by Susan Santangelo
Greetings from beautiful Cape Cod, where spring has officially arrived at last.
I should be in a good mood. But I'm not.
Why? Because I found out on Friday that the e-book version of my first two Baby Boomer mysteries, Retirement Can be Murder and Moving Can Be Murder, have been pirated on two separate Internet sites. In addition to sending each site an e-mail ordering them to take the books off immediately and threatening legal action, which I did, is there anything else that can be done?
Has this happened to any of you, and if so, what did you do about it?
You're copyrighted by the mere fact of having published it, but for enforcement of the copyright, and to make claims of intentional infringement -- where the big penalties lie -- you need to have filed with the Copyright Office. I'd send the owner a Cease and Desist letter online if that's the only way to contact them, Certified if you can find an address. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, you need to see a lawyer, preferably one with Copyright experience. That would usually be someone who practices Intellectual Property law, such as patents, copyrights and trademarks. I believe Jean had a similar experience and I believe it was resolved to her satisfaction. Suggest you contact her.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ben. I appreciate your help.
ReplyDeleteSusan
Susan, I have no useful knowledge on this topic at all, but I'm sorry this happened to you. Hope Ben and Jean can help you deal with these folks.
ReplyDelete