nothing I can do about it, so I’d rather not know.

That depends what "it" is. I've found my stories published on sites, and asked them to be removed, and it was done. There are other sites where you know at a glance it's hopeless.

But I've also found several of my stories included in a book that was for sale on Amazon, under someone else's name. A collection of ten stories, of which three and perhaps even four, were mine. And someone was selling them, for money, as their own. I complained to Amazon, and the whole thing was taken down with about four hours.

Can you prevent your stories from being stolen? No. Can you take action if you see blatant theft? Yes. How much effort you want to put into rectifying the wrong is up to you to decide.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

There's nothing wrong with taking a little victory lap if you manage to get one of these thieves pulled down, or to be dedicated to that end. What LC is saying is to count your blessings they're at least crediting you by pen name here, as most of them claim credit by omission. There's some small chance that listeners may search you out from that information and actually find you here. Doesn't make it right, but in the grand scheme of thievery, this is at least slightly less offensive.

The other thing he's warning about is going down the rabbit hole. As quickly as one thief goes down, two more or going to replace it like you're cutting off Hydra heads. Much of the time, one of those regrown heads is going to be the same one you just cut off. Many will already have another account activated and ready to start loading the moment they get a takedown, because they've been expecting it. If you let yourself get obsessed with this, you'll spend every waking moment playing an endless game of whack-a-mole.

Once you put something out there on the biggest free erotica site there is, it's going to get stolen. There's nothing anybody can do to stop it, so you have to accept it at some point.

I take some consolation in the fact that most of my stories are NC/R stories which are impermissible on YouTube and most other sites. That didn't stop this particular thief, but it's possible I could have reported him for content violations instead.

 

[Bamagan]

Once you put something out there on the biggest free erotica site there is, it's going to get stolen. There's nothing anybody can do to stop it, so you have to accept it at some point.

That's a rather amusingly ironic position to take, given your choice of screen name.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Under fair usage, he could quote (and give proper credit) to a few lines. But not the whole story. Burn their collective asses.

It won't save him. Literotica's legal statement says the following:

 

[Jay142]

UPDATE: Please see the new thread I've created to track this issue here.

I recently searched for one of my Literotica stories and the top search result was an episode on Apple Podcasts on a channel called "Taboo Erotica - The Erotica Podcast Network". Someone plagiarized the entirety of My Fertile Secret (one of my story series) in much the same way that scumrats on YouTube use text-to-speech to steal people's stories from Literotica.

To all authors, when you have a spare moment, please take a look at this channel's different shows and check their episode catalogs to see if one of your stories has been stolen. If you one of your stories was stolen, please report click the triple dot to the right and report it is as a copyright violation. Better still, consider filing a copyright claim against the channel. If we all pile on at once, we can get this channel banned and its content deleted.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll send a note to Laurel, the owner of Literotica, to let her know too.

 

[TheJoker33]

Has anyone heard back from Apple about this yet? I filed a complaint as one of the stories used was mine.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

Has anyone heard back from Apple about this yet? I filed a complaint as one of the stories used was mine.

I was about to post about this. I served notices with Castbox, Spotify, Podchaser, and Apple about my stolen stories, and the first three responded in under 12 hours.

Castbox took down all three of my stolen stories in one go. Spotify answered next, telling me that the "provider" (i.e. the thief EPN) had removed the entire show (specifically the Taboo stories playlist where my stories were included) while the investigation was ongoing. Sure enough, the Taboo playlist of stories stolen from NC/R is gone. Podchaser replied third to tell me they'd disabled access to the infringing material, and sure enough, the Taboo playlist is gone.

I'm just waiting for Apple to reply, although when I checked just now, one of my three stolen stories was no longer viewable in EPN's Taboo playlist.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I haven't searched for my stories lately. I had some stolen, and the thief merely added her name as a co-author. Not bothering to change any of the copyrights or even the cover. Amazon not only yanked my stories from her but banned her. Of course, she probably just opened a new account and stole someone else's work later. I provided screencaps of the publications with the posting date but linked the publications on several sites, including here at Literotica, all of which showed me as the sole author.