Piracy: An Author's Guide

I love pirates, so long as you have incredible wit  charm, solid heart, and good looks like this guy:

But the truth of the matter, on the internet, it's this immoral asshole manhandling your precious:

As an author and victim of cyber pirates, I've put together a list of things authors can do to protect themselves and their work.

1) Register your Copyright: You've written your book, you've self-published or published with your publisher, which gives you the author the copyright of your manuscript. However, registering with the Library of Congress gives you that special piece of paper and assurance that yes, you've proven that your words are your own, and no one can take them from you. This certification can be used to not only help you remove your illegally placed words, but also seek litigation. 

2) Search Regularly: You won't ever know if your work has been pirated unless you check or come across it by accident. Using multiple web browsers, search for your name, your book name, and key words like "free" and "free download". This should be done on a regular basis as pirates are asshats; they'll put up multiple pages and/or new pages with your work again as soon as they're reported.

3) Who's Your Pirate?: Before you can get your illegally infringed upon work off the internet, you have to know who to contact. Sometimes a pirate will use Google Sites or to put your books up for download. If this is the case, you click the "report this page" feature at the bottom of the page and fill out their form. They're very good about resolving the issue quickly. But sometimes you can't tell who to contact just by looking at a webpage. A simple WHOIS search will give you basic information on where to start.

To perform a whois search, plug the domain name into a whois search engine like https://who.is or whois.net. You'll get a score of information related to the domain in question. Many pirates hide behind privacy companies like Privacy Guardian, designed to protect user information. This is not helpful. You may have to contact a web hosting provider for the infringing URL in order to have action taken. You can discover who the hosting provider of a website is by doing a web hoster search at a website such as https://www.webhostinghero.com. Go to the hoster's page, report abuse, and wait for a response. 

4) Send a DMCA takedown notice: A DMCA stands for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You can read about it here on Wikipedia. Basically, this is the official letter you send to pirates/the web hoster/the domain provider/the individual/when you hit the "report this page" button. Make sure it has all the important pieces, which looks something like this:

Attn: Abuse/Legal Department;

This communication serves as a statement that:

1. I am the exclusive rights holder for titles [listed below] of copyrighted material being infringed upon;

    A) (your book title, name/pen name, copyright date, publisher)

2. These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s): [URLs of infringing material];

  A) (list URLs of books)

  

3. I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law;

4. Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;

5. I may be contacted by the following methods:

(Your email--I would not give pirates or anyone your personal phone # or address)

(Your publisher's email, phone #, address if you're traditionally published)

I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.

Electronic Signature: (Your name)

Copyright Agent

5) Seek Legal Help: This is a last resort, but as an author, you have every right to sue. Of course, actually finding the physical pirate's name/address/etc. behind a site might take some upfront cash and time. Google, Amazon, domain providers, and web hosting companies are not going to hand out infringing user data without a court order. But in the long run, if you have a serious problem, and the other methods listed above do not help, you have this to look forward to:

According to Purdue University: 

Copyright infringement is the act of violating any of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights granted by the federal Copyright Act. There are three elements that must be in place in order for the infringement to occur.

1) The copyright holder must have a valid copyright.
2) The person who is allegedly infringing must have access to the copyrighted work.
3) The duplication of the copyrighted work must be outside the exceptions.

The legal penalties for copyright infringement are:

1) Infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits.
2) The law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed.
3) Infringer pays for all attorneys fees and court costs.
4) The Court can issue an injunction to stop the infringing acts.
5) The Court can impound the illegal works.
6) The infringer can go to jail.

Keep in mind that not only the pirate, but also each individual who downloaded your work illegally, is subject to being sued! Contact a Copyright/Trademark law firm, or search online for intellectual property lawyers in your area. This may take some research as most firms represent large businesses rather than individuals. 

6) Be Careful with Freebies: I've noticed a direct correlation between the books I find most commonly pirated online and those I've given out for free as part of a contest or promotion. It's easier for a pirate to abuse your work if they already have a nice pretty file they can upload that they've won for free. Once it's on the internet, others are going to download and exploit you as well. But don't lose hope; be diligent and stay strong.