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Adopting advanced technology, Curtis Agency and E-Reads have teamed up to locate and take down pirated files of their authors’ books.

The system, developed by Muso TNT, protects against files uploaded by pirates to filesharing sites like rapidshare and megaupload.  Files on these websites show up on Google search results and are therefore accessible to users who might otherwise purchase the files through legitimate channels.

The Size of the Problem

Though we have often contended that piracy is the number one threat to the e-book industry (see A Bootleg E-Book Bazaar Operates in Plain Sight), skeptics may not be aware of the extent of the problem. Boasting that “The Internet is the largest copying machine ever invented,” torrentfreak.com this week ranked filesharing sites according to traffic in the month of July 2011. The first figure represents unique monthly visitors, the second monthly pageviews:

1 4shared Cyberlocker 55,000,000/ 2,500,000,000
2 Megaupload Cyberlocker 37,000,000/ 400,000,000
3 Mediafire Cyberlocker 34,000,000 /330,000,000
4 Filestube Meta-search 34,000,000/ 280,000,000
5 Rapidshare Cyberlocker 23,000,000/ 280,000,000
6 The Pirate Bay Torrent index 23,000,000 /650,000,000
7 Fileserve Cyberlocker 19,000,000 /190,000,000
8 Hotfile Cyberlocker 16,000,000 /110,000,000
9 Torrentz.eu Meta-search 15,000,000/ 340,000,000
10 Depositfiles Cyberlocker 14,000,000/ 110,000,000

How Muso TNT Works.

Using the Muso technology, legitimate content providers authorize the antipiracy service to launch search engine “spiders” to crawl over the Internet and detect unauthorized files. A significant feature is that the search criterion is by author, not by title. As the spiders locate pirated files, they store the results on a password-protected login page for review.

Lawful Takedowns

The author, publisher or agent may view the files to confirm that they are not authorized. Then the user clicks authorization for Muso to issue, to fileshare site administrators, batch takedown emails that are preformatted to adhere to Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice and takedown procedures. Within hours the files are taken down automatically. In the event you send a takedown notice for a file to which you do not have the rights, the uploader has 14 days to dispute your action.

Results

We recently tested the program.  “The results exceeded our wildest dreams,” says technical director Anthony Damasco.  “On Friday afternoon we identified some 3500 illegally shared files of titles by our authors and ordered them removed. It took me 45 minutes. By Monday just about every one of them had been taken down.”

The program does not cover every type of piracy but filesharing is one of the most commonplace, widespread and persistent.

The two companies have begun taking down unauthorized files of clients and “We will also extend, at no charge, antipiracy coverage to all new clients of both firms,” said CEO Richard Curtis. Authors, agents and publishers interested in Muso’s services may enroll by signing up below.  Enrollment with Muso is $15.00 per month per author. In the event that more take-downs are needed, Muso offers them at higher rates. Full disclosure: E-Reads receives a modest fee for referrals.

For further information contact Anthony Damasco at anthony@ereads.com or call 212 772 7363.

Click here to enroll with MUSO and start protecting your titles.

Instructions

1. Click signup and create an account

2. Select “Publishing” from the dropdown

3. When asked to create a campaign, enter author’s full name as it appear on his or her books

4. Allow the Muso bots to populate all the pirated files over 24 hours.

5. Login to Muso and start taking files down

For a complete archive of piracy-related postings, visit Pirate Central.

The laws governing copyright infringement are complex, confusing and sometimes contradictory.  Underlying them, however, is a simple concept that anyone in doubt can rely on to keep out of trouble.

But all too many authors and artists waste their money, and that of those they accuse of stealing their work, in lawsuits that ignore the common sense rule that the broader and more general the idea, the harder it is to claim ownership. Conversely, the more specific the expression of that idea, the easier it is to prove plagiarism and similar infringements.

The latest example of this obtuseness is the action brought against photographer Ryan McGinley by one Janine Gordon, who is better known as JahJah. Her photographic stock in trade, writes the New York Times’s Randy Kennedy, is youth culture, including such subjects as “concert mosh pits and bull-riding rings and …glue sniffers in Brazil.”

In his self-defense McGinley said that his pictures and Gordon’s did not “look alike in the slightest.” What she was really complaining about is “the images share the same fundamental idea.” The judge expressed it far more explicitly than McGinley dared: JahJah Gordon’s “apparent theory of infringement would assert copyright interests in virtually any figure with outstretched arms, any interracial kiss, or any nude female torso. Such a conception of copyright law has no basis in statute, case law or common sense.”

Perhaps the most damning evidence was that of the judge’s own eyes: “The dictates of good eyes and common sense lead inexorably to the conclusion that there is no substantial similarity between Plaintiff’s works and the allegedly infringing compositions of McGinley.” (See Copyright Lawsuit Against Ryan McGinley Dismissed by Randy Kennedy.)

So, if you feel your work has been plagiarized, before reaching for your lawyer revisit the common sense guideline laid down by copyright.gov:

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

Richard Curtis

Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook was just welcomed with a goody bag filled with 1 million shares of his company’s stock. That was the easy part. Now he’s going to have to earn it.

But as much as he would like to focus on developing products envisioned by the retiring founder Steve Jobs (who will remain active in the company for as long as he is able), he may first have to shore up the iPad as it comes under fire from rivals seeking a share of Apple’s commanding market for the tablet computer.

In particular Cook will have to deal with Amazon, which is not only developing a tablet of its own but planning to offer it to consumers dirt-cheap.  Amazon has not concealed its strategy of selling its Android-driven gadget at a loss – hundreds of dollars below iPad’s base price of $499 – just to pull the rug out from its competitor, according to Garrett Sloan of the New York Post.

Amazon has a long way to travel to bite into Apple’s 25 million unit lead, but no observer of Amazon would bet against its coming up with a product, a price and a marketing campaign that could close the gap faster than anyone would believe possible. Maybe Jeff Bezos should name the new tablet Orange, to facilitate comparison between Apples and Oranges.

Details in $99 tablets: Price is right

Richard Curtis

Tale of the Tape.

Hurricane Irene passed through New York with less damage than feared, except for the unnerving, incessant torrential downpour beating against apartment windows for eight hours straight.  Some inconvenience but a price most of us were happy to pay given how bad it could have been.  But typical of New Yorkers, a lot of grumbling when the New York Times did not show up on our doorsteps at 6:00 AM, forcing us to read the news on our iPads.

Emergency management in New York City was a model of intergovernment cooperation, municipal, state and federal.  Hats off to Mayor Bloomberg, Whatever one’s politics, we felt ourselves to be in completely confident hands, supported by Governor Cuomo.

We expect public transportation to be restored for business as usual Monday morning.  We can now exhale, and begin emptying our bathtub and dumping buckets with water reserved for emergencies.  We will consume the gourmet K-rations we set aside for power outages – only in New York does one stock up on bagels and lox spread, sushi, and croissants to relieve suffering when trapped in one’s apartment for more than six hours.

There were no broken windows that we heard of, but a number of neighbors disregarded instructions to leave windows untaped. Prize for best window-taping goes to the artist across the street from us.  Our hearts go out to him or her when the time comes to remove all that beautiful sticky cross-hatching.

Richard Curtis

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!
King Lear

Divorce and its aftermath can be devastating.  But they don’t have to be.  Family counselor Mel Krantzler’s Creative Divorce enables troubled partners to part company in a non-combative, non-hurtful way. It is the only book on divorce ever to become an international bestseller.

Krantzler approaches the subject of divorce from a unique perspective and offers an optimistic outlook and hopeful opportunities for personal growth to those struggling to recognize and renew their individuality. Creative Divorce draws parallels between relationships and the life cycle, in order to help men and women cope during their period of mourning and find a new life after the death of their old one. Krantzler addresses the myriad of emotions that the divorce crisis stirs up in both men and women such as guilt, rejection, loneliness and anger, and teaches how to allow divorce to be the catalyst for positive transformations in your life.

For those trying to put their lives together after the death of a marriage or even the actual death of a partner, Krantzler offers Learning to Love Again.

Just when you thought it would never happen again, love comes back into your life. You can survive the explosive realities that losing love brings. But how do you know when – or if – you’re ready for love again.

Are you having trouble finding the “right” man or woman.

Are you afraid of making another “mistake”?

Do you keep getting involved in short-term relationships?

Are you beginning to think that finding love is a matter of luck?

Based on his successful series of seminar, Krantzler provides clear guidelines and effective steps that lead from loneliness to love.
–The Remembered-Pain Stage–absorbing a blow from the past
–The Questing-Experimental Stage–surveying the possibilities
–The Selective-Distancing Stage–a cautious step forward
–The Creative-Commitment Stage–where enduring love begins

Krantzler draws on the real stories of real people who are learning to love again, to live together, marry, be step-parents and build satisfying new lives. He shares his experiences in applying the principles of creative commitment to his own remarriage.

Learning to Live Again is the perfect guide for married, single or divorced men and women. Here’s how you can learn to live again by learning to love again today!

Thanks to Andy Borowitz we have this dire assessment of consequences facing Internet users as Hurricane Irene bears down on the United States East Coast.

“WASHINGTON – As Hurricane Irene prepared to batter the East Coast of the United States, federal disaster officials warned that Internet outages caused by the storm could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years. News of the possible interpersonal interactions created panic up and down the coast as residents braced themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact. And as officials warned people in the hurricane zone to stay indoors, residents feared the worst: conversations with members of their immediate family.”

Read the rest: “Internet Outages from Hurricane Could Force People to Interact with Other People, Officials Warn”

RC

Outliving your copyrights sounds like a curse but for Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Tom Petty and other songwriters it may prove a blessing.  It could be a blessing for a lot of aging authors, too, if they step through the window in the US copyright law that allows them to terminate book contracts 35 years after the contract date. Even agreements that originally conveyed rights to publishers in perpetuity cannot trump these termination rights.

Though authors and agents have been aware, for several years, of the impending impact of the law, the time to take action has arrived.  So we thought we’d reprint the blog we posted about a year ago, Rights Bump Swells Bigger and Bigger.

***********************
Are you ready for The Big Bump?

Those of you who read our posting in September (Copyright Asteroid Hurtling Towards Earth) know that The Big Bump is a major copyright event shaping up for the near future. As copyright attorney Lloyd J. Jassin informed us, thanks to a provision of the US Copyright code authors will be able to terminate contracts negotiated in the late 1970s even if those contracts appear to give the publisher rights forever.

“Starting in 2011,” Jassin writes, “the publishing and entertainment industries will be looking at the possibility of thousands of negotiations with copyright owners seeking to recapture their rights. Some call it ‘contract bumping.’ This powerful ‘re-valuation mechanism’ found in the Copyright Act allows authors (and their heirs) to terminate contracts 35-years after the contract date. The termination right trumps written agreements — even agreements which state they are in perpetuity.” [Italics ours]

Though nobody has panicked, the news has begun to percolate and publishing people and their lawyers are beginning to review their old contracts to determine what books are affected and to institute damage control measures.

For publishers the strategy is to commence negotiations with authors and agents now to extend or renew the old contracts or negotiate brand-new ones. Because e-books and print on demand, two products essential to extending the life of a contract, did not exist pre-1978 (or pre-1998 for that matter), publishers will insist that renewals provide for them.

The big question however is, once authors know they can recapture their old contracts, will they blithely sign their e-book and POD rights away?

Authors who exercise their “bump” right will realize what a treasure the copyright law has bestowed on them. Why would they bestow it back on their publisher, especially if their publisher is paying a lower e-book royalty than is being offered down the street by some independent e-book publishers. (Full disclosure. E-Reads is down the street.)

Which means that independent e-book publishers might be in for windfalls starting 2013.

Publishers, authors and agents have a lot to think about between now and 2013, and it isn’t too soon to start thinking about it now.

For the full text of Article 203 of the 1978 Copyright Act, the provision that is causing all this turmoil, click here.

And for attorney Jassin’s detailed instruction for recovery of your rights, read Copyright Termination: How Authors (and Their Heirs) Can Recapture Their Pre-1978 Copyrights.

Richard Curtis

He is Steve Jobs. Look upon his works, ye Mighty, and despair.

Early in 2009, when Jobs’ was forced to temporarily give up leadership of Apple in order to combat pancreatic cancer, we reminded our readers of Charles De Gaulle’s grim remark: “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

“Every business captain,” we said, “needs to post that quotation on the wall in front of his or her desk as a reminder that great leaders must be great delegators. Jobs is as indispensable as corporate heads can possibly be, but adverse health has forced him, as it did De Gaulle, to look at his mortality and relinquish to others tasks that threaten to sap the energy he needs to restore his health.” (See My Irreplaceable You.) Jobs’s medical leave in ’09 was enough to depress the value of Apple’s shares by 2% in the domestic stock market and as much as 7.9% overseas.

And now the day of reckoning has arrived for Steve Jobs and the company he has fashioned like a masterpiece wrought by a modern-day Cellini: today he resigned as CEO, admitting he was no longer able to effectively run it.  The reins will be picked up by Chief Operating Office Tim Cook.  In his poignant statement Jobs said “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

What will become of Apple? In the Wall Street Journal Yukari Iwatani Kane writes that “People familiar with the situation have said that Mr. Jobs continues to be active at Apple and is closely involved in the company’s product strategy. Apple watchers don’t expect that to change even after Mr. Cook takes over.”

The first test of that statement came today when the stock market opened. The last trade before the announcement on Wednesday August 24th, was $376.18. Overnight, before the market opened today, shares dropped over $12.00 a share. However, it closed at 373.72, an unremarkable drop of $2.46, less than -0.65%‎. This would seem to suggest that sensible investors see that Jobs’s signature on his company is deeply embedded in the quality of its products and service. It doesn’t hurt that in the last quarter Apple reported blowout earnings of over 7.3 billion dollars.

The company is scarcely vulnerable. Its presiding visionary, however, is all too mortal. We wish him godspeed on his journey.

Richard Curtis