Blase Eight by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Chapter 8- Pirates
Another hindrance to an indie writer’s money making prospects is called “pirates.” I will refrain from many poor jokes, as the term is a subject of contentious debate among some people who say that they’re not kidding, and I will just say that in any comparison these guys are pain-in-the-ass nickel and dimers. Still, that is sufficient to screw up an indie writer.
I first learned of this phenomenon when I googled my own name and found it all over the web. In some places, like Barnes and Noble or E-Bay it was legitimate as they also sell most any product available on AOS. No problem; a buck less on the royalty, but a sale which would probably not have happened otherwise. Thank you, B&N and E-Bay.
But, by the time I had gotten tired of counting I also found twenty sites, some with titles written in notations which emanate from places where English is not the primary language, on which my books were available for free all the time; in the format of the “buyer’s” choice. I checked one out and downloaded a PDF copy of one of my books. You may have guessed correctly that in that moment it felt as if my stomach had re-located to my right leg. But, I stalwartly pressed on.
The AOS e-book publishing subsidiary; Grand Old Platform (GOP) has a “community” site where writers can ask questions or
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raise issues about the books they have for sale on AOS. After the least bit of fiddling I found that five other people had already asked the question of; “My books are available for free on other sites. What’s going on?” Each received the identical reply of; “We sometimes get hacked and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
I suspected that there was no point in asking the same question after having signed in through their “secure server.”
Instead I did some research. I discovered that none of the pirating free sites had books by James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders or any other traditionally published, best-selling (in its loosest sense) author. They apparently specialized in indie, low selling books.
Now, at times I’ve been called an overly suspicious person and at other times one who has missed the point; but I couldn’t help but think that there was something missing in this story.
There only seemed a few possibilities; 1) The pirates and/or site operators are candidates for the
“dumbest muthas in the world award.”
2) Somehow they have been locked out of top 100 book lists.
3) They take perverse pleasure in giving people what they do not want.
4) The unsupervised GFR librarian toadies had found a way to pick up a few bucks.
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So, I again signed onto GOP through their secure server and asked this question; “Why is it that the books which get hacked and wind up on free pirate sites are always the low selling indie ones? Why aren’t the top sellers hacked?”
A few days passed and I still awaited a response. At the time, I could picture this being shuffled from one “executive”
hand to another at AOS. So I again signed onto GOP using their secure server and sent another message which repeated the first and added; “This is my last attempt to get an answer. I’m disgusted.”
The next morning I found an e-mail from AOS which said;
“The next time you ask a contentious question your community privileges on GOP will be cancelled. The Management.”
When I was able to stop shaking, I signed onto GOP using (Take a wild guess what.) and found that my two questions had been deleted.
So, I did some more research and found that US law is actually on the side of the pirates. Using the legal principle that there is nothing illegal with a person giving a book to a friend, or anyone else for that matter, free of charge, it is perfectly fine for an internet entity to give an e-book away.
At first that sounded to me as if it might be legally insurmountable. Further reflection found a few significant
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dissimilarities in the two cases. The fact that a person can legally give away a book or any other personal property is an event which can only happen once. Yet, a pirated indie e-book may be given away thousands of times. That’s a whopping difference.
In a perhaps arcane addition, which, not having an LLB or more importantly a library of law books, frankly, is a bit over my head. But, logic suggests that it would be reasonable to require someone who is giving away a thing more than one time, which is supposedly protected after having been copyrighted by the creator or those assigned under US copyright law, which the pirate had no part in personally creating, without them having the “inconvenience” of substantiating that those things were legally acquired would be illegal. Note; Don’t bother getting on this possible issue until more immediate ones are solved. That’s much too optimistic; substitute “until more immediate ones have been broached.” As I’ve mentioned I’m not sure of the legalities and precedents involved and the possible issue is tertiary to at least two others more primary. Please refrain from being annoyed with me on this one as it serves as a legal analogy of what is in the second following paragraph.
First, it seems that perspective requires some other factoids here and now, rather than later. An author with a properly copyrighted book can “legally” get their book removed
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from a pirate’s website. Don’t get excited by that. The burden is placed upon the aggrieved party; the supposedly copyright protected author or their assigns, to do the following; 1) Locate the pirating site.
2) Locate the pirating site’s designated complaint manager and send them a request, properly worded, to have their book removed from the site.
3) If one can locate the designated complaint manager of the site, that request must contain volumes of information; such as copyright filing date and approval date; if the latter is still pending an incomplete “request” which obliges no response.
Further, the offended party must supply the ISBN number, which as a matter of fact, all books are not legally required to have; proof of the requestor’s identity, and more. If that laborious process is completed the perps are completely absolved by removing your book from their site; no damages possible. In practice, seasoned writers advise not to even bother with the process, as in practice if one is successful in having their book removed from the known pirate site, the pirates will just make it available on one of their other free pirate websites.
There are further complications if the site is domiciled in a country which does not abide by US copyright law. Of course there are fee collecting services available which purport to manage these considerations.
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In the writing of this book’s parent, so to speak, I originally used the lyrics from a few songs. I had to take them out as I came to discover that if one uses lyrics from a song written after 1922 or 1923, in a book, they could be in some really deep shit. The absurd injustice, as it appeared to me, is that, as opposed to the burdensome and ineffective law which in practice allows anyone to take and distribute without royalty, an author’s written work; that same author faces a possibility of jail time and a fine of $750,000 per occurrence, if and when they quote, even with credit given, more than three words of a song which no one has listened to or purchased in 92 years, even if the owners of the song did not file for copyright protection.
To have chosen the profession of writing is to have chosen to be the kid everyone picks on, beats up, steals money from, and has no protection whatsoever.
As a practical matter, if you choose to remain this degree of masochistic, you are allowed to use titles and names of artists. You can title your book; “Gone with the Wind.” Inside you can write; “Jethro Tull sang ‘Aqualung.’” But if you write more than; “Sitting on a,” you could have more grief than your psychological counsellor knows how to deal with. Note; I am not a lawyer; do not presume to give legal advice; and could be entirely wrong in saying anything I’ve said; including but not limited to, that you could use names without legal consequence.
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It is strongly advised that if your book title is “Casablanca,”
“Game of Thrones,” or anything else previously utilized or if in the interior you are compelled to write that “I have to admit that I’m not feeling my best,” think twice.
Indie writers would do well to spend sufficient time to form a group, take up a collection, and hire a good attorney.
The shit in this chapter has no practical relevance to you as an indie; other than an attempted depiction of another currently insurmountable boundary in the face of every author.
This whole business is moronic, tedious bullshit. It would be more interesting to watch another HBO zombie production; and it would pay just as much.
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