Sunday, August 29, 2010

Beware: Warranty-Expiring Scam

Friends,
I despise salespersons who use linguistic sophistry to frighten and trick people into buying something they do not need. Probably, if you hear from anyone with a vague name such as "Credit Card Services" or "Motor Vehicle Services" or "Publisher Services" you ought to report them to your state Attorney General, and also to your local Better Business Bureau. Maybe to the Postmaster, too!



Notice that I am being threatened with a $2,000 fine and 5 years imprisonment if I am caught "OBSTRUCTING WITH DELIVERY" of this missive which I honestly believe to be an attempt to swindle me!

So, what does it say with such great urgency? That my factory warranty (or my dealership warranty) is expiring. The truth is, my legitimate warranty is good for approximately 5 years from new, and I'll bet yours is, too.

What *is* going to expire alarmingly soon is this offer of this spurious coverage! They mention their own allegedly made-up expiration date of 09/08/10 three times, in large print. But that--I repeat--is when their offer expires. Not when my own, existing, real car warranty expires.


If I'm getting this, I'll bet an awful lot of Americans are also getting something similar. As with spam in your email account, your best course of action is to set the paper aside, under no circumstances to use the telephone number on the mailing, and to telephone your car dealership using the number provided in your vehicle documents or contract.

All the best,
Rowena

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Copyright Alliance Blog » Blog Archive » Limiting Copyright to 12 Months

The Copyright Alliance is an organization that advocates for the rights of all creators and copyright owners, and if you haven't heard of it before, please visit the website (this is one blog post worthy of comment, I feel).

The Copyright Alliance Blog » Blog Archive » Limiting Copyright to 12 Months

Monday, August 02, 2010

The irony of ebook piracy

Here's a really entertaining irony. Authors of e-books have a sort of "no compete" clause in their contracts.

That's right. Even the author and copyright owner is not permitted to "share" more than a certain number (maybe as few as 5!!!) of her own e-books.

Once she has shared her agreed number of ebooks for promo purposes, she is supposed to actually purchase her own ebooks from her publisher or from an authorized vendor if she wants to give an ebook as a prize.

This is certainly the case with my Mating Net which I've licensed to New Concepts Publishing, at least as regards the fact that there is such an agreement in my contract. I've always purchased all my ebooks through either Mystiquebooks or EbookIsle.net, so I notionally still have my "free" allocation.

Pirates wonder why authors (some authors) get upset about piracy. Well, that's one reason. Not only are they infringing on copyright and ripping off the author, the editor, the publisher, the cover artist... they are doing something that the author is contractually unable to do herself with her own books.

Rich, isn't it?