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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Monday 25 November 2019

They Find Out Too Late

I was contacted today by a legal firm that acts in association with copyright agencies to prevent creators and publishers from being ripped off by illegal downloads. As "a noted creator" several of my books were noted on illegal download sites and so I was contacted.

Would I like them to try to track down the uploaders and forward information to me for further legal action?

Problems arose in that I was not the actual publisher and when it was pointed out who the publisher was I was told they had never received responses from him on this type of matter before. Wonder why.

I was told that there was no way to stop the illegal uploaders AND downloaders as they simply moved to other sites but constantly issuing warnings to their ISPs apparently made their task more a pain.  I tried all of this in 2015-2016 and these uploaders are crooks -50p/50c a download payable to me and they had my permission. No, they ran and changed sites.

"At book cover price" I was told "This year illegal downloads stole $4,230,000 of your sales"

What did I do? I said "No thanks".  Uploaders are thieving scum and would not even pay 50p/50c a download -I'd be happy with that and my financial problems would be solved. Oh, if you choose to illegally download books and STEAL from creators who need every penny to survive then you are a dirty, thieving piece of gutter shit.

I am getting too old to constantly chase these people down and report them while the thieving downloaders encourage them to continue their theft.

That $4,230,000 is NEVER going to come to me so I choose to ignore it. Theft in amongst 'comic fans' is rife -using copyrighted characters of other creators to create t-shirts, pins and other merchandise to sell AT comic conventions because "I'm just trying to earn some cash to pay the rent!" Because, obviously, these thieves cannot come up with their own original characters to sell and on Instagram their followers, despite being told it is theft, all offer to purchase illegal merchandise.

This is why I will NEVER offer pdf downloads from the online store.  A good few people who sell online have stopped the download sales app having discovered that they are being uploaded to illegal download sites. Too late.

It might be a better idea for the FBI and other agencies to identify illegal downloaders and name and shame them. 

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