Thank you for posting this, Patrick. Copyright infringement is one of my hot buttons. I blogged about this and linked to you.

-Mel
(BTW--your momma rocks.) :)

There is no excuse for this outright theft of original work. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Those who put copywrighted material on any website other than that which is allowed by law are breaking the law. And those who use the website to read for free what should be purchased are guilty of theft, also.
Hey, anyone ever hear of libraries? That's where I legally read books I can't afford. And I pay hefty taxes for that privilege.
Sherry

Oh, you are so right. Unlike musicians, authors can't sell tickets to concerts. We don't have concerts. People keep pirating books like this, pretty soon, there won't be books. Keep the faith, Patrick, and keep on preaching!

As a published author and as the Editorial Director of a small publishing company, The Fiction Works, I am appalled and enraged at this blatant theft of copyrighted material. Every professional writing and publishing organization needs to come down HARD on these idiots. They are breaking INTERNATIONAL copyright law.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I hope some of the readers of this blog who are quick to criticize copyright will see that there are a lot of honest, hard-working owners of copyrights out there who aren't keen on having their works taken without their say-so.

The interesting thing is that while copyright critics claim they do not support outright piracy and infringement, watch them criticize the efforts of copyright holders and law enforcement to reprimand places like eSnips.com. Even if one legal work is mistakenly taken off the site, you'll get a rollicking anti-copyright mob citing that as reason not to enforce copyrights at all.

I truly DO NOT support this ouright theft, but I wonder, what is the difference between this and what Napster does? Also, If you share a book with someone the author isn't being paid for someone else to read the book either.
Devil's advocate here.

Well, exmerelda, on your first question, if you mean the Napster of 2000, the answer is, not much, but that was ruled illegal by a court and shut down. If you mean the current Napster, everything on that one is legally licensed. I have Napster to Go and put thousands of songs on my MP3 player but artists are compensated out of my $15 subscription, and some artists aren't available for that service by their choice.

The sharing argument comes up a lot. Lending is part of human nature (and is what libraries do) and yes it is possible and legal for a book to be read without an author being paid. I mentioned the first sale doctrine, your scenario is similar. You loan me the book, you no longer have it. You post a book, I download it, we both have it. Also, if you only have one physical book you can only loan it to one person at a time (which is what a library does). If you post it on eSnips, an unlimited number of people can download it. That's a pretty big difference.

Patrick,
thanks for clearing up the Napster issue. I was wondering. But I'm sure the artists aren't getting the same compensation as they would if a fan purchased an entire CD.
The sharing argument is certainly interesting though. I looked at the esnip.com and there are books by Nora Roberts on there, too. Perhaps we should send a link to her and see what she does.
Ez.

As someone who's earned a living writing novels for 25 years, I'm very disturbed by this sort of activity. And confused. Legal issues aside (and boy, are there a LOT of legal issues!), don't these people realize that if writers lose their income, there will be no new books for anyone, even pirates, to read.

And actually, I'd like to find a new word for piracy. Thanks to Johnny Depp, pirates have become cool. How about calling them what they are: thieves.

And thanks, Patrick, for helping spread the word.

I had no idea that this was even happening! My husband laughed and said, of course it's happening, people steal everything! Yet, I'm still shocked! I did a post on this after reading this sending a link to you. I though ranting about it would help, only I'm actually so upset about this I can't even rant.

All the hardwork, struggles and rejection letters :) an author has to go through is worth a sale of a book but it doesn't count for much if they never see a penny from it.

As a struggling writer who is desperately trying to get published (I've only been serious about this for eleven years) its scary to think an apprenticeship this long could all be to no avail if unscrupulous people can simply steal what has taken so long to achieve

A sad indictment of our world today.

I emailed this company earlier today and this is the response I received back from them. Obvious hogwash.

Trista Ann;
We are serving the Lightning Source catalogue in addition to other titles that we have direct rights to distribute. I realize that we do not have a direct agreement with you. Do you have an agreement with Lightning Source? If not, I’ll be happy to take them down. We are not giving away any books, we are simply distributing titles, that sometime have distribution agreements that are diffused by two or three other parties between us and the author. If you are self-published you should know about all of the distribution arrangements, if you are published through a publishing house, check with them to be sure of whether or not your titles are listed in the Lightning Source database. Either way, please let me know and I will act quickly to resolve the issue.
Thank you for taking the time to address this issue.

Yours truly,
Katrina Cardway

I spent several minutes searching one of the tag categories on esnips.com, and found the full versions of these books, with copyright/ publishing details missing.

**Living History, Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster Inc)
**State of Fear, Michael Crichton (Harper Collins)
**The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
**Her Eyewitness, Rita Herron (Mills & Boon)
**The Stand, Stephen King (Doubleday)
**Actionscript for Flash MX The Definitive Guide 2nd Edition, Colin Moock (O'Reilly)
**Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Joanne Kathleen Rowling (Bloomsbury)

I can imagine the usual copyright critics reading this thread and thinking, "but authors don't get paid that much per copy anyways, and it will probably help them sell more books by there being illegal copies out there" or "even if authors don't get paid, they will still write for non-monetary incentives." And then there is the usually Lessigian motto, "but what innovations might not happen if esnips.com must face the costs of legal compliance by clearing copyrights."

Apparently, to these copyright critics who clamor about the "free (ride) culture," anybody matters except the actual creators and producers who bring us culture.

"Do you love free and unauthorized digital content but find you really want books and they're not available on YouTube?"

Actually, I am quite happy to see this happen, because I am hoping that itt will result in:

1. The publishing houses finally taking online distribution seriously. They have basically ignored it and the potential of the online market. On of the problems is that the content was almost always priced way too high. I believe a price point of about 50 cents or so for most books would be right, and what the Publishing houses would lose in price, they would more than make up for in volume.

2. I really, really dislike the quality of books that are made today. The paper, even in hardbacks, is terrible quality wood pulp, and will disintegrate in about 50 to 60 years. My grandfather had a bookstore in the 1930's with many books that were considerably older, and many of those from the 1890's are in better shape than books from the 1950's, which, becaause of the poor quality paper they've been printed on, are quickly disintegrating. My hope is that real books will regain their importance, and due to their lower volume, will be of higher quality. I can see a tiffany wall mart segmentation, with the wal mart being downloads, and the tiffany being books printed on vellum again...

So, here's to high quality books, and cheap downloads....

I am an author, "The Rings of Allah." Posting copyrighted works must be stopped. Perhaps eSnips will respond to requests to remove copyrighted materials from its website, but I doubt it. I suggest starting a PR campaign against the financiers and stockholders. See eSnips’ news release below.

“News Release: Tel Aviv, ISRAEL – October 31, 2006 – eSnips, Ltd., the first one-stop social content sharing site where like-minded members can share any digital content from one central location, today announced that the Company has closed $2 million a Series A funding round with Greylock Partners and Gemini Israel Funds.”

I have sent e-mails to both Greylock and Gemini protesting eSnips. Suggest everyone do the same, and get all your friends and fellow authors to do so. Follow the money, cut off the money. Mention possible class actions lawsuits by copyright owners against eSnips, Greylock and Gemini. Send each an e-mails or fax: pr@greylock.com, daniel@gemini.co.il

Gemini Israel Funds Ltd.
2200 Sandhill Road,
Suite #100
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tel: (650) 561-0706
Fax: (650) 233-7515
Email: daniel@gemini.co.il

Greylock Partners
2929 Campus Drive, Suite 400
San Mateo, CA 94403
650.493.5525 tel
650.493.5575 fax

Greylock Partners
880 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451
781.622.2200 tel
781.622.2300 fax

Spam them until they stop.

I am a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America)and a published author, and I am outraged that copyrighted material is showing up as free downloads. Considering how little money most authors make, and how hard it is to get published by a royalty-paying publisher, posting someone's work for free is a kick in the privates.

And for those who mention file sharing of music, yes, that is the same thing. All of it is *theft*, pure and simple. You like an artist or writer, go buy their stuff, for crying out loud.

Patrick, thank you for your blog post.

Barrie

I'm an author whose work was posted on e-snips. I am a full time writer and the mother of four. My books pay for things like family trips and some luxuries. Think writers make a lot of money? Only 12% make enough to live on and that's not what you would call luxury living.

I am sickened by this. I write to entertain readers and to stroke my muse. Money from writing allows me to keep at it. When people put my stuff out there it's taking from me and my children. Most people laugh it off and share away anyway.

How would they feel if someone broke into their home and stole the food from their fridge. Same damn thing. May karma catch them and have her vicious way. She's a beyotch.

It's so great to hear from all of these writers. I suspect that people who download digital content without paying for it choose not to think about the fact that there were real human beings behind those creations, like the mother of four who wants to be able to take her kids on vacation. Most of us will never be able to write a novel, let alone get one published. But we still enjoy reading them, so we reward with financial compensation those who use their talents to create for us. Seems like a good bargain to me, and it's worked pretty well in capitalist societies for centuries. Long may it continue.

Patrick,

You suggested I comment on this post, but I don't really have anything to add. I agree that people shouldn't be trading pirated copies of books, and that if eSnips is actively and deliberately profiting from such copyright infringement, that they should be held liable. I don't think that describes YouTube, a site that has a lot of legitimate content in addition to some infringing content, and a site that complies promptly with takedown requests as the DMCA requires. But if eSnips is not following those procedures, or if they're actively encouraging or promoting copyright infringement, then they certainly ought to be held responsible under Grokster.

Tim, that you raise the issue of Grokster. I thought you argued that decision is bad for innovation, and that it should be turned-over.

why hasn't anyone organized and filed suit against esnips? they are breaking the law and have the right to be prosecuted for it.

i just don't get it. i see that Writer Beware is already on the case with Victoria Strauss leaving comments on their blog. :) thats outstanding. they are always right on top of it. lets hope there's a way to shut this down.

Noel, when did I say that Grokster should be overturned?

eSnips has been ordered by a US court to turn over the names of some of their "contributors" -- I blogged on it here

http://weblog.ipcentral.info/archives/2007/02/esnips_update_o.html

Well, this time I did mistake your views Tim, it was Mike Masnick who talked about the new precedent in Grokster.

Everyone agrees that uploading entire copyrighted works is wrong.

But that does not mean that we agree in discarding the First Amendment, a la DMCA in our pursuit of stopping illegal uploaders/downloaders, nor does it mean that we are in favor of huge penalties for those who down load, upload.

I should think it should be soemthing akin to a traffic ticket--a minor fine, but frequently caught, the fines could add up rather quickly.

It is interesting that some of the tactics proposed here--a secondary boycott of those providing funding--could be considered "terrorism" under present US law, if they were conducted against "Animal Enterprises"

Are we really that ready to throw away all of our freedoms?

Are we really that ready to throw away all of our freedoms?

You mean freedom to steal at will?

All your comments seem to be pro-theft of IP rather than proposing a realistic solution. To price a book at $.50 is ludicrous. Obviously you don't know anything about how publishing industry works and believe that pricing everything that low is the key solution to dealing with people who don't care about stealing from others. Would you feel so cavalier and uncaring if you were the one being robbed of career and income?

**Are we really that ready to throw away all of our freedoms?**

You mean freedom to steal at will?

All your comments seem to be pro-theft of IP rather than proposing a realistic solution. To price a book at $.50 is ludicrous. Obviously you don't know anything about how publishing industry works and believe that pricing everything that low is the key solution to dealing with people who don't care about stealing from others. Would you feel so cavalier and uncaring if you were the one being robbed of career and income?

I'm both an author and a publisher, and I have to admit I was outraged. I contacted representatives of Lightning Source and asked them point blank about Esnip's assertion that they were using LSI's catalogue. I was told that esnips is in no way affiliated with Lightning Source (LSI).

I have also reported to some of the publishing houses and authors involved, via email, about these violations of copyright. (Bill O'Reilly, Janet Evanovich, Tom Clancy). At a grassroots level, if each of us took the time to dig up a few violations, and sent the links of those violations to the concerned author and/or publishing house, there would have to be at least a few of them who would step on esnips about the thefts.

I am a published author. (Pen name - B. Michelaard) All my published novels are currently out of print, but I am outraged at this theft of copyrighted material. As a libertarian, I'm hesitant to call in Uncle Sam, but this is a clear case of law-breaking. We need a computer expert to find the geographic location where this pirating is being done and a U.S. Marshall to kick in the door.

How frustrating to see this happening. The founder http://www.esnips.com/statments/team.jsp is Yael Elish, and she has a history in Silicon Valley with strategic business development. One would think she had a clue about IP. I encourage anyone to email the crap out of this whole managment team. Maybe you can find their source code and post it on esnips! Wouldn't that be fun.

Thank you--through this, I discovered I was one of the pirated authors. I wouldn't have known without your article. I was so infuriated that I almost yanked everything I have off the net--just a knee-jerk reaction. Thankfully, my book is now down from there and my publisher is aware of the site...but how many more like it are out there?

Thank you, again, for your article.
Yasmine Galenorn

Glad to see this is having some more discussion. I've received some info on other loops (RWA) that are also looking at it. I've even emailed Nora Roberts (my queen) and she and her agent have already been looking into it.
Go Nora!
Ez.

The free downloading of books is too much like common theft and fencing to be defended or tolerated. How would the recipients like it if absolute strangers claimed rights to their salaries earned at honest jobs? That is the same thing. We writers work hard on our stories, often for the love of doing it and little financial reward. This is the equivalent of being robbed.
The site operators will soon be deluged with objections from writers, not only from the U.S. I am a member of Romance Writers Australia; more Aussies than they realise are authors and all of them are up in arms re this situation. They will hear from many more than me. In fact they will find that their unethical and illegal dealings will within a short time be stopped.
Readers who take advantage are equally guilty. One can access books easily at libraries and buy them at second hand shops. (The latter are where the good stuff can be hunted for anyway!)
In indignation, and repeating the opinions of many others.
Monya

Thanks for this discussion. I've checked out esnips and written comments on my blog www.book-concerns.kaios.com (which links to this one) Esnips touts "communities," and just might find that the community of writers and concerned individuals is much bigger. I hope we can be effective.

Kae