Author:
Taxonomy upgrade extras:
I have gotten into the ebook world a bit late (smartphone screens are hard on my older eyes) but I recently loaded Amazon's Kindle app onto my android tablet.
While searching for (ahem) favored types of stories, I found one entitled "Feminized Harem Slave" attributed to one Austin Logan. I downloaded the teaser excerpt only to find that, with the names changed, it is my story "The Sultan's Heir". I know this because ONLY the names have been changed - searching on text strings from my story shoot directly to the same spot in THAT story.
Being an inquisitive soul, I looked at another of 'his' stories, entitled "Virtual Transformation". I read the excerpt and thought I recognized it, too. I did - it is another name-changed ripoff of Karen Elizabeth L.'s classic "The Switch aka Turned into Sue," (posted at Fictionmania and elsewhere) again verified by several text-stream searches and location comparisons. He even copied typo's.
The "author" uploaded all 18 of "his" stories on one day in February of this year. Both my and Karen's stories predate FM, and in fact, mine was written for one of Sapphire's story contests in 1997. I can't prove that, as the domain of the address I submitted it from has been gone for almost 12 years, but I am NOT Karen and I am NOT Austin, and those ARE NOT his stories.
(growl, fume, spit, hackle)
I can't do much about this, but as I never intended or wanted to make any money off my writing, the fact that someone else is ripping people off for something I GAVE THEM FOR FREE just ticks me off!
So, here's what I can do - I'm going to try to write Karen and let her know (anyone got a good email addee for her? Please tell her I'm looking for her, so far without much luck).
I'm telling all of you because if you are thinking about Kindle, download my story (and Karen's for that matter) at Fictionmania for FREE.
If you are an author, particularly one who was around for the Pre-Fictionmania days of Alt.sex.stories (.tg or otherwise), you might want to check Mr. Logan's 'bibliography' on Amazon's Kindle Store, just in case. There are 16 other stories there, and the excerpts read like classic fetish internet/News Group/BBS erotica.
This is the first time I've had something like this happen to one of my stories, and I frankly do not know what to do about it. It's just wrong and I really, really want to bite someone.
warm furry (watch out for incipient claws showing) hugs.
Tiggs
Comments
GRRR
That is plagurizim (or however that is spelt) I believe it is also illegal if you can prove it in court of law.
Get the sob and send them to prison.
At the very least
At the very least, you could contact the people who run the store.
If you know a lawyer, they might be nice enough to write a "cease and desist" letter for you. That way, you don't need to compromise your own anonymity.
A lawyer -- who was a stranger to me -- once offered to write one for me, and did so, without asking a cent.
It doesn't really have any force of law, but it can put the fear of legal consequences into someone.
Kaleigh
Tried to find info
RAMI
I just tried browsing the Amazon site to find a way to bring Plagiarism to someone's attention, but no luck. I tried several searches.
RAMI
Post a review - Make an effective claim
Try notifying the authors to ask them to send Infringement and Digital Millennium Takedown notices to Amazon.
Here's how, according to Amazon.com in the USA:
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
More research
RAMI
I did some more research on my Ipad2. Went to my Kindle App. After opening it, their is an italic i at the bottom right. Click it on. There are several items. One is entitled legal matters. Once you enter there is a whole section for copyright problems. They provide info on who to contact and what to supply. It is quite clear on what to do. It mmay require some work to get them the info proving your ownership, but it can be done.
Rami
RAMI
Go get Him
Tiggs,
Go get him. The stuff you and all the other great authors write are too great to allow him to get away with this.
Rami, great job on research.
As always,
Dru
As always,
Dru
It's also true that Amazon has violated your copyright
If you make an effective claim, which ought to include applying for copyright, you can ask them to disgorge any and all money collected through their sale of your property, and to reveal the true name, address, Taxpayer ID, Bank account (if he opted for direct deposit) and other contact information of the fellow who ripped you off, so you can levy the same claim against him.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Others have mentioned that
Others have mentioned that you can contact Amazon to get your stories pulled. In the meantime, you could post reviews pointing to the original publications.
original file
the properties of most text and data processing files have a created date embedded if you need to prove when you wrote them from an original file I hope you saved.
good luck
Hi Tigger. Regarding your
Hi Tigger.
Regarding your Kindle story theft and proving your authorship of the story. Have you considered looking at your own website, 'Tigger's Scratching Post' for proof of ownership. I have a copy of the story that I downloaded from there on 03/04/2005 and clearly marked at top right of the page is your copyright of 1997. I'm no expert in regard of running a website but surely there must be some record of when the file was uploaded to the site somewhere.
Incidently, love your stories.
Hope this helps.
John.
Nope, not so easy
"But, I am the original author!" (quoth he) "You are the plagiarist! See!"
A number of respondants suggest ways of proving that you are the original author.
If you write your story as HTML, there is no record of the original date written. That's why I always write my originals and save them as RTF. Of course, even so, it is trivial to edit the dates embedded in files such as this if you know how.
File access dates are no good, since the moment you upgrade your hard disk they get over-written.
Printing off a copy and saving it? I do that, but who's to say I didn't print that off yesterday?
Copyright notices are just so much hot air. Anyone who is going to plagiarize is going to change the copyright notice as well, aren't they?
It's a big problem. With good old-fashioned dead-tree works, once they are printed a copy goes off to Library of Congress/British Library/etc which can be used as proof of originality. With messy electrons and stuff the situation is far less clear. I really don't have a good idea how one can absolutely prove I wrote something and someone else didn't.
Penny
The simplest way to prove
The simplest way to prove copyright on a story is to print it out, yes, and then have it notarized with the date. "This story was presented to me in its entirety of eighty five pages, on this date ..."
You can even do it with electronic media. Burn a copy of it on CD. The date is then locked in place and impossible to alter. You can also do a CD, then have the cd notarized. "This cd, of which I have signed my name and the following number, containing.." (or even put in a notarized envelope.
Script writers file a copy with their guild. That's the ONLY useful thing the guild does.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Nope. Not even a CD.
Burning a file to a CD may put the date on the CD, but where does that date come from? It's trivial to alter the date in the computer before you do the burning.
Like I said, electrons are tricky things.
Now notarizing your printout or CD probably works, but costs money, and, unless you are a best-selling author or an academic or such, is going to be a right pain.
Actually, we have a 'guild' here, don't we? Filing with BCTS can prove date of first publication.
Penny
IF it was posted online,
IF it was posted online, archive.org can provide date stamps.
CD's are generally acceptable, because it's not quite that easy. You have to be pretty experienced to manage to fiddle things around that badly. I'm not going to give details on how to do it, but you almost have to start from scratch. (If you want to know, PM me, and I'll give you the basic layout on what you'd have to do to do it)
It's not that expensive to get things notarized. Most of my customers have at least one person who is a notary. Notaries _can_ charge, and they have a charge sheet for the maximum that they can charge ($10 or 15), but most don't bother. Your bank should have a notary, and they tend to do it at no charge as a customer service for those who have accounts.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Swearing
Here in the UK the only equivalent I know to notarization is "swearing", and for that you need a Solicitor (Attorney) who moreover has to have whatever piece of paper it is that makes her/him a "Commissioner of Oaths".
In practice you Swear An Oath (much as you would as a Court witness) that the document is "true". Then it is signed by the Commissioner and large amounts of money change hands. I haven't done one in 40 years (it actually was 1971) but the fee then was ten guineas. That's £10.50 then, or about £115/$172 in today's money. I think it is significantly less than that today, but still a lot more than $10-$15.
A cheaper (but less watertight) method is to send yourself a copy, in a well- (and visibly-)sealed envelope, using certified mail. Keep the proofs of mailing and delivery. Don't open it! If the need arises, then open it in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths and swear it. That way you only swear what you need.
a real bad deal
My thought is that you should send an email to Amazon via their "contact us" button. I know you have some problems proving your original authorship of the stories you pointed out, but I am sure you can get corroboration of your claims from other members. Someone who posted a coment here saifdhe read these stories from way back - he can vouch for you (if he wants to, of course). Or like it was suggested, post a review... You can also suggest that Amazon should contact Karen as well. Whether or not something comes of this is a different matter, but if nothing happens, at least you passed the ball to Amazon and they can take it from there, and you can say to yourself you've done what you can.
I have read a few of your stories, but not these particuar ones so I cannot help much, whether to vouch for you or whatever.
But if you are telling the truth (no offense, of course - just trying to be factual), it would surely be a great thing for this "Austin Logan" to be taken down. There have been some posts here about some people plagiarizing other people's stuff in this community, but it's mostly been clumsy efforts to lay claim to others' work since they repub them in the community, too. It's very naive of them to assume that they won't get caught. It's like stealing from your family and pawning it off on your family, too - like stealing something from your brother and selling it to your sister.
But what this Austin person has supposedly done (again, no offense meant - just trying to be factual) has put this on a different, higher level. It's somewhat naive of "Austin" to have assumed he will not be found out, but if he knew that he would likely be found out and did it anyway coz he did some research and he knows it'll be difficult to prove he doesn't own the story... Well, it's like he's doing it while thumbing his nose at you and this entire community... It would really be nice if he's taken down. If he really did steal your stories, that is. (again, no offense...)
For Bobbie's stories -Â
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
FM has your story listed as
FM has your story listed as added 04/03/98 which shows it is over 13 yrs old. That might help w/ proof of it being yours.
Register Your Copyright
It costs US$35 for electronic filing in the USA and you can register "Writings by (Your Name)" as one bundle, so you don't have to spend extra for multiple registrations. Just do one a year, or every few years. If your work is registered, you have a copyright claim which you might, with a little effort, turn into a lawyer's letter and a claim for statutory damages. In any case, you can send a "Digital Millennium Copyright Act Takedown Notice" for free. You can find samples all over the Web. Amazon should respond very promptly.
US Copyright Office
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
There ARE ways...
There ARE ways to embed a legally recognizeable digital signature that makes the document frozen in time that can't be tricked. (Using an external public certificate, etc.) It's not cheep!
Anne
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)
...is free and creates a digitally-signed document with timestamp that would be very difficult to forge without access to NSA-style processor farms.
http://www.labnet.com/irg/PGP1.HTM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
The best solution, however, is to copyright one's words with the US Copyright office. If one sends off a batch a year, that's only thirty-five dollars a year, a tad less than three dollars a month on average. There are few vices which can be indulged in nearly as inexpensively.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style