Rowena Cherry is the author of humorous, snarky futuristic romances not set in the future. In this blog, Rowena shares her perspective on copyright infringement and how she handles the illegal file-sharing of her books. Yesterday she spoke about her daily habits, artistic influences, and decisions regarding reader expectation. Visit www.rowenacherry.com for more information about her and her work.

Has anyone tried to take credit for the books or pieces of the books you’ve written? How did that make you feel? What did that experience teach you?

Not to my knowledge. Ideas, plots, and titles cannot be copyrighted, and it is inevitable that “great minds will think alike” and that the same current events will inspire several of us to write similar stories.

It is a little bit disappointing to write something you think is going to be entirely unique and different –such as a virgin hero being kidnapped by someone in need of a sperm donor— only to find that eight other authors are doing the same thing.

What I’ve learned is that it’s smart to team up with those colleagues and make a mini genre out of it. Share a blog. Promote each other. Build on what you have in common. No author can write as fast as a reader can read!

You have found a lot of your books online – often for free – and in places where you haven’t authorized distribution. What do you do in these situations? Do you have any advice for other authors who encounter similar situations?

Two. I’ve been relatively fortunate. Only the electronic version of “Forced Mate” and my short e-book “Mating Net” have been –and continue to be— uploaded illegally on file-”sharing” sites, and also sold on E-Bay.

So, what do I do about it?

My “carrot” response to piracy is to see if it is true that booklovers who file-share would purchase e-books legally if the price were lower.

The electronic version of Forced Mate can be legally purchased at https://www.jexbo.com/items/108 for $2.50

So far, I’ve paid for editing, formatting, cover art (thousands!), an ISBN, copyright registration, legal fees, advertising, and much, much more. It costs me $1 a month to keep a listing on Jexbo, and if I make a sale, Jexbo is entitled to a 5% commission. Also, I shall be responsible for paying sales tax and income tax, for any copies I sell on Jexbo.com.

My “stick” response is to send Take Down Notices to the sites that host illegal downloads of my books, and to complain about lists offering illegal downloads of my books.

Teaming up is far more efficient and effective, and I advise authors to join support groups, and/or inform their editors and agents whenever they hear/see that one of their books is being stolen. Some publishing houses have a member of staff to handle all Take Down Notices.

“Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By” is a good motto for authors. Stay within your comfort level, but if you see a colleague’s book on a pirate site, send her the link to it. If you see a discussion online, politely point out the difference between lending a physical copy of a paperback to a friend (she has it, you don’t) and creating countless duplicates of an e-book.

I also maintain links on my blogs to informative articles about copyright.

The last thing an author wants to do is antagonize his or her readers. Therefore, authors who choose to speak up will adopt different “voices” and approaches depending on the forum.

Brenna Lyons, past and current President of the E.P.I.C. organization, makes use of humor to communicate a serious message in an entertaining manner.

If readers are curious, they may “eavesdrop” on a semi-private conversation between authors on my GoodReads.com group Rowena Cherry answers…. with the topic: “Bombs, Flames, and their effect on authors”.

A lot of policies and regulations are set in Washington, DC that affect creators. What is one thing you would tell someone in Washington that they should know about what it’s like to be a creator?

The lawsuit brought by JK Rowling against Scribd made me, as an author, nervous. The message I received was that an author or copyright holder must strictly assert her rights or risk seeing them eroded. That simply isn’t fair.

An author can send a Take Down Notice to a hosting site where her copyrighted book has been uploaded for “file-sharing”, and maybe the link will be taken down within a few days (and maybe it won’t). Even on the most reputable hosting sites, determined pirates will simply upload the file again. For very clear information on sending DMCA notices to various sites, click here.

Creators cannot concentrate on creating if they have to visit and revisit six or seven of the most notorious hosting sites every day to see if their books are being given away. Moreover, the hosting sites make the complaints process quite difficult and time-consuming for copyright holders…if they have a complaints process.

The onus ought to be on the file-disseminators to prove that they own the rights to what they upload, not the other way around.

Any other thoughts?

Lists of titles are not a copyright infringement. However, some file-sharers upload lists of all the e-books they are willing to “share”. Sometimes the offer is explicit. Sometimes, it is implicit. Such a list is an offer to break the law, or else an incitement to break the law. Any future copyright protection measures ought to consider this issue.

The term file-sharing is unhelpful. “Sharing” has benign connotations. File “sharing” is theft. The government should lead the way in substituting a more accurate and pejorative term.

This would perhaps deter the innocent file-duplicator, who might not realize that her activity is illegal. It might cause the companies who advertise on –and thus support—pirate sites to rethink their product placement strategies.

I am amazed and dismayed that major companies, also religious organizations, and educational bodies give financial support through their paid advertising to host sites that repeatedly fail to comply with the DMCA. Presumably, file-dissemination is popular in part because it is free to the users, but it can only be free to the users if the costs are covered by advertising sponsorship.

I’ve started a blog http://authorsandshareholders.blogspot.com with the hopes that concerned authors and shareholders of various public companies will propose appropriate shareholder motions that at least draw major companies’ attention to the problem.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 10:10 am by copyright and is filed under creators, culture, p2p, piracy, q&a. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.