Saturday, December 10, 2011

Politicians (Wyden, Issa) and the Press (CNBC) Protect Piracy

 An hour ago, Barnes and Noble emailed me (I subscribe) to let me know that Patricia Cornwell's latest book is now available for NOOK, presumably as of today, for $14.99. 

 

Red Mist (Kay
Scarpetta Series #19)

by Patricia Cornwell
$14.99 NOOK Price
 

 This surprised me, because four days ago, December 6th, one of the most unscrupulous pirates I follow (who is allegedly funded and supported by Filesonic.com, by Google, by Yahoo, and by SocialGo, and by corporate advertising) notified me that Red Mist is available free to their VIP subscribers who pay something around $10 for a lifetime of illegal links to ebooks uploaded to Filesonic.com


Red Mist
The new Kay Scarpetta novel from the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding's death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.
The pirate appears to have lifted the publisher's blurb directly from Amazon. They routinely snag the best bits of Amazon reviews, as far as I can tell.
Maybe Penguin knows why there are two covers for the same e-book.

Now, this sort of piracy carried out by a foreign (probably British) pirate, using a foreign site (Filesonic) is, in my opinion, exactly the sort of freetardy that SOPA ought to slow down. The rival plans simply won't work. If an author finds her new release being published and distributed globally as a "freebie" by pirates four days before the official launch day, she might reasonably wish for her DMCA notice to be respected a day or so after sending it.

Waiting up to eighteen months for a take down is going to ruin careers... not to mention the fact that the Issa/Wyden scheme would impose Government fees on the wronged author, and would require her to stop writing and go to Washington to file documents and employ lawyers.

(I have no right to assume anything on behalf of Ms Cornwell or her publisher. My comments are my own opinions based on two emails sent to me, each offering me access to her latest book.)

Google, EFF, and other tech companies that make a great deal of money from monetizing and promoting websites without regard for whether or not the attractions on those sites are being distributed legally. SOPA would presumably encourage companies to be a bit more socially responsible.

Meanwhile, the Press appears to be assisting the tech companies by writing sensational and misleading pieces as if they are news. In my opinion, one can simplify something to such an extent that it is a misrepresentation.

"Hollywood" suggests that only the powerful movie business has a problem with piracy. Not true. E-Book authors are routinely overlooked and omitted from this debate, yet e-book authors might well be more damaged than most copyright owners by rampant internet piracy which shares hundreds of thousands of illegal copies of e-books via computers, social networking sites, smart phones, and torrents.

Pitting a California Hill against a Californian Valley might tend to distance the issue.
Case in point:

Anti-Piracy Bill Battle: Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley  By: Julia Boorstin




Ms Boorstin suggests that the issue at the heart of the debate is "how much companies should be held accountable for policing pirated material to which they might inadvertently link."

In my experience, when she states "inadvertently" Ms Boorstin is bending over backwards to be charitable.  Lord Nelson "inadvertently" didn't see the signals that he did not want to see. Red flags are ignored today. However, the fact is that SOPA doesn't ask tech companies to "monitor" or "police" or "detect". It asks them to enforce their own published Terms Of Service (that qualify them for Safe Harbour) when an infraction is brought to their attention.

In my opinion, they ought to enforce their own rules.

By presenting the copyright debate as Hollywood vs Silicon Valley, Ms Boorstin manages to remove all human interest from the "story". The piece trivializes the importance of copyright to copyright owners, and the effect of copyright infringement to those who are tempted to assume that everything on the internet is free regardless of wording such as "all rights reserved".

The proposed OPEN, (the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act is worse than what we (authors and small independent actors) have now. It sets up a very expensive process for obtaining a remedy without any guarantee of improved results. There is still no compensation for copyright owners. The abuse continues for longer.  A successful claim would result in a “cease and desist” order from the ITC, a cynical remedy, given that the rogue sites in question have already demonstrated their utter disregard for U.S. law and international norms.

What are Wyden and Issa thinking? Well, there is a video on YouTube to shed light on that. They also shed
light on their true attitude toward Openness and Censorship on the Internet.

Try leaving a comment:



Remember, these Senators are allegedly concerned about "censorship" on the Internet. They oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act because they want to keep the Internet "Open". How "open" is it to delete all dissenting (but civil) comments on a YouTube video?

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

You'd Think EBay Would Smell A Rat

But no...
Do not believe this:
"ALL BOOKS ARE PUBLIC DOMAINED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE GNU AND THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT"


Why doesn't eBay notice this contradictory claim?
"
INCLUDES BEST SELLERS AND LEADING AUTHORS !

EBay obliges would-be sellers to publish lies.... if they are determined to sell ebooks.
Check the contents listed below. You can see that many of the books are most certainly NOT in the public domain. Therefore, if you were to purchase this item (and I do NOT recommend that you do) you will automatically be
an infringer of copyright if you open any of the illegal files... plus, your identity will be known.

Each of these names in the list represents a folder on a CD sold by

TORVALDS
Steven Torver
Avon House, Westminster Road
Cannock
Staffordshire
Staffordshire
WS11 4RB
United Kingdom
Phone: 02476467515
Email: fluffygoose@hotmail.co.uk

This guy, by the way, has had 3 eBay identities, which suggests that eBay is well aware that he is a repeat infringer of copyright, yet, eBay allows him to remain in business.

http://cgi.ebay.com/200000-EBOOKS-Ipod-laptop-Kindle-Ipad-reader-DVD-/110686519556?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19c56e4104

CD 1
Zane Grey
Yvonne Navarro
Yasutaka Tsutsui
william sakespeare
William Mark Simmons
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Harrison Ainsworth
William Golding
William Gibson
William Blatty
Wiliam Golding
Wilbur Smith
WEB Griffin
Walter Scott
Walter M Miller
Walter John Williams
Victor MacClure
Victor Koman
Vernor Vinge
Various CD
V.C Andrews
Ursula K LeGuin
Trudi Canavan
TournamentTactics.pdf
Tony Daniel
Tom Easton
Tom Clancy
Titania Ladley
Tim LaHaye
Thomas More
Thomas Harris
Theodore Sturgeon
The Way To My Dreams.pdf
The secrets of David Blaine revealed pdf
The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks - eBook.pdf
Terry Pratchett
Terry McGarry
Terry Goodkind
Terry Brooks
Teresa Mead
Susan Sizemore
Sun Tzu
Sue Grafton
Steve Senn
Stephen Lawhead
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Ambrose
Stephanie Burke
Stella & Audra Price
Stefan Gagne
Star Wars
Spider Robinson
Star Trek update
Software Project Management For Dummies; Teresa Luckey, Joseph Phillips (Wiley, 2006).pdf
Software Project Management For Dummies Oct 2006.pdf
Snort for Dummies (2004).pdf
Small Business Marketing for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Small Business Financial Management Kit for DUMmIES.pdf
Six Sigma For Dummies-0764567985.pdf
sir arthur conan doyle
Simon R Green
Simon Green
Shiloh Walker
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Sherri L. King
Shelly Laurenston
Service Oriented Architecture for DUMmIES.pdf
Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies Nov 2006.pdf
Secrets To Winning Cash Via Online Poker.pdf
Seasonal Affective Disorder for DUMmIES.pdf
Scotland for DUMmIES 4th.pdf
Scanners for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Sarbanes-Oxley for DUMmIES.pdf
Sarah McCarty
Sarah A. Hoyt
Sara Renike
Sandra Brown
San Francisco For Dummies.pdf
Salesforce com For Dummies.pdf
SalesForce com for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Sailing for DUMmIES 2nd.pdf
Ryu Murakami
Rudyard Kipling
Roger Zelazny
Robin Cook
Roberts, Nora
Robert Silverberg
Robert Sheckley
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Jordan
Robert J Sawyer
Robert E Howard
Robert Asprin
Robert Adams
Robert A Heinlein
Rob Swigart
Roald Dahl
Rick Cook
Richelle Mead
Richard Preston
Richard Matheson
Richard Adams
Rhyannon Byrd & Madison Hayes
Rene Lyons
Rebecca York
Raymond E Feist
Ray Bradbury
Random Books
Rachel Caine
R.A Salvatore
R A Lafferty
Poker Brain - Texas Holdem Winning Strategy ebook.pdf
Piers Anthony
philippa gregory
Philip K Dick
Philip Jose Farmer
Peter Robinson
Peter F Hamilton
Peter Benchley
Perry Rhodan
Paulo Coelho
Patrick Tilley
Patrick O'Brian
Pat Cadigan
Palm Pilot Files
P G Wodehouse
Oscar Wilde
Orson Scott Card
Octavia Butler
O'Brian, Patrick
Norman Spinrad
Nora Roberts
Nina Osier
Nicholas Sparks
Niccolo Machiavelli
Neal Stephenson
Neal Gaiman
Nancy Friday
Mike Resnick
Michelle Miles
Michele Bardsley
Michael Moore
Michael Crichton
Michael A Burstein
Mercedes Lackey
McGraw.Hill.Make.Yourself.A.Millionaire.eBook-LiB.pdf
McGraw Hill - Negotiating Skills for Managers Ebook-fly.pdf
Mary Kirchoff
Mary Janice Davidson
Mary A. DeCarlo
Martin Amis
Martha C Sammons
Marquis de Sade
Mark Twain
Mark Bowden
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Chesney
Marianne LaCroix
Margaret Weis
Margaret Atwood
Mandy M. Roth
Madonna
Lynsay Sands
Ludlum, Robert
Lucy Monroe
Louise Muhlbach
Louisa May Alcott
Lorie O Clare
Lord Dunsany
Lora Leigh
Loius L'Amour
Lloyd Alexander
Lina Gardiner
Lin Carter
Lillian Jackson Braun
Lilith Saintcrow
Lewis Carroll
Leo Tolstoy
Lemony Snicket
Lee Child
Laurell K. Hamilton
Larry Niven
L.A. Banks
L. Frank Baum
L Sprague De Camp
L Ron Hubbard
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Mahr
Kresley Cole
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Harrison
Keri Arthur
Kenneth Robeson
Ken Follett copy
Ken Follett
Kelley Armstrong
Keith Laumer
Keith Brooke
Katie MacAlister
Kathy Love
Katherine MacLean
Katherine Kurtz
Kate Novak
Kate Elliott
Kate Chopin
Karen Chance
K. Allen Cross
Julie Garwood
jules verne
Jude Deveraux
JRR Tolkien
Jospeh Altheler
Jory Strong
Jonathon Kellerman
John Wyndham
John Varley
John Norman
John Milton
John Lennon
John LaCarre
John Grisham
John E Stith
John Cleland
John Brunner
Joe Haldeman
Joe Gores
Jim Theis
Jim Butcher
Jet Mykles
Jerry Oltion
Jerry Davis
Jerry Ahern
Jerome Bigge
Jeffery Deaver
Jeff Howell
Jean Auel
Janet Evanovich
Jane S Fancher
Jane Austen
James Schmitz
James Patterson
James P Hogan
James Oliver Curwood
James Matthew Barrie
James Hogan
James Gunn
James Ellroy
James Clavell
James Cain
James Blish
James Axler
Jaid Black
Jackie Collins
Jack Williamson
Jack London
Jack L Chalker
jack higgins
Jack Dann
Jaci Burton
J.R.R Tolkien
J.D. Robb
J.D Salinger
J.C. Wilder
J. K. Rowling
J P Kelly
J F Bone
Isaac Asimov
Iris Johansen
Illuminati and the NWO pdf
Ian Rankin 25 pdf
Ian Fleming
Iain Banks 20 pdf
hp lovecraft PDF
Homer
Holy Bible - Old & New Testaments (King James) (ebook).pdf
Henry Miller
Henry James
Hawking, Stephen pdf
Haruki Murakami
Harry Potter
Harry Harrison
Harry Adam Knight
Harold Chester
Harlan Ellison
H.P. Lovecraft - 48 Books & Short Stories [ebook].pdf
H.G Wells
H P Lovecraft
H G Wells 20 pdf
Gustave Flabert
Grimms Fairy Tales
Gregory Benford
Greg Egan
Greg Bear
Gore Vidal
Gordon Dickson
Glen Cook
George R Stewart
George R R Martin
George Orwell
Geoffrey Landis
Gene Wolfe
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fritz Leiber
Frederik Pohl
Frederick Forsyth 9 pdf
Frederick Forsyth
frank herbert
Frank Baum
Edward Bryant
Edgar Wallace
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Allan Poe
eBook_Stephen.Hawking.-.A.Brief.History.Of.Time.pdf
Ebook How to Hypnosis for Beginners.pdf
Ebook - Photo Shop - Teach Yourself Photoshop In 14 Days.pdf
ebook - NLP - Reading womens body language.pdf
eBook - Mythology - Greek Gods.pdf
E. E. Knight
Duncan McGeary
Dragonlance
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Adams
Doris P Buck
Donald E Westlake
Dominiqe Adair
Diane Duane
Deidre Knight
Dean Koontz 108 pdf
David Weber
David Eddings
David Drake
David Bischoff
David Eddings 27 pdf
Dashiel Hammett
Daniel Defoe
Dan Simmons
Dan Brown
Damon Knight
D. H Lawrence
D'Arc Bianca
Cynthia Felice
Cussler, Clive pdf
Cornwell, Bernard pdf
Conspiracy_eBooks_34
Conspiracy eBooks
Connie Willis
Clive Cussler
Clive Barker 22 pdf
Cliffard D Simak
Cliff Notes
Clark Ashton Smith
Chuck Palashniuk
Christine Warren
Christine Feehan
Cheyenne McCray
Chess ebook - Alexander Kotov - Think Like a Grandmaster.pdf
Chaz Brenchley
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Charles L Grant
Charles Dickens
Charles Carr
Charlaine Harris
Chandler, Raymond
Catherine Coulter
Carrie Richerson
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Carol Emshwiller
Carlos Castaneda
Carl Sagan
Carl Hiaason
C.S Lewis
C.J Cherryh
C. L Moore
C J Cherryh
C E Murphy
Bruce Sterling
Brian Plante
Brian Lumley
Brenda W Clough
Brena Williamson
Bram Stoker
Bill O'Reilly
Bernard Cornwell1
Bernard Cornwell
Ben Bova
Barry N Malzberg
Barry Longyear
Baldacci, David
Ayn Rand
Avram Davidson
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur C Clarke
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Anthony Wall
Anthologys (parnormal)
Antholgys (erotica)
Annmarie McKenna
anne rice pdf files
Anne Rice
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Bishope
Angie Sage
Andrew Lang
Andrei Platonov
Andre Norton
Amy Tan
Amanda Quick
Amanda Ashley
Alistair Maclean 25 pdf
Algis Budrys
Alfred Rester
Alexandre Dumas
Bradley Denton
Bob Shaw
Alexander Jablokov
Aldous Huxley
Albert Einstein
Alan Dean Foster
Agatha Christie 98 pdf
Agatha Christie
Aaron Allston
A. E Van Vogt
A Bertram Chandler
[EBOOK] - Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code.pdf
900 disney coloring pages
1111 misc
101 eBay Auction Secrets eBook
1 Isaac Asimov 102 pdf
1 Charlaine Harris
1 Alistair Maclean 25 pdf
Alfred Bester
(ebook.PDF).-.Dan.Brown.-.Digital.Fortress.pdf
(ebook-pdf) Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex.pdf
(ebook-pdf) - Cooking - Recipes - Cook Book - PDF format.pdf
(ebook) (Cooking) A Great Taste.pdf
(Ebook) - Diet Exercise - Martial Arts Pressure Points.pdf
(Ebook Poetry) Antologia - The Complete Corpus Of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.pdf
(business ebook) - eBay Wholesale Sources over 1000.pdf
(Ebook)_US_Army-UFO_Official_Manual.pdf
(ebook) Mathemagic (magic tricks).pdf
(Ebook) - Grammar - The Oxford Guide To English Usage.pdf
Edward Lerner
Evanovich, Janet
(ebook - Electronics) Teach Yourself Electricity & Electronics - Mcgraw Hill.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - The Stand (Unabridged & Illustrated).pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - Insomnia.pdf
Ernest Hemingway
Elaine Cunningham
(Ebook - English) Douglas Adams -The Hitchhiker Trilogy - 5 Books 1 Short Story.pdf
(EBook - PDF - Cooking) The Salsa Book.pdf
(ebook - PDF - Self Help) Harry Lorayne - Super Power Memory.pdf
Frances Hodgson Burnett


CD2
Cooking By The Book.pdf
Crockpot Recipes 1.pdf
Country Cooking.pdf
(Ebook) - Grammar - The Oxford Guide To English Usage.pdf
Korean Food Recipes.pdf
Under the Deodars.epub
dotpoint12.jpg
Dolores Clairborne.pdf
JimWilson
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Vignette (Short Story).doc
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Something Borrowed (Short Story from My Big Fat Supernatural Weddin.doc
An Evening At Gods.pdf
(ebook - PDF - Self Help) Harry Lorayne - Super Power Memory.pdf
674_premium_ebooks
(Ebook)_US_Army-UFO_Official_Manual.pdf
(Ebook Poetry) Antologia - The Complete Corpus Of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.pdf
(EBook - PDF - Cooking) The Salsa Book.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - Insomnia.pdf
(ebook) (Cooking) A Great Taste.pdf
(Ebook) - Diet Exercise - Martial Arts Pressure Points.pdf
(Ebook - English) Douglas Adams -The Hitchhiker Trilogy - 5 Books 1 Short Story.pdf
(ebook - Electronics) Teach Yourself Electricity & Electronics - Mcgraw Hill.pdf
(business ebook) - eBay Wholesale Sources over 1000.pdf
1000 Atkins Diet Recipes.pdf
Physical Map Of The World - Colour - Excellent! - Emap - Ebook.pdf
Pet Sematary.pdf
23_CLASSIC_BOOKS
101_romantic_ideas+bonus_ebooks
patricia cornwell
lover mine
Limits and Renewals.epub
on her majesty's secret service_v1.0.html
pizzarecipe
Sneakers.pdf
Slow Cookin' Secrets.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 1 - Introduction.pdf
For Your Eyes Only.txt
Chocolate Fantasy 20 Recipes.pdf
StopSmokingForever
The Man with the Golden Gun [v1].txt
Party_Games_Ebooks
parkingfines
painttrees
Low-carb Recipe Secrets.pdf
Jamie Oliver - Sainsburys Recipes.pdf
James Bond 007 08.4 Risico by Ian Fleming.txt
Five Part System.doc
Excel 2010 For Dummies.pdf
Actions and Reactions.epub
A Taste Of Vitality.pdf
The Cookin' Cajun.pdf
Jhonathan and the Witches.pdf
Rudyard Kipling - The Two Jungle Books.lit
Robert Ludlum
Riding the Bullet.pdf
Native American Health Recipes.pdf
MySpaceMoneyMachine.pdf
The Very Best Of Emeril.pdf
The Versatile Egg.pdf
Ian Fleming-Live and let die(v 1.0).rtf
H.P. Lovecraft - 48 Books & Short Stories [ebook].pdf
Night Shift - Grey Matter.pdf
Serious Kitchen Play.pdf
Secrets To Winning Cash Via Online Poker.pdf
Secret_Crystals_and_Gemstones_Vol_I_eBook
Seafood Recipes.pdf
James Bond 007 08.3 Quantum Of Solace by Ian Fleming.txt
The Blue Air Compressor.pdf
The Bread Baker Bible.pdf
Indian Recipes 2.pdf
Indian Recipes 1.pdf
Bachman Books 4- Running Man.pdf
Carrie.pdf
Carolinas Country Cooking.pdf
Chess ebook - Alexander Kotov - Think Like a Grandmaster.pdf
Chattery Teeth.pdf
Betty Crocker cooking basics recipes.pdf
Andy McNab
Gifts In A Jar.pdf
Anne McCaffrey
ani3c.gif
Cajun Recipes.pdf
books
The Geezer Cookbook.pdf
The Fifth Quarter.pdf
The Darktower 1 - The Gunslinger.pdf
FM34-54 (Technical Intelligence).pdf
The Essential Guide To Baking.pdf
EbayincomeNow
Ebay_TipsAndTricks
Jack Higgins
J.D. Robb
The Art And Science Of Cooking With Cannabis.pdf
Poker Brain - Texas Holdem Winning Strategy ebook.pdf
Plain Tales from the Hills.epub
McGraw Hill - Negotiating Skills for Managers Ebook-fly.pdf
How To Prepare Delicious Meals On A Budget.pdf
The Leprechaun.pdf
The Jerky Chef.pdf
The Other Side Of The Fog.pdf
J. K. Rowling
In the Key-Chords of Dawn.pdf
goldfinger 1.0.html
God Bless Texas.pdf
Captains Courageous.epub
Top 200 Recipes.pdf
times.jpg
The Cursed Expedition.pdf
The Crate.pdf
Recipes
Healthy, Thrifty Meals.pdf
Ian Fleming - [James Bond 007] - Dr. No (v1.0).html
Interpretation_Of_Dreams_326_Pages
Simon R Green
Guide to Cake Recipes.pdf
Grimms Fairy Tales
Night Shift - Sometimes They Come Back.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 5 - The Library Policeman.pdf
Twilight01-Twilight.pdf
Twilight Series
Granny Whites Bread Recipes.pdf
Gramma.pdf
The Ten O 'Clock People.pdf
The Stranger.pdf
The 1918 Fanny Farmer Cookbook.pdf
system.htm
Prize Winning Recipes.pdf
McGraw.Hill.Make.Yourself.A.Millionaire.eBook-LiB.pdf
googleprofits.pdf
Google-Money-Pro-2a.pdf
booklist.txt
Before The Play (TV Guide).pdf
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - It's My Birthday, Too (Short Story from Many Blood Returns).doc
Cujo.pdf
Crouch End.pdf
Trail Recipes.pdf
(ebook-pdf) Complete Idiots Guide to Amazing Sex.pdf
Fleming - From Russia with Love.txt
International recipes.pdf
Gambling_Systems
g.gif
Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice (v1.0).html
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.pdf
Secret_eBay_Marketing
Night Shift - Quitters.pdf
Night Shift - One For The Road.pdf
GoogleSecrets_TipsTricks.pdf
Twilight03-Eclipse.pdf
Twilight02-New_Moon.pdf
Night Shift - The Man Who Loved Flowers.pdf
Night Shift - The Ledge.pdf
Learn_German
Learn to play Guitar E-book
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Restoration of Faith (Short Story).doc
Four Past Midnight - 4 - The Sun Dog.pdf
!! (ebook PDF) - Stephen King - The Stand (Unabridged & Illustrated).pdf
Potpourri Recipes.pdf
Popsy.pdf
Popcorn 'n More.pdf
Nelson Family Recipe Book.pdf
Fleming, Ian - Live and Let Die.nfo
Bachman Books 3 - THE LONG WALK.pdf
John Grisham
John Gardner - Goldeneye.txt
Ebook How to Hypnosis for Beginners.pdf
Uncle Otto's Truck.pdf
Twilight04-Breaking_Dawn.pdf
Sauces And Marinade Recipes.pdf
Santesson Recipe Collection Swedish Cooking.pdf
Ive Got To Get Away.pdf
Dan Brown
Dale's Recipe Book.pdf
The Mist.pdf
Great Tastes.pdf
The Enlightened Kitchen.pdf
Casino Royale.rtf
Jamie Oliver - The Naked Chef 2.pdf
Ebay_success
Night Shift - The Woman In The Room.pdf
Mathcad Electrical Engineering Library 14.0 Retail
Lunch at the Gotham Cafe.pdf
THE 50+ DISCS
Night Shift - Battleground.pdf
Never Look Behind You.pdf
The Dead Zone.pdf
The Day's Work.epub
Salads Recipes.pdf
Salad Master.pdf
Ian Fleming- The Hildebrand Rarity.rtf
Night Shift - I Am The Doorway.pdf
The Jaunt .pdf
Souffles Recipes.pdf
The Moving Finger.pdf
The Monkey.pdf
Stephen Hawking
Sri Lanka Cooking.pdf
Nona.pdf
The Shining.pdf
The Salsa Book.pdf
Survivor Type.pdf
supermindvolume2.pdf
Night Shift - Children of the Corn.pdf
The Doctor's Case.pdf
The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks - eBook.pdf
Rudyard Kipling.par2
Night Shift - Graveyard Shift.pdf
Night Shift - Foreward.pdf
Head Down.pdf
Skybar.pdf
Skeleton Crew.pdf
Kathy Reichs 11 pdf
KamaSutra
James Patterson
Night Shift - The Lawnmower Man.pdf
The Thing at the Bottom of the Well.pdf
Jeffery Deaver
Jeff Kinney
Rainy Season.pdf
Professional Pizza Guide.pdf
Salad Dressing Recipes.pdf
Thy Servant a dog.epub
Traffics and Discoveries.epub
TournamentTactics.pdf
Italian Recipes.pdf
It.pdf
It Grows on You.pdf
Ice Cream Delights.pdf
Ian Fleming.par2
Chinese Vegetarian Cooking Recipes.pdf
Le Cordon Bleu Recipe - Tarte Aux Pommes Classique.pdf
L.T.'s Theory Of Pets.pdf
eBook - Mythology - Greek Gods.pdf
ebayinfo
The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands.pdf
The Man In The Black Suit.pdf
Know Your Spices.pdf
Kim.epub
Casserole Crazy.pdf
Desserts Of Vitality.pdf
Coleman Family Cookbook.pdf
Clive Cussler
The Reach.pdf
Stephen King - Needful Things.pdf
Stephen King
no risk 100% system.doc
Night Shift - Trucks.pdf
Good Eats, A Treasury of Favorite Recipes.pdf
Arthur C Clarke
Appetizer Recipes.pdf
Ebook - Photo Shop - Teach Yourself Photoshop In 14 Days.pdf
The Oktoberfest Cookbook.pdf
The Naulahka.epub
supermindvolume1.pdf
Sue Grafton
Night Shift - The Mangler.pdf
Lifestyle to Health.pdf
Lifes Handicap.epub
chartup.jpg
AuctionAid
Autopsy Room Four.pdf
AutomatedEbaySales
Home Delivery.pdf
The TommyKnockers.pdf
Google-Money-Pro-2a.doc
The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet.pdf
Pies & Pizzas Recipes.pdf
Four Past Midnight - 2 - The Langoliers.pdf
moonraker v1.0.html
TheFruitMachineCode
The Way To My Dreams.pdf
ebook - NLP - Reading womens body language.pdf
auctionaddesigner
Astrology_And_Tarot
Recipes Tried And True (1894 Cookbook).pdf
Insiders Recipes Master Edition Cookbook.pdf
infostore
The Green Mile.pdf
The Greek Kitchen.pdf
saveyourdrivinglicence
Four Past Midnight - 3 - Secret Window, Secret Garden.pdf
Night Shift - Jerusalems Lot.pdf
Night Shift - I Know What You Need.pdf
Holy Bible - Old & New Testaments (King James) (ebook).pdf
Heavenly Cookies.pdf
South of the Border.pdf
South Beach Diet & Recipes.pdf
1000atkinsdietrecip78
10000 ebooks
ArtofKissing
The Plant (Part 1-5).pdf
The Pacific Islands Cookbook.pdf
Fruit Machine Cheat Book
Japanese Recipes 1.pdf
Janet Evanovich
Now We're Cooking.pdf
Nora Roberts
Excel 2010 For Dummies
eBook_Stephen.Hawking.-.A.Brief.History.Of.Time.pdf
The End of the Whole Mess.pdf
Night Shift - Night Surf.pdf
The House on Maple Street.pdf
The Hardcase Speaks.pdf
Soup Recipes 2.pdf
Soup Recipes 1.pdf
Night Shift - The Last Rung On The Ladder.pdf
Night Shift - The Boogeyman.pdf
Lessons_in_Yoga_118_Pages
LearningFrenchEbook
The Dark Man.pdf
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Heorot (Short Story from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon).doc
Squad D.pdf
Childrens Classi
Betty Crocker Cookie Book Recipes.pdf
Hotel at The end of The Road.pdf
Hosting
The Regulators.pdf
The Reaper's Image.pdf
A Diversity of Creatures.epub
Generations Of Recipes.pdf
game.jpg
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - .vol0+1.PAR2
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - .par2
James Bond 007 08.1 From A View To A Kill by Ian Fleming.txt
Mexican Cooking.pdf
memory
FM34-40-2 (Basic Cryptanalysis).zip
90_day_powerseller_challenge
Thumbs.db
Thinner.pdf
Perdue Chicken Cookbook.pdf
Patrick O'Brian
Catch_Fish_Ebook
cat
Rare - The Road Virus Heads North.pdf
Random Books
Santesson Recipe Collection Aphrodisiac Cooking.pdf
Healthy Low Carb Recipes.pdf
Healthy Gourmet Recipes.pdf
Night Shift - Strawberry Spring.pdf
AutoCAD 2011 FOR DUMmIES by David Byrnes.pdf
A Taste of Italy.pdf
(ebook-pdf) - Cooking - Recipes - Cook Book - PDF format.pdf
Big Wheels A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2).pdf
Beachworld.pdf
BasicHTML
500 Recipes for Bread.pdf
3000 Science Fiction Books
30 Recipes 30 ingredients.pdf
Zucchini Recipes.pdf
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band.pdf
Vegetarian Curry Bible.pdf
Vegetable Recipes.pdf
ebay secrets
Dreamcatcher.pdf
009_78.gif
101 Recipes from God's Garden.pdf
diamonds_are_forever_v1.0.html
Diabetic Recipes.pdf
A Taste of China.pdf
(ebook) Mathemagic (magic tricks).pdf
dog
Crockpot Recipes 2.pdf
30 Minutes Indian Recipes.pdf
The Cat from Hell.pdf
The Essential Seafood.pdf
Cycle of the Werewolf.pdf
website_in_5days
Vintage Posters
write_for_fast_cash
Word Processor of the Gods.pdf
witchcraft_e-books
FM34-60 (CounterIntelligence).zip
Joy Of Canning.pdf
Jonathan Kellerman


SUB FOLDERS... alphabetical, each containing multiple popular authors' folders.


These are the B authors
Bain, David
Baker, Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Elizabeth Bear, Kage & Moorcock, Michael & Vandermeer, Jeff
Baker, Gary
Bova, Ben
Berman, Steve
Blish, James
Baker, Kenneth
Barton, William H_
Bear, Elizabeth
Brown, Simon
Bacigalupi, Paolo
Bredenberg, Jeff
Burstein, Michael A_
Black, Holly
Bear, Greg
Blumlein, Michael
Bertin, Eddy C_
Bryenton, Drew Dale Daniel
Broderick, Damien
Baxter, Stephen
Buettner, Robert
Brennan, Marie
Barron, Laird
Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Brown, Fredric
Bester, Alfred
Bulmer, Kenneth
Bethke, Bruce & Day, Vox
Brackett, Leigh
Brunner, John
Bradbury, Ray
Breton, William
Blaylock, James P_
Buckell, Tobias S_
Buckley, Bob
Brin, David
Bain, Darrell
Burgess, Anthony
Busby, F. M_
Ballard, J.G_
Bein, Steve
Brooks, Terry
Bryant, Edward
Beckett, Chris
Berry, Stephen William
Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Bishop, Michael
Bertel, Erik John
Brotherton, Mike
Baker, Kage
Banks, Iain
Ballantyne, Tony
Braver, Gary
Brad Thor
Brown, Eric
Barton, William
Butcher, Jim
Baker, Scott
Bailey, Dale
Binder, Eando
Burns, Stephen L_
Ballard, J. G_
Ball, Brian
Bruce, Bethke,
Brust, Steven
Banks, Iain M_

These are the C authors

Carpenter, Humphrey
Chase, Robert R_
Chiang, Ted
Clarke, Brian J_
Campbell, Jack
Cole, Everett B_
Cummings, Ray
Cowdrey, Albert E_
Combs, Mike
Collier, John
Cooper, Edmund
Compton, Stoney
Czerneda, Julie
Cornell, Paul
Coppel, Alfred
Cady, Jack
Clarke, Arthur Charles
Carver, Jeffrey A_
Clinton, Jeff
Chandra, C. K_
Carlson, Jeff
Chilson, Rob
Carnell, John
Clough, Brenda W_
Chwedyk, Richard
Chandler, Tony John
Castro, Adam-troy
Corvidae, Elaine
Charnas, Suzy McKee
Clarke, Arthur C. & Lee, Gentry
Clarke, Arthur C_
Clarke, Arthur C. & Ganim, Peter
Coblentz, Stanton A_
Castle, Sarah K_
Cherryh, C. J_
Card, Orson Scott
Chandler, A. Bertram
Chadbourn, Mark
Casil, Amy Sterling

R authors
Reichert, Mickey Zucker
Resnick, Laura
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Rocklynne, Ross
Reeve, Laura E_
Robinson, Spider
Rackham, John
Robinson, Spider Robinson, Jeanne
Roberson, Chris
Roberts, Keith
Rome, David
Robbins, David
Robinson, Frank M_
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn
Rotsler, William
Rudolph, Mark
Reynolds, Alastair
Rucker, Rudy
Resnick, Mike & Robyn, Lezli
Rogers, Bruce Holland
Robertson, R. Garcia y
Rosenblum, Mary
Rich, Harold Thompson
Rickert, M_
Richard Dreyfuss
Resnick, Mike
Riley, David B_
Reed, Robert
Reynolds, Mack

The DVDs include links to pirate sites for bonus reading!

Hidden in the e-book section is a J K Rowling folder.
Harry_Potter_and_the_Half_Blood_Prince.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 3 - Prisoner of Azkaban.pdf
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 2 - The Chamber of Secrets.pdf
3 -Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.pdf
Harry Potter 2 Chamber Of Secrets.pdf
Harry Potter 4 Goblet of Fire - J K Rowling.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 1 - Sorcerer's Stone.pdf
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.pdf
Rowling, J.K - Harry Potter 4 - The Goblet of Fire.pdf
Harry Potter 1 Sorcerer's Stone.pdf

There is a James Patterson folder, too.
The Beach House - James Patterson.lrf
Cross.pdf
The Quickie.pdf
2nd Chance.pdf
Violets Are Blue.pdf
Cross Country.pdf
Thriller_ Stories to Keep You Up All Nig.pdf
Thriller_ Stories to Keep You Up All Nig - James Patterson.lrf
Mary, Mary.pdf
THELAKEHOUSE_JAMES-PATTERSON.pdf
7th Heaven.pdf
The Lake House.pdf
5th Horseman.pdf
The Quickie - James Patterson.lrf
The Lifeguard.pdf
The Jester - James Patterson.lrf
Season Of The Machete - James Patterson.lrf
Kiss The Girls - James Patterson.lrf
Judge & Jury.pdf
4th of July.txt
Sundays at Tiffany's.pdf
Step on a Crack.pdf
The Lake House - James Patterson.lrf
The Jester.pdf
When the Wind Blows - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 4 - The Final Warning - James Patterson.lrf
2nd Chance - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 3 - Saving the World and Other Extreme Sport.pdf
Maximum Ride 3 - Saving the World and Ot - James Patterson.lrf
The Big Bad Wolf - James Patterson.lrf
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson.lrf
The Big Bad Wolf.pdf
Double Cross - James Patterson.lrf
Violets Are Blue - James Patterson.lrf
Mary, Mary - James Patterson.lrf
James Patterson - Mastermind.pdf
The Beach House.pdf
Hide and Seek - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 4 - The Final Warning.pdf
You've been Warned.pdf
When the Wind Blows.pdf
Midnight Club.pdf
Four Blind Mice - James Patterson.lrf
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.pdf
The Fifth Horseman - James Patterson.lrf
Kiss The Girls.pdf
Hide and Seek.pdf
Patterson, James - Hide and Seek.pdf
Roses Are Red - James Patterson.lrf
Step on a Crack - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 5 - Max.pdf
Sail.pdf
Run For Your Life.pdf
See How They Run - James Patterson.lrf
Season Of The Machete.pdf
Cat and Mouse - James Patterson.lrf
Pop Goes The Weasel - James Patterson.lrf
See How They Run.pdf
Honeymoon1.pdf
Honeymoon - James Patterson.lrf
Patterson, James - Honeymoon.pdf
Maximum Ride 2 - School's Out Forever.pdf
Maximum Ride 2 - School's Out Forever - James Patterson.lrf
Maximum Ride 1- The Angel Experiment.pdf
Maximum Ride 1- The Angel Experiment - James Patterson.lrf
1st to Die.pdf
The 6th Target - James Patterson.lrf
Suzannes Diary for Nicholas.pdf
Judge & Jury - James Patterson.lrf
Beach Road - James Patterson.lrf
Roses Are Red.pdf
Cross - James Patterson.lrf
Jack & Jill - James Patterson.lrf
Double Cross.pdf
4th of July - James Patterson.lrf
3rd Degree.pdf
7th Heaven - James Patterson.lrf
Four Blind Mice.pdf
Beach Road.pdf
Cradle and All - James Patterson.lrf
Alex Cross 15  Trial.pdf
Black Friday.pdf
Jack & Jill.pdf
Along Came a Spider.pdf
Cat and Mouse.pdf
London Bridges - James Patterson.lrf
First to Die - James Patterson.lrf
London Bridges.pdf
8th Confession.pdf
list.txt
Cradle and All.pdf
3rd Degree - James Patterson.lrf
Midnight Club - James Patterson.lrf
Pop Goes The Weasel.pdf
4th of July.pdf
6th Target.pdf
Along Came a Spider - James Patterson.lrf

The Twilight series is included several times.... this is because all these various
collections are sold and resold on eBay, I guess.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.pdf
01 - Twilight.pdf
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.epub
03 - Eclipse.epub
01 - Twilight.epub
05 - Midnight Sun.epub
03 - Eclipse.pdf
04 - Breaking Dawn.pdf
04 - Breaking Dawn.epub
02 - New Moon.epub
05 - Midnight Sun.pdf
02 - New Moon.pdf

Why on earth do the Publishers not do something about EBay and PayPal?

By the way, there are at least two auctions going on at the moment, and there have been similar auctions for at least the last month.

110686519556
110677541082
Look out for Private Auctions, also.
Check the "Feedback" for comments from purchasers.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Rant About Copyright Infringement

Currently, I am battling a site that is registered in France, China, and Russia. It is called wiredshelf.com and I understand that not only does it post e-books such as mine to entice booklovers to "subscribe" to a "subscription library" of 100,000 e-books (many of which are being advertised and possibly shared "free" without the consent, permission or compensation to the copyright owners) but it also allegedly abuses any credit card information supplied by would-be subscribers.

Wiredshelf.com looks legitimate. It turns up in searches on Google and Alexa. It is protected by various privacy-protect "fronts".

Wiredshelf is protected by Twitter. Twitter members may boast freely in tweets that they have added or uploaded copyrighted works, and direct all the world to wiredshelf.com. In response, Twitter insists on DMCAs for the copyright owners, takes two or more days about it, will not remove any link except those identified individually by actual copyright owners.

Moreover, Twitter threatens the very authors it is harming with exposure on Chilling Effects, and with lawsuits if they should dare to overstep the bounds.

EBay is awash with DVDs of e-books burned by amateurs and entrepreneurs who seem to believe that they can claim copyright on anything they can snag from a pirate site. EBay raises unbelievable hurdles to authors. Copyright owners must own specific types of accounts, they must be pre-registered, they must have access to faxes and printers... woe betide any copyright owner who happens to be travelling when she hears that her e-books are being illegally auctioned on eBay!

Copyright-infringing vendors keep their good reputations. EBayers who purchase illegal DVDs are not informed that they do not (as they were led to believe in the auctions) own the copyright to bestselling modern novels that they bought on EBay. Therefore, the same copyright infringing collections are sold over and over again in multiple auctions by increasing numbers of eBayers.

The same happens on other internet sites.

My works have been stolen, shared, sold without my permission, scanned, posted in libraries more times than I can count. My copyright has been directly infringed by SONY, AMAZON and indirectly infringed by Plunder, Astatalk, EBay, wiredshelf....

Congress and the Library of Congress must define what is a RED FLAG, and must oblige OSPs that want "Safe Harbor" to pay attention to and investigate warnings and reports from members of the public.



Something must be done to address the all-too-popular misconception that if an e-book is "freely" available on a pirate site or file sharing site, it must necessarily be "in the public domain". If the author is alive, she probably owns that copyright, in which case, no one else may claim copyright over that work.


Just because Google or Adbrite robots place respectable companies' advertisements on a site (for pay) does not confer necessary respectability on that site. It could still be infringing authors' and artists' and musicians; copyright.

Just because a hosting site has wording it its TOS and TOU that deplore and forbid copyright infringement and ostensibly threaten infringers with banning and loss of access does not mean that those sites follow through. It does not mean that sites like FILESONIC aren't paying a cash bounty  for every unwitting illegal downloader who visits their site and steals a "free" movie, game, or e-book, or for every new subscriber who signs up for a paid premium account so that they can download more "freebies" faster, before the greedy publishers and producers find out that their work is being given away free, and send a take down notice.

At the moment, creators cannot afford to sue pirates, and the pirates know it. They post "Guides" to that effect on EBay. Piracy pays, because pirates (and PayPal and Google and the advertisement aggregators) keep making money until the pirates are caught, and when they are caught, they simply have to change an email address and start again.

Sincerely,
Rowena Cherry

Friday, April 15, 2011

Monday, March 07, 2011

Scott Turow On Random House (reposted w. permission)

Random House, the largest trade book publisher in the U.S., announced last week that it is adopting the agency model for selling e-books. For readers and authors concerned about a diverse literary marketplace, this is welcome news, a chance for online bookselling to avoid the winner-take-all trap. Random House's move gives brick-and-mortar bookstores, many of which are now selling e-books but cannot afford to lose money on those sales, a fighting chance in the new print + digital landscape.
 
"Book retailers have faced extraordinary challenges in recent years," said Authors Guild President Scott Turow, "a double whammy of recession and a shift to digital books that had cut many stores out. For anyone who loves bookstores, this is the best news out of the publishing industry in a long time. Random House's move may prove to be a lifeline for some bookstores."  
 
Apple introduced the agency model into bookselling last year when it launched the iPad and the iBookstore. In January 2010, as Steve Jobs was announcing Apple's new device, Amazon controlled an estimated 90% of the U.S. e-book market. The price of entry into that market was steep: Amazon, using the reseller model for e-books, was routinely selling e-books at a substantial loss to build the market and to ward off competitors such as Barnes & Noble, which had just begun selling the Nook. As we described in last month's alert (How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.):  
 
Apple wouldn't sell e-books under the reseller model that Amazon had been using to lock down the market. (Under that model, the publisher sells e-books to a reseller at a discount of about 50%. The reseller can then sell the e-book at any price, constrained only by antitrust law and the reseller's ability to absorb losses.) Instead, Apple would sell e-books under the same "agency model" it used for iPhone apps. Under the agency model, Apple acts as the publisher's agent, selling e-books at the price established by the publisher and taking a 30% commission on each sale. To participate, a publisher would have to agree to a set of ceilings on e-book prices, generally $12.99 or $13.99 for new books. A publisher would also have to agree not to sell to others under more favorable terms.  
 
If the agency model took hold, unfettered discounting of e-books would be out. Amazon would lose its ability to buy market share in a nascent, booming industry.  
 
Macmillan leapt at the agency model, and Amazon fought back. In a dramatic, week-long showdown, Amazon removed the buy buttons from print and digital editions of virtually all of Macmillan's books. Macmillan stood firm, and five of the big six trade publishers (all except Random House) quickly adopted the agency model. The Guild immediately backed the agency model as essential for creating a healthy, diverse e-book retailing environment, even though it would mean lower royalties for many authors in the near term.  
 
Barnes & Noble benefitted more than anyone from publishers' adoption of the agency model. It still had to subsidize sales of many Random House titles to stay in the game with Amazon, but it didn't have to lose money on the sales of other titles. Barnes & Noble's share of the e-book market grew at a pace that surprised everyone in the industry and is now approaching 20%.  
 
The biggest beneficiaries of Random House's shift to the agency model may be independent booksellers, many of which are now selling e-books through an arrangement with Google. While Barnes & Noble could absorb some losses in selling Random House e-books, this was out of the question for most independent booksellers. Many readers will soon be able to support their local booksellers when they buy e-books, without paying a stiff price for their loyalty.
 
"Getting local booksellers into the e-book game is essential," said Mr. Turow. "Equally essential, if e-books are going to help sustain a vibrant literary culture, is restoring the traditional division of proceeds between authors and publishers. Random House and other major publishers have a lot of work to do on that score."
 
 
--------------------------------
Feel free to forward, post, or tweet.  Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/3o9fa

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

About 70 posts into the discussion, the Librarian's true motivation is revealed.
I will say this for her, she is an excellent self-promoter.

Over the long term, I cannot see that her business model is in the public interest.
As Scott Turow pointed out, authors must have a financial incentive to write.

If publishing e-books does not make financial sense, the quality of e-books will
deteriorate, and the field will be left to the vain and to the advertisers.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights | Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

My response to Sarah was:
This is telling, Sarah. Thank you for sharing your true motivation.

"Writing, and giving away my writing, helps others–which is why
I got into libraries in the first place. It also even helps me by raising my profile
and exposure, which leads to other paid engagements (like speaking and training).
This blog, which has always been free and CC-licensed, helped me get more paid gigs
than anything I was ever paid to write and that’s a fact."

For you, writing isn't a career. It is an advertisement for your paid services.

That is all very well, but some authors don't share your desire to make their living
as paid speakers and trainers. They want to write books, and be paid a fairly and
freely negotiated fraction of the price for which each copy of those books is legally sold.

Each copy.

Legally sold.

In pursuit of your own paid career as a speaker and trainer, you arrogate to yourself
the right to demand that authors' private contracts are unilaterally renegotiated
without their consent.

Why should anyone pay to be trained by you, or to hear you speak?
Doesn't knowledge want to be free?
Doesn't everyone in the world have the right to benefit from your wisdom
regardless of their ability to pay for the experience?
Do you allow your audiences to make audio and video recordings of your paid speeches
and training sessions, and to then sell or "share" those recordings of your paid work ...
without paying you?

Possibly, you do. You might consider that great publicity, and for a time it could be.

If Sarah truly and honestly "put her money where her mouth is", she would upload videos and audios of her
paid speeches and training sesssion etc. Free.

Of course, in time, everyone who might have wanted to pay to hear her speak could more conveniently
access a free mp3 (or whatever) from the comfort of their internet connection.

Then, Sarah would be walking a mile in the moccasins of the authors whose works she thinks should
be freely shared and resold.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Illinois legislation impacting Amazon Associates Program? | The Whole Bird Politics

Wow!!!
Who knew that Amazon is an authority on what is unconstitutional ?

Illinois legislation impacting Amazon Associates Program? | The Whole Bird Politics

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:

We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed
an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that,
if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice
but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates.

I am very surprised that a corporation is allowed to stir the pot in this way. My
understanding was that it is constitutional for the individual States to levy taxes
to meet their needs.

I'm also surprised that Amazon affiliates aren't routinely taxed on their income from
sales referrals. Shouldn't there be some kind of tax forms... 1099s??

As I see it, any income paid to affiliates is either taken out of Amazon's cut on sales,
or it is taken out of the publishers' and authors' cut. Since the author does not receive
that amount, the author isn't paying taxes on it.

Someone ought to be paying taxes. I'm with Illinois on this. I think Michigan and Kentucky
and Florida ought to be taxing Amazon affiliates' income, too.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Snarking back at a pirate

 

After two or more years, YAHOO finally, apparently, did the right thing and parted ways with
one of the worst alleged pirates on the internet.

These people make $0.03 (three cents) from every download that they can trick
booklovers, movie-lovers, music-lovers, magazine-lovers etc into illegally downloading. Also,
they tell their audience that they, too, can make money by sharing movies, e-books, music that
they do not own, and that they have downloaded illegally.

They do not tell those innocent persons that the pirates will receive approximately 20% of
the new members' commissions.

Nor do they tell their victims that by illegally downloading copyrighted material, the victims
in theory risk the possibility of prosecution, fines of up to $250,000 per file downloaded, and
up to 5 years in prison.

Okay. There's a slim chance that that would happen. Nevertheless, if you are going to "steal"
("stealing" isn't the legally correct term for infringing copyright) copyrighted material, you
ought to be given the opportunity to make an informed decision whether it is worth it.

The "Free Book Club" was a club that infringed copyright, and encouraged others to do so.
It infringed AMAZON's copyright, by snagging reviews, or substantial portions of AMAZON-owned
reviews from the pages of books that were being legally sold on AMAZON.

It infringed the publishers' copyright by posting copyrighted cover art.

It provided links to a file hosting site, so that members of their club could follow the links
and illegally download copyrighted works that had been illegally uploaded to that site in violation
of the hosting site's terms of use, and the copyright of the true copyright owners.

Make no mistake, just because one person has infringed copyright by uploading an in-copyright
e-book, movie, tune, magazine, etc to a file-hosting site, that does not make a "stolen" work
free and legal for everyone else to "steal".

The work is still under copyright. The right to copy it, and distribute it still belongs to
the author.


Subject: Book Club Newsletter (important, please read)
From: Club Admin

Dear Book Club Members
We have closed the FreeBookClub at Yahoo Groups.
This was due to an argument with Yahoo over our 'absolute' right to inform members of complimentary books etc., and even though we are not the hosts of these giveaways, we do not accept that we should told what we can or cannot say to our membership in an email newsletter. Yahoo has lost the plot!
We are currently looking for a more reliable mailing service, but in the meantime, if you would like to continue to recieve notifications about new giveaways, please join our Google Group, using the form below. Hopefully they better understand our legal rights of free speech!


Regards, Club Admin
The problem, I think, comes with these pirates' misunderstanding of what "free" and "complimentary"
and "giveaway" mean.

A book can be "complimentary" if it is given away by someone with the legal right to give it
away. In the case of most of the works these pirates shared, the copyright owner probably did
not voluntarily give it away. Is it logical that at the same time that "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
and "The Social Network" are on pay-per-view on TV, or even still running in cinemas, is it
reasonable to believe that the film-makers want you to be able to get it free from FILESONIC?

Personally, I wonder about the "free speech" issue. It might be a matter covered by the truth
in advertising laws.

Is there a legal difference between something "stolen" and something "free"?

Where does solicitation to commit a crime begin?

Friday, February 11, 2011

The E-Book Royalty Mess, courtesy of Authors' Guild

The E-Book Royalty Mess: An Interim Fix
 
February 11, 2011. To mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Blackout, Amazon's weeklong shut down of e-commerce for nearly all of Macmillan's titles, we're sending out a series of alerts on the state of e-books, authorship, and publishing. The first installment ("How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.") discussed the outcome, of that battle, which introduced a modicum of competition into the distribution of e-books. The second, ("E-Book Royalty Math: The House Always Wins") took up the long-simmering e-royalty debate, and showed that publishers generally do significantly better on e-book sales than on hardcover sales, while authors always do worse.
 
Today, we look at the implications of that disparity, and suggest an interim solution to minimize the harm to authors.
 
Negotiating a publishing contract is frequently contentious, but authors have long been able to take comfort in this: once the contract is signed, the interests of the author and the publisher are largely aligned. If the publisher works to maximize its revenues, it will necessarily work to maximize the author's royalties. This is the heart of the traditional bargain, whereby the author licenses the publisher long-term, exclusive book rights in the world's largest book market in exchange for an advance and the promise of diligently working to the joint benefit of author and publisher.
 
Now, for the first time, publishers have strong incentives to work against the author's interests.
 
As we discussed in our last alert, authors and publishers have traditionally acted as equal partners, splitting the net proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a fifty-fifty split of proceeds, and the standard hardcover trade book royalty -- 15% of the retail price -- represented half of the net proceeds from selling the book when the standard was established.* But trade book publishers currently offer e-book royalties at precisely half what the terms of a traditional proceeds-sharing arrangement would dictate -- paying just 25% of net income on e-book sales. That's why the shift from hardcover to e-book sales is a win for publishers, a loss for authors.
 
The Pushback
 
The publisher's standard reply to this -- which we heard yet again after last week's alert -- is a muddle, conflating fixed costs with variable costs. Let's address that before we move on.
 
For any book, a publisher has two types of fixed costs: those attributable to the publisher's operations as a whole (office overhead, investments in infrastructure, etc.) and those attributable to the particular work (author's advance, editing, design). The variable costs for the book are the unit costs of production. These costs (print, paper, binding, returns, royalty) tell a publisher how much more it costs to get, say, 10,000 additional hardcover books to stores and sell them. The publisher's gross profit per unit (unit income minus unit costs) is the amount against which the author's royalties are traditionally and properly measured. With this sort of analysis, a publisher can compare the gross profitability per unit of, for example, a hardcover to a trade paperback edition.
 
Investments in technology change nothing. Publishers never argued, for example, that hardcover royalties needed to be cut when they began equipping their editorial and design staffs with expensive (at the time) personal computers, buying pricey computers and software for their designers, tying those computers together with ever-more-powerful Ethernet cables and routers, and hiring support staff to maintain it all. Publishers simply took their share of the gross profits from book sales and applied it to all of their costs, as they always have. What remains after deducting those costs is deemed the publisher's net profit. Similarly, authors take their share of the proceeds of their book sales and apply it to their overhead (food, clothing, shelter, and computer technology) and costs (their labor and out-of-pocket costs to write the manuscript). What remains is the author's net profit.
 
The proper question is this: how much better off is a publisher if it sells a book, print or digital, than it is if it doesn't? That is what we measured. We then compared that to the author's print and digital royalties per book.
 
Publisher's E-Gains + Author's E-Losses = E-Bias
 
Applying standard trade hardcover and e-book terms to Kathryn Stockett's "The Help," David Baldacci's "Hell's Corner," and Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken," we found that publishers do far better by selling e-books than hardcovers (realizing "e-gains" of 27% to 77%), while the authors do much worse (suffering "e-losses" of 17% to 39%). Publishers can't help being influenced by the gains; e-bias will inevitably drive their decisions.
 
Some simplified examples show how e-bias plays out in publishing decisions:
 
1. Promotional Bias. Assume a publisher is contemplating whether to invest a portion of a book's limited marketing budget in stimulating the sale of digital books (paying for featured placement in the Kindle or Nook stores, perhaps) or in encouraging print sales through a promotion at physical bookstores. Either way, the publisher expects the investment to boost sales by 1,000 copies. A sensible publisher would spend the money to promote digital books, pocketing an additional $1,570 to $4,170 on those sales compared to hardcover sales. Such a decision, however, would cost Ms. Stockett, Mr. Baldacci, and Ms. Hillenbrand $1,470, $1,570, and $670, respectively, in royalties.
 
2. Print-Run Bias. E-gains of 27% to 77% become irresistible when a publisher looks at risk-adjusted returns on investment, as any businessperson would. Once a book is typeset for print, the publisher must invest an additional $30,000 to have 10,000 hardcover books ready for sale, using the figures from our prior alert. Once the digital template is created and distributed to the major vendors, on the other hand, there is no additional cost to having the book ready for purchase by an unlimited number of customers. Even the encryption fee (50 cents per book, at most) isn't incurred until the reader purchases the book. In this environment a publisher is nearly certain to keep print runs as short as possible, risking unavailability at bookstores, in order to decrease overall risk and maximize the publisher's return on investment.
 
Publishers, in short, will work to increase e-book sales at the inevitable expense of hardcover sales, tilting more and more purchases toward e-books, and their lower royalties. Publishers, as sensible, profit-maximizing entities, will work against their authors' best interests.
 
An Interim Solution: Negotiate an E-Royalty Floor
 
This won't go on forever. Bargain basement e-royalty rates are largely a result of negotiating indifference. The current industry standards for e-royalties began to gel a decade or so ago, when there was no e-book market to speak of. Authors and agents weren't willing to walk away from publishing contracts over a royalty clause that had little effect on the author's earnings.
 
Once the digital market gets large enough, authors with strong sales records won't put up with this: they'll go where they'll once again be paid as full partners in the exploitation of their creative work. That day is fast approaching, and would probably be here already, were it not for a tripwire in the contracts of thousands of in-print books. That tripwire? If the publisher increases its e-royalty rates for a new book, the e-royalty rates of countless in-print books from that publisher will automatically match the new rate or be subject to renegotiation.
 
So, what's to be done in the meantime? Here's a solution that won't cascade through countless backlist books: soften the e-bias by eliminating the author's e-loss. That is, negotiate for an e-royalty floor tied to the prevailing print book royalty amount.
 
Turning again to our last alert for examples, here are the calculations of e-losses and e-gains without an e-royalty floor:
 
"The Help," by Kathryn Stockett
Author's Standard Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $2.28 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = -39%
Publisher's Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $6.32 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = +33%
 
"Hell's Corner," by David Baldacci
Author's Standard Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $2.63 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = -37%
Publisher's Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $7.37 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = +27%
 
"Unbroken," by Laura Hillenbrand
Author's Standard Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $3.38 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = -17%
Publisher's Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $9.62 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = +77%
 
Here are the calculations with an e-royalty floor:
 
"The Help," by Kathryn Stockett
Author's Adjusted Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $3.75 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = Zero
Publisher's Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $4.85 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = +2%
 
"Hell's Corner," by David Baldacci
Author's Adjusted Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $4.20 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = Zero
Publisher's Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $5.80 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = Zero
 
"Unbroken," by Laura Hillenbrand
Author's Adjusted Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $4.05 e-book.
Author's E-Loss = Zero
Publisher's Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $8.85 e-book.
Publisher's E-Gain = +62%
 
While this wouldn't restore authors to full partnership status in the sale of their work, it would prevent them from being harmed as publishers try to maximize their revenues. This is only an interim solution, however. In the long run, authors will demand to be restored to full partnership, and someone will give them that status.
 
Part 4 of this series will look at online piracy and book publishing.
 
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*A traditional industry rule of thumb was that the price of a hardcover should be five or six times the cost of production. (John P. Dessauer, Book Publishing: What It Is, What It Does. R.R. Bowker 1974, p. 92). To keep the math simple, let's assume that it's priced at five times the cost of production, that there are no returns, and that the bookseller pays the publisher 50% of the list price for the book. Of the 50% the publisher receives, subtract 20% for the cost of production (one-fifth the retail price) and the net proceeds are 30% of the retail list price. Split that in two, and one arrives at the author's standard hardcover royalty, 15% of the retail list price. (A current rule of thumb is that the cost of producing a hardcover is about 15% of the retail price, but the actual costs vary widely.)
 
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Friday, February 04, 2011

From The Authors' Guild

E-Book Royalty Math: The Big Tilt
 
To mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Blackout, Amazon's weeklong shut down of e-commerce for nearly all of Macmillan's titles, we’re sending out a series of alerts this week and next on the state of e-books, authorship, and publishing. The first installment (How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.) discussed the outcome, one year later, of that battle. Today, we look at the e-royalty debate, which has been simmering for a while, but is likely to soon heat up as the e-book market grows. 
 
E-book royalty rates for major trade publishers have coalesced, for the moment, at 25% of the publisher’s receipts. As we’ve pointed out previously, this is contrary to longstanding tradition in trade book publishing, in which authors and publishers effectively split the net proceeds of book sales (that's how the industry arrived at the standard hardcover royalty rate of 15% of  list price). Among the ills of this radical pay cut is the distorting effect it has on publishers’ incentives: publishers generally do significantly better on e-book sales than they do on hardcover sales. Authors, on the other hand, always do worse.
 
How much better for the publisher and how much worse for the author? Here are examples of author’s royalties compared to publisher’s gross profit (income per copy minus expenses per copy), calculated using industry-standard contract terms:  
 
“The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett  
Authors Standard Royalty: $3.75 hardcover; $2.28 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -39% 
Publishers Margin: $4.75 hardcover; $6.32 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +33%
 
“Hell’s Corner,” by David Baldacci 
Author's Standard Royalty: $4.20 hardcover; $2.63 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -37% 
Publishers Margin: $5.80 hardcover; $7.37 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +27%
 
“Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand 
Authors Standard Royalty: $4.05 hardcover; $3.38 e-book. Author’s E-Loss = -17% 
Publishers Margin: $5.45 hardcover; $9.62 e-book. Publisher’s E-Gain = +77%
 
So, everything else being equal, publishers will naturally have a strong bias toward e-book sales. It certainly does wonders for cash flow: not only does the publisher net more, but the reduced royalty means that every time an e-book purchase displaces a hardcover purchase, the odds that the author’s advance will earn out -- and the publisher will have to cut a check for royalties -- diminishes. In more ways than one, the author’s e-loss is the publisher’s e-gain.
 
Inertia, unfortunately, is embedded in the contractual landscape. If the publisher were to offer more equitable e-royalties in new contracts, it would ripple through much of the publisher’s catalog: most major trade publishers have thousands of contracts that require an automatic adjustment or renegotiation of e-book royalties if the publisher starts offering better terms. (Some publishers finesse this issue when they amend older contracts, many of which allow e-royalty rates to quickly escalate to 40% of the publisher’s receipts. Amending old contracts to grant the publisher digital rights doesn’t trigger the automatic adjustment, in the publisher's view.) Given these substantial collateral costs, publishers will continue to strongly resist changes to their e-book royalties for new books.
 
Resistance, in the long run, will be futile. As the e-book market continues to grow, competitive pressures will almost certainly force publishers to share e-book proceeds fairly. Authors with clout simply won’t put up with junior partner status in an increasingly important market. New publishers are already willing to share fairly. Once one of those publishers has the capital to pay even a handful of authors meaningful advances, or a major trade publisher decides to take the plunge, the tipping point will likely be at hand.
 
In the meantime, what’s to be done? We’ll address that in our next installment in this series, on Monday.
 
Our assumptions and calculations for the figures above follow.
 
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Doing the Numbers: Hardcover
 
To keep things as simple as possible, we assumed that for hardcovers: (1) the publisher sells at an average 50% discount to the wholesaler or retailer (2) the royalty rate is 15% of list price (as it is for most hardcover books, after 10,000 units are sold), (3) the average marginal cost to manufacture the book and get it to the store is $3, and (4) the return rate is 25% (a handy number -- if one of four books produced is returned, then the $3 marginal cost of producing the book is spread over three other books, giving us a return cost of $1 per book). We also rounded up retail list price a few pennies to give us easy figures to work with.
 
“The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett has a hardcover retail list price of $25. The standard royalty (15% of list) would be $3.75. The publisher grosses $12.50 per book at a 50% discount. Subtract from that the author's royalty ($3.75), cost of production ($3), and cost of returns ($1), and the publisher nets $4.75 on the sale of a hardcover book.
 
“Hell’s Corner” by David Baldacci, has a retail list price is $28. The standard royalty is $4.20; the publisher's gross is $14. Subtract royalties ($4.20), production and return costs ($4), and the publisher nets $5.80.
 
“Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand has a hardcover list price of $27. Standard royalties are $4.05. The publisher's gross is $13.50. Subtract royalties of $4.05 and production and return costs of $4, and the publisher nets $5.45.
 
Doing the Numbers: E-Book
 
E-book royalty rates are uniform among the major trade publishers, but pricing and discounting formulas fall into two camps: the reseller model favored by Amazon (Random House is the only large trade publisher using this model) and the agency model introduced by Apple a year ago. (See yesterday’s alert for more information on these models.)
 
Under the reseller model, the online bookseller pays 50% of the retail list price of the book to the publisher and sells the book at whatever price the bookseller chooses (for bestsellers, Amazon typically sells Random House e-books at a significant loss). Random House frequently prices the e-book at the same price as the hardcover until a paperback edition is available.
 
Under the agency model, the online bookseller pays 70% of the retail list price of the e-book to the publisher. The bookseller, acting as the publisher’s agent, sells the e-book at the price established by the publisher, but the publisher is constrained by agreement with Apple and others to set a price significantly below that for the hardcover version.
 
The unit costs to the publisher, under either model, are simply the author’s royalty and the encryption fee, for which we’ll use a generous 50 cents per unit.
 
Here’s the math:
 
“The Help” has an e-book list price of $13 and is sold under the agency model. Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, or $9.10. Author's royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.28. Publisher nets $6.32. ($9.10 minus $2.28 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)
 
“Hell’s Corner” is also sold under the agency model at a retail list price of $15 list price. Publisher grosses 70% of retail price, $10.50. Author's royalty is 25% of publisher receipts, or $2.63. Publisher nets $7.37. ($10.50 minus $2.63 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.) 
 
“Unbroken” is sold by Random House under the reseller model at a retail list price of $27. Publisher grosses $13.50 on the sale. Author’s royalty, at 25%, is $3.38. Random House nets $9.62. ($13.50 minus $3.38 royalties and $0.50 encryption fee.)
 
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