All auction sites ought to make it compulsory to check here

Here is a fantastic site that allows you to input a title and discover if the work is really in the public domain or not.

http://www.publicdomainworks.net/

EBay doesn't think 7000 copyright violations is repetitive enough

This auction was allowed to continue and to be re-posted in another area.

Dear jamesdezi06, Are you saying that Twilight, and the works of Mary Janice Davidson etc are in the public domain? You obviously do not understand what PUBLIC DOMAIN means. For a book to be in the public domain, the author must have been deceased for 70 years. I do not think this is the case with Stephanie Meyers or Mary Janice Davidson. The truth is, you are selling pirated copies of in-copyright, in-print works, and you could be jailed for 5 years and fined $250,000 PER BOOK. - rowenacherry

                   

VAMPIRE PDF EBOOK LOT!!!! OVER 7000 BOOKS! Item Id: 220715354392 End time: Jan-24-11 16:09:09 PST

Here's EBay's response to my complaint.

We'll review what you've reported for violations of our digitally
delivered goods policy. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

We'll review the listing or post carefully. If we determine that it
violates eBay policy, we may:
-- send the seller a warning
-- remove the listing
-- limit the seller's buying and selling privileges

We usually won't suspend a seller's account unless the seller has
violated our policies multiple times. To protect the privacy of our
members, we don't share what actions we choose to take.

For more information about our digitally delivered goods policy, please
visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html

7000 instances, selling 10 copies or more, permitted to change EBay user name, and to re-list.... Yep, this surely isn't a multiple violation.

Meanwhile, I don't write Vampire books, my works are copyrighted to myself, I have done everything EBay suggests is wise, I have a user page that points out that anyone selling e-books by me is infringing my copyright....

http://myworld.ebay.com/rowenacherry

All About Me

What everyone should know about me

I'm an author of racy, wildly entertaining, futuristic romance (according to one reviewer). I am also a One Voice member of the copyright alliance, and an EPIC Award winning Friend of ePublishing

Things I sell

I retain the copyright and all electronic rights to all my novels. From time to time, I might offer the e-version of Forced Mate. I'm the only legal seller on EBay of Forced Mate as an e-book. My books are NOT in the public domain.

Things I collect

I collect chess sets.

Languages spoken:

English, German

Yet, EBay protects the EBayers who say that they own the copyright to my books, say that they have the right to sell my books, say that my books are "in the public domain".

EBay doesn't think 7000 copyright violations is repetitive enough

Piracy is rampant on EBay, and EBay does not provide authors with any way to contradict EBay pirates who falsely claim that they own the copyright to named authors' e-books, or who claim that named authors works are "in the public domain".

Dear 2972sunshine, Please will you tell me some of the current well known authors whose public domain Romance/Paranormal/science fiction romance books you have. - rowenacherry

                   

                   

               

               

                   

2200+ PARANORMAL/VAMPIRE ROMANCE EBOOKS ON CD Item Id: 130465302667 End time: Dec-19-10 14:18:04 PST

"2972sunshine (39)

100.0% Positive Feedback

Member since Oct-22-06 in United States

Location: MD, United States

                  

Dear rowenacherry,

lara Adrian, Sherrilyn Kennyon, J.R. Ward are some of the authors. I just relisted this item. thanks for your interest.

- 2972sunshine

   

Click "respond" to reply through Messages, or go to your email to reply

Respond""

German Court Upholds Fines Against Rapidshare For Violating Injunction -- HAMBURG, Germany, Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

German Court Upholds Fines Against Rapidshare For Violating Injunction -- HAMBURG, Germany, Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

Safe Harbor and OCILLA

Context

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users."


The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is United States federal law that creates a conditional safe harbor for online service providers (OSPs, including Internet service providers) and other Internet intermediaries by shielding them for their own acts of direct copyright infringement (when they make unauthorized copies) as well as shielding them from potential secondary liability for the infringing acts of others. OCILLA was passed as a part of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and is sometimes referred to as the "Safe Harbor" provision or as "DMCA 512" because it added Section 512 to Title 17 of the United States Code. By exempting Internet intermediaries from copyright infringement liability provided they follow certain rules, OCILLA attempts to strike a balance between the competing interests of copyright owners and digital users.

.....First, the OSP must “adopt and reasonably implement a policy”^[2] of addressing and terminating accounts of users who are found to be “repeat infringers.”^[2] Second, the OSP must accommodate and not interfere with “standard technical measures.”^[3] OSPs may qualify for one or more of the Section 512 safe harbors under § 512(a)-(d), for immunity from copyright liability stemming from: transmitting ^[4], caching ^[5], storing ^[6], or linking ^[7] to infringing material. An OSP who complies with the requirements for a given safe harbor is not liable for money damages, but may still be ordered by a court to perform specific actions such as disabling access to infringing material.

 Section 512(c) applies to OSPs that store infringing material. In addition to the two general requirements that OSPs comply with standard technical measures and remove repeat infringers, § 512(c) also requires that the OSP: 1) not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, 2) not be aware of the presence of infringing material or know any facts or circumstances that would make infringing material apparent, and 3) upon receiving notice from copyright owners or their agents, act expeditiously to remove the purported infringing material.

Astatalk Does So Host Copyrighted Material

In fact, Astatalk is hosting a copyrighted image taken without my permission from my website.

http://astatalk.com/release/9675/1/Rowena_Cherry_-_Mating_Net/

That is my cover.
I paid for the photograph.
I paid for the creation of the chess piece and the photoshopping and the font.

The purple drop shadow effect is from my website background.

Now, I could try to file a report. Astatalk, to its credit, does offer a form:

Copyright infringement


To file a copyright infringement notification with us, you will need to send a written communication to us with all of the following information in it:

• your statement telling us that you have found data on our site which you believe infringes your copyrights, or any other right;
• detailed information about your (copy)right;
• the title of the content concerned and the full URL for its page;
• a detailed explanation about how the content infringes your (copy)right;
• your contact information, so that we can get in touch with you (email address is preferred)

We reserve the right to ignore your complaint, if you provide us with insufficient information.

However, I'm not at all convinced that I want to provide all my information to  Astatalk.

YAHOO and the copyright Catch 22

Beleaguered authors have a right to expect some protection under the law, but this is difficult when the largest OSPs appear to have no interest in proactively enforcing their own Terms Of Service.

While persons have a right to privacy while going about their honest business, should lawbreakers have more rights than their victims?

If a thief posts a public message all but announcing that they are breaking the law, ought their host read the message (if it is brought to the host's attention) and review the activity?

How are authors to be expected to "evaluate the use" and file a DMCA notice, when Yahoo permits Yahoogroups to refuse memberships to authors, and to conceal which copyrighted works are being shared?

-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo! Copyright
To: Rowena Cherry
Sent: Wed, Oct 20, 2010 11:29 am
Subject: Re: Other Abuse (Not Listed) (KMM103456573V88543L0KM)

Hello, 

Yahoo! asks that anyone who detects what appears to be a copyright 
violation on the Yahoo! network to report the violation to those persons
who can claim rights in the work rather than to Yahoo!. In this way, the
rightful persons can evaluate the use and determine whether to assert a 
claim against the poster of the content and alert Yahoo! of the 
infringement.

We encourage you to review the Yahoo! Copyright/IP Policy at:

   http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html

Regards,

Copyright/IP Agent, Yahoo! Inc. 
copyright@yahoo-inc.com
****************************
c/o Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94089



Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

>>REDFRMADV Case ID: 76709265 Groups Abuse General Notes: 

>>REDFRMADV Case ID: 76699654 Abuse Reports Notes: 

Mail-Id: 
w1.help.re1.yahoo.com-/l/us/yahoo/abuse/abuse.html-1287485565-9674

1.  What is your name and Yahoo! ID?
------------------------------------
      Name: 

      Yahoo! ID: XXXXXX
2.  What is your email address?
-------------------------------
      Email Address: XXXXXXX

3.  Who are you reporting?
--------------------------
      Yahoo! ID: xxxxxxxx

4.  What are you writing about?
-------------------------------
      Subject: Other Abuse (Not Listed)

5.  Enter additional information here:
--------------------------------------
      This group sounds like it is set up to infringe copyright.
Authors cannot join, so cannot accumulate the necessary information to 
send a DMCA 

-------------------------------------- 
Come on in to find our what surprises we have for you! Shhhh, it's a
secret!!

You can only join by invitation from one of the members or the owner.

NO going no mail or special notices.

You MUST share to stay in this group, there are NO exceptions.

Saturdays are free, you can share anything.

If you have a problem with what is shared then come to the owner, 
don't bring it to the group.

This is a No drama and No spam zone!!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Disclaimer *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
If you are a member of, or associated with the Artist Protection League 
or any other vigilante copyright group, you must leave this group NOW. 
Also, if you are here to police our sends for copyright purposes, you 
also must leave NOW. If you remain, you are violating our LEGAL rights 
by harassing us. You are also using ENTRAPMENT to gain ILLEGAL 
information about the group or any member thereof. YOU CAN BE SUED FOR 
THESE ACTIONS. This is a private email and is covered by TITLE 18, PART 
I, CHAPTER 47, Sec. 1030 and Internet Privacy Law.

While Viewing: 

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Form Name: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/abuse/abuse.html