Opinions

Opinions of interest.

Are there any biographers among us? Any future biographers? If so, I'd like to recommend the article by T.J. Stiles entitled "Fighting for the Digital Future", which is here
biographersinternational.org/fighting-for-the-digital-future/

 "The world's wealthiest corporations may take your work in its entirity for their own profit. They do not have to ask you for permission, let alone pay you...." it begins.

The CopyrightAlliance.org provides a weekly copyright issues wrap up, search here
copyrightalliance.org/content/weekly_copyright_issues_wrap_-january_15_2016

Honestly, their sidebar is more interesting than this past week's articles, for instance, the thoughtful article about rampant piracy on Facebook (and how Facebook profits from it, while the copyright owners lose more and more.)

Now for something a bit more personal.
In my opinion, this is a pirate site. In my opinion, if you "register" with these folks, you deserve to have your identity stolen, and that "small fee" they expect you to pay to multiply like proverbial rabbits.
http://www.misskaisdancetime.com/2aff74-thread-717-335-forced_mate/

The site seems to be called "Sinsbury's" but on other pages, it calls itself "Sainsbury's". The latter is a reputable British department store chain. It is doubtful that they'd not proofread their own pages.
It calls itself a Library, but you never have to return the books, and the books you download never disappear from your device. That's not a library. Moreover, the site claims not to host anything but only to redirect paying visitors to other sites. Pirate sites, no doubt.

Here's another one that I suggest you don't take seriously:
http://vip-brands.com/description.php?progid=buy-cheap-Paranormal_Romance_Collection_eBooks_Various_Formats-soft


Certainly don't download or buy it. It is probably another example of a scam site designed to score identities and credit cards, but what it looks like is one of those illegal, unauthorized "libraries" that conscienceless EBayers sell to other EBayers again and again, over and over. There's probably malware embedded in some of the books, and almost all of the books are in-copyright, and the copyright owners are not getting paid for this illegal duplication and publication and sale of their works.

One major problem with EBay is that, if an author tries to take down any of the illegally sold ebooks from EBay when a buyer uploads them somewhere else, the uploader is likely to be indignant, and to respond to a DMCA notice to his host platform with a DMCA counter notice, and once that happens, the illegal, copyright infringing book is put back permanently and only a very expensive court order can have it removed.

As one of the more reputable op ed authors has written, it's the Wild West out there.

Happy days!
Rowena Cherry