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Read It On The Internet -- Must Be True
I get them every day -- stories, awards, pleas for signatures on a petition… did you hear the one about the woman who put her poodle in the microwave? People pass them on, cause, you know, you read it on the Internet, it must be true. Right?
Hence the rise of Internet Myth Busters -- snopes.com, the Urban Legends Reference Pages (No poodle in the microwave, sorry. Myth.), and DarwinAwards.com, which does not issues Darwin Awards, but also collects and attempts to debunk the Internet's vast array of Urban Legends.
Here’s another myth that needs debunking: Internet Piracy is impossible to prosecute, and no one really tries.
Wrong.
Yes, it’s difficult, and often cost prohibitive, to track down individual posters of one story. That’s not the way our contacts at the US Border Patrol Division of Cyber Crimes work. Cyber crimes cost US businesses millions of dollars a year -- that makes them worth prosecuting. So our trusty Cyber detectives can and do prosecute individuals, including seizing their computers and levying hefty fines, their major point of focus is the host sites that allow Internet users to illegally share files. If sites continually allow users to post illegal files -- music, books, DVDs, etc. -- investigators may well seize servers and prosecute site owners.
What this means to you as an author: Although it’s frustrating finding your book on a pirated site, it’s not a hopeless situation. Every file sharing host site has instructions on their Contact Us or User Information page on how to report illegally shared files. Read the instructions. Drop the angry retorts and treat the form like it’s a legal document -- it is. File a complaint for every single title you find listed. Host sites WILL pull your files, and, given enough complaints, will ban the posters. Because if they don’t, we forward the information to Cyber Crimes, and they DO prosecute.
But the process starts with you, as an author, filing a complaint -- that's what the part of your contract means when it says you agree to defend your copyright. You own the copyright to your work, and while your publisher can file a complaint as an agent of copyright -- and we do -- nothing’s more convincing to a host site than reports from the copyright owner. Report Cyber Crimes. It’s worth the time. Criminals do face prosecution, both in the US and around the world. Site owners take copyright violations seriously. They’re the ones who risk losing their businesses -- and their freedom.
Take heart. Yes, they really do.
Margaret Riley
Changeling Press LLC
Cyber-enforcer
Hence the rise of Internet Myth Busters -- snopes.com, the Urban Legends Reference Pages (No poodle in the microwave, sorry. Myth.), and DarwinAwards.com, which does not issues Darwin Awards, but also collects and attempts to debunk the Internet's vast array of Urban Legends.
Here’s another myth that needs debunking: Internet Piracy is impossible to prosecute, and no one really tries.
Wrong.
Yes, it’s difficult, and often cost prohibitive, to track down individual posters of one story. That’s not the way our contacts at the US Border Patrol Division of Cyber Crimes work. Cyber crimes cost US businesses millions of dollars a year -- that makes them worth prosecuting. So our trusty Cyber detectives can and do prosecute individuals, including seizing their computers and levying hefty fines, their major point of focus is the host sites that allow Internet users to illegally share files. If sites continually allow users to post illegal files -- music, books, DVDs, etc. -- investigators may well seize servers and prosecute site owners.
What this means to you as an author: Although it’s frustrating finding your book on a pirated site, it’s not a hopeless situation. Every file sharing host site has instructions on their Contact Us or User Information page on how to report illegally shared files. Read the instructions. Drop the angry retorts and treat the form like it’s a legal document -- it is. File a complaint for every single title you find listed. Host sites WILL pull your files, and, given enough complaints, will ban the posters. Because if they don’t, we forward the information to Cyber Crimes, and they DO prosecute.
But the process starts with you, as an author, filing a complaint -- that's what the part of your contract means when it says you agree to defend your copyright. You own the copyright to your work, and while your publisher can file a complaint as an agent of copyright -- and we do -- nothing’s more convincing to a host site than reports from the copyright owner. Report Cyber Crimes. It’s worth the time. Criminals do face prosecution, both in the US and around the world. Site owners take copyright violations seriously. They’re the ones who risk losing their businesses -- and their freedom.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this or any copyrighted work is illegal. File sharing is an International crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Border Patrol, Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by seizure of computers, up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 per reported instance.
Take heart. Yes, they really do.
Margaret Riley
Changeling Press LLC
Cyber-enforcer
