Yahoo Needs A "Report This Group" Button

"Yahoo respects the intellectual property of others...."

They just don't make it easy for good citizens to alert them to Yahoogroups that massively infringe on copyright. (They require the author to complain herself). They ought to be more proactive and allow readers to be proactive.

There ought to be a "Report This" button in every Footer.

In fact, copyright infringement is such a problem that every auction site, social networking site, blogsite etc ought to be required by law to post this from the Copyright Office:

"Is it legal to download works from peer-to-peer networks and if not, what is the penalty for doing so?


Uploading or downloading works protected by copyright without the authority of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright owner's exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. In addition, an infringer of a work may also be liable for the attorney's fees incurred by the copyright owner to enforce his or her rights."

Source

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-digital.html#p2p

As the Indian copyright office says,

"There is an acute lack of awareness on various issues relating to copyright and related rights amongst stakeholders, enforcement agencies, professional users like the scientific and academic communities and members of the public…"

Maharaj Krishen Kaw, Secretary to Government of India,

You can read more here:

http://www.education.nic.in/copyright.asp

Yahoo has a group called "Free Book Club". Gee, you'd think Yahoo could have some kind of filter if they wanted to do so. They do have the technology to prevent a would-be member from registering an obscene or trademark infringing screen name.

To establish that Yahoo does have the technology, I performed an experiment. I tried to register my name as something very scurrilous, resulting in a short sentence with Yahoo as the object of my suggestion.

Yahoo would not allow that. I experimented. Yahoo has the technology to prevent "Yahoo" being used as part of anyone's id and password. They also do not allow the F-word. Amusingly, they do suggest longer synonyms.

Point made. If Yahoo wanted to prevent EBook groups, or Free Book groups, it could do so.

Back to the "freebookclub" yahoo group which has 1109 Members (all of whom, presumably have been offered 480 illegally posted ebooks... and more!), has been in operation since September 2009, and at which the owner has posted approximately 70 notices of giveaways.

You did notice this, didn't you?

Uploading or downloading works protected by copyright without the authority of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright owner's exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. In addition, an infringer of a work may also be liable for the attorney's fees incurred by the copyright owner to enforce his or her rights."

I've just reminded you of the law. Therefore, if you visit this Yahoo Group and download anything (after having been told that it is illegal, you could, if caught (and Yahoo has your real email address etc and this site posts your photographs!!!) be theoretically liable for a fine of $150,000 per download.

There is a free member bonus that includes 480 ebooks, and invites you to share this page and offer with everyone you know on Twitter, Facebook, everyone on your email list. These books include 17 Jennifer Crusie books,  14 Karen Hawkins books, 27 J D Robb books, 84 Nora Roberts books, 53 Jude Devereaux books.

Readers, please note, if downloaders are caught, and prosecuted, they could be fined $30,000 per book. If I supply a link, it is so that authors, agents, publishers reading this blog may accumulate evidence and send Yahoo and Freebiesave and Freebookclub.biz a cease and desist notice.

As if 480 books as a joining bonus was not bad enough, batches of 200 books are offered at intervals

http://www.freebookclub.biz/fiction4.html

There's much more, it is a symptom of the problem that the publishing industry faces, which is exacerbated by corporate ad executives who either don't know or don't care what demographic they cater to. Advertising to people who steal stuff might not be advertising dollars well spent

OK, authors, agents, publishers. Here's what you have to do. Talk to each other!  CC each other when you email Yahoo here  copyright@yahoo-inc.com  so you have proof that Yahoo has been advised of repeated and serious infringement by http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freebookclub/

Check out the links supplied by this Yahoogroup.

http://www.freebookclub.biz/members-bonus.html

Free Kids Books!
http://www.freebookclub.biz/kids.html


Over 200 More Free Fiction Books
http://www.freebookclub.biz/fiction5.html


45 Free Books on Health & Fitness (part 1)
http://www.freebookclub.biz/health-etc.html

Extrapolate that there was a fiction1, fiction2, fiction3 ....

Follow this:

***

YAHOO'S

copyrightandintellectualproperty

Yahoo! respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Yahoo! has no responsibility for content on other websites that you may find or access when using Yahoo!’s products or services. Material available on or through other websites may be protected by copyright and the intellectual property laws of the United States and/or other countries. The terms of use of those websites, and not the Yahoo! Terms of Service, govern your use of that material.

It is Yahoo!’s policy, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may infringe or repeatedly infringe the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Yahoo! and/or others.

Notice for Claims of Intellectual Property Violations and Agent for Notice

THIS PROCESS IS FOR COPYRIGHT AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MATTERS ONLY. Correspondence regarding other matters will not be responded to. For reports of abuse and related concerns, please see the links in the left navigation.

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or that your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please provide Yahoo!'s Agent for Notice with the following information (your "Notice"):

1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;

2. a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;

3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Yahoo! site, with enough detail that we may find it on the website (in most circumstances, we will need a URL);

4. your address, telephone number, and email address;

5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law;

6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

In some circumstances, in order to notify the subscriber, account holder or host who provided the allegedly infringing content to which Yahoo! has disabled access, Yahoo! may forward a copy of a valid Notice including name and email address to the subscriber or account holder, or may forward a copy of a valid Notice (with personally identifiable information removed) to Chilling Effects (http://www.chillingeffects.org) for publication.

Yahoo!'s Agent for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement can be reached as follows:

By mail

Copyright Agent

c/o Yahoo! Inc.

701 First Avenue

Sunnyvale, CA 94089

By phone

(408) 349-5080

By fax

(408) 349-7821

By email

copyright@yahoo-inc.com

Please note that, due to security concerns, attachments cannot be accepted. Accordingly, any notification of infringement submitted electronically with an attachment will not be received or processed.

***

Rowena Cherry