Your LuLu Product in Torrent Sites

[VenusSatanas]

I was searching my own name in google the other day..part of what i do in my marketing plan, to check up on rankings..and i find page after page [starting on the FIRST page] of my LuLu video posted at torrent sites. No just one site, but many..and page after page of google listed my lulu DVD video over and over.. With my DVD in my actual storefront listed on page 6...so if customers want to get my video - well they have 6pgs to wade through, offering it for FREE.

is there any guidance or support regarding the illegal downloading of our books and videos at torrent sites? does lulu offer support in this area? What if I need proof that my video is actualy owned by me, will LuLu vouch for this?  Is this why I haven't been making sales like I used to...in the past few months sales have dropped to a dismal number and now I know why. They can get it for free with the click of a mouse.

Any support or guidance in this area is appreaciated. I have a new book due out at the end of this month and i am actually dreading it's release, knowing that i will have to send letter after letter to each torrent site, once one of my 'fans' buys it and scans it to upload it to these torrent sites so that it can be passed out for free. *sigh*

[wolfsinger]

Internet priracy is a serious problem. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any services that Lulu offers regarding assisting with takedown notices. As the copyright holder - you are the one responsible for handling the takedown requests. Do some research on internet priaracy and you should be able to find a sample of the properly worded takedown notice to send to the various sites. If they are on torrent - don't expect them to honot them though.

I have also heard of a company MUSO that is offering a service to authors where they do the searches - notify you, so you can verify that the sire is not authorized to offer the product for download handle the takedown notifications for you.UNfortunately, I don't have a website or the costs immediately available.

[VenusSatanas]

Well LULU should care about things like this.....

For every book, video and other products that are downloaded at torrent sites and other sites for FREE, thats a sale that not only the author looses, its money out of LuLu's pocket.

I would like to think that LuLu's goal is to help us to publish..but let's be honest here. They are in this for the money. Does coca-cola sell their product because people are thirsty?  Does the electric company have their service so that we won't have to sit in the dark? NO. Its all about business. And if LuLu cared about their bottom line, they would do *something* about this, anything...even if that something was providing to us a resource of knowledge that allowed us to spend all of our free time chasing download links on the internet. At least a list of links to resources to help us with copyright, takedown notices, places to search for our products where they are offered for free...nothing.

They don't even provide us with that.

And i know why they dont provide it. They dont want to scare off the new, inexperienced authors with the facts on how crippling and detrimental illegal downloading is to authors on the internet. Its the giant bear in the corner that they would rather admit does not exist.

If they did care about us, as authors, and if they did care about their company's bottom dollar, you better believe they would do something about it, and COULD. But they leave it up to us...to us authors, who for the majority of us, do not know enough about copyright and the publishing industry, to even be able to defend ourselves.

When sites like the pirate bay, allow the hosting of a file that is taken from a book here at LuLu - they are not only ripping the author off, they are also ripping off LuLu.com.

Perhaps hiring an attorney to chase these people off the net is an additional cost that LuLu would rather saddle the authors with, even if it means loosing sales. they know that there will always be one more young, inexperienced and foolish author out there to pump more products into the market to replace the sales that were lost.

So now I have to spend my time providing that resource of information to all of the authors in my storefront. ve researched all the ebook sites, the torrent sites, gathered their information, and i am giving this list to the authors in my storefront. Most of us there work really hard to research the subjects that we write about, our books are non fiction for the most part. I would hate to see any one of them get ripped off the way that i am being ripped off by others out there that think its their right and their duty to take my product, [in part a product of lulu] and give it away for free.

[VenusSatanas]

forgot to mention.... Major publishing houses use lawyers and takedown notices not only for the benefit of their bottom dollar but for the benefit of the author. sometimes, in certain cases, the author does retain the rights of a work that is published through a publishing house....but so that the publishing house continues to make money with that author, they will chase down illegal copies on the internet and have them taken down. They write their letters on behalf of the company and on behalf of the author. They stand up for the authors that they represent. And while LuLu does not represent any of us here, they represent a product that they claim is *quality*. How quality could that product be if they will allow places like the piratebay.com host them at their site for free? Not very quality at all, IMO

[VenusSatanas]

What's going to happen, say, a few year from now, when just about any book, video or digital product available here at lulu, will be available for free at torrent sites?  i hope that LuLu and other companies like them, who want to pretend there is nothing wrong, don't go belly up, when people learn that they can just get whatever they want for free if they just use a search engine to get it. I wonder how many millions of dollars are lost by POD companies, who do nothing to stop the illegal downloading of the products that they sell? Im sure that someone in their boardroom must know...

[Ken Anderson]

What's a Torrent site?

[wolfsinger]

The problem with trying to throw it on Lulu is that Lulu CANNOT legally issue a takedown notice without the authorization of the copyright holder and for people here who are not using Lulu as a publisher (like myself) they are not the copyright holder, nor do they hold any licenses granting them any rights to my products.

If Lulu insistuted something like this and started issuing takedown notices for products they hold no licenses to or are not listed as the publisher of record - they would also face legal action.

At this time, the law requires that the copyright holder or their representative be the one to issue the take down notice.

SFWA got into serious hot water a few years ago for issuing take down notices for authors they do hold licenses to represent, but they didn't research the listings properly and ended up issuing takedown notices that affected other authors like Cory Doctrow - who releases his books under a creative commons license that allows people to share the books.

[wolfsinger]

Torrent (IIRC) is webhosting service that hosting a number of forums, sites and groups that engage in blatant piracy of books, music, movies games, etc.

The set up file sharing and basically are stealing electronic copies of copyrighted material (in most cases) some of the material they share is open license, creative commons, etc. But they steal a large amount of copyright material. It is a serious problem for authors, muscians, etc.

[Ken Anderson]

That't just the way of the world today.

But there are more serious things to worry about.

[wolfsinger]

Theft of intellectual property is a very serious problem.

Sorry - but lost sales can mean food taken off the table for some people.