Intellectual Property Theft

We all know that intellectual property theft is a big problem, but most of us tend to think first of pirated DVD’s and Asia, or most likely China. I don’t know how fair this is, because for all I know it is a global problem which unscrupulous people in every country are willing to profit from.

For example, I have just been made aware of this company that is giving away thousands of books free of charge without the authors’ knowledge or consent. Some of my books are on there and so are books of every author I have contacted too so far. So, if you are a writer, I suggest you get on over there and do a search on your name and book titles.

Where is this company so heavily involved in Intellectual Property Theft? China? Russia? Nigeria? Well, to be honest, I don’t know, but their registered address is in the United States. Why not give them a call and find out what they’re playing at?

Registrant Organization: WHOIS PRIVACY PROTECTION SERVICE, INC.
Registrant Street: PO BOX 639
Registrant Street: C/O GENERAL-EBOOKS.COM
Registrant City: KIRKLAND
Registrant State/Province: WA
Registrant Postal Code: 98083
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4252740657
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4259744730

If you go to their web site and attempt to use their ‘we’re-playing-the-game-gov’ DMCA notice, don’t expect too much, because authors who have tried it, say that it doesn’t work. You could try Google’s DMCA system, but that only delists them from Google, not from all the other search engines, and it certainly doesn’t stop them giving your books away to their thousands of members.

A bit like telling them off by letter – it might make you feel better, but it doesn’t stop the intellectual property theft.

I have had a running problem with Amazon for some time now, because some, up to thirteen different books a month, of my self-help books are being ordered, (copied?), and returned with phenomenal regularity and always a different one (I have 103). I have warned Amazon what I thought was going on – precisely this – but they have never been any help at all.

Until today that is and this is their advice on dealing with intellectual property theft:

The best way to handle with this type of piracy issue is to file a complaint with intellectual property theft agency. In an attempt to help you I browsed the internet and was able to locate few websites which may help you in this regard.

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/intellectual-property-theft/where-to-report-intellectual-property-theft

http://www.fbi.gov/contact-us

Here is Google’s DMCA: https://support.google.com/legal/answer/3110420?rd=2

Yahoo has one too.

So, let’s go on with it, report the Hell out of them and give them a headache they won’t forget.

by +Owen Jones