That is scary! Good luck on getting this resolved. It seems like the retailers would be more willing to try and help out with something like this.
Fraudulent DMCA notice filed against my book
Hi, everyone. Despite having stuck around Kboards for three years or so, I don't have a whole lot of threads to my name. I'm more of a responder than a starter, I guess. But this seemed worth putting out there.
On Saturday, someone filed a 100% fraudulent DMCA take-down notice against Nolander with Amazon and Smashwords, which promptly blocked the book. Sending in my official U.S. copyright registration materials has done nothing to resolve the situation. Both retailers' position is that I and the DMCA complainant have to send in our written permission before Nolander can be made available again.
I wrote the whole story up as a blog post, including how I discovered for sure that this is some kind of scam. It's sort of long because there was a bit of detective work involved: http://the-active-voice.com/2015/03/01/nolander-blocked-at-amazon-and-smashwords/
The TL
R is that someone can apparently just fabricate a claim of copyright infringement and send it on in, and that's that. I'm preparing a DMCA counter-notice, but I have no idea whether or not it will have any effect. Neither Amazon or Smashwords mentioned counter-noticing as a possible remedy. It's scary. Really scary.
***
Updating March 5 with the latest. What I sent to KDP a few days ago:
***
A final update (March 10), for anyone coming upon this thread in the future: Amazon did agree to restore Nolander. It took an email to Jeff Bezos ([email protected]) to reach people high enough up in the company to get personalized attention. So, it all worked out well for me.
If something like this happens to you, please bump this thread to let the Writers' Cafe know about it. Indie authors may remain vulnerable to this kind of scam. Hopefully Amazon will be adjusting its DMCA-related policies, but we'll have no way to know whether or not they've done that until the person's experience.
ETA: Links to other possible/proven copyright attacks: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,224280.0.html (added October 19, 2015); http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,226272.0.html (added November 16, 2015)
On Saturday, someone filed a 100% fraudulent DMCA take-down notice against Nolander with Amazon and Smashwords, which promptly blocked the book. Sending in my official U.S. copyright registration materials has done nothing to resolve the situation. Both retailers' position is that I and the DMCA complainant have to send in our written permission before Nolander can be made available again.
I wrote the whole story up as a blog post, including how I discovered for sure that this is some kind of scam. It's sort of long because there was a bit of detective work involved: http://the-active-voice.com/2015/03/01/nolander-blocked-at-amazon-and-smashwords/
The TL
R is that someone can apparently just fabricate a claim of copyright infringement and send it on in, and that's that. I'm preparing a DMCA counter-notice, but I have no idea whether or not it will have any effect. Neither Amazon or Smashwords mentioned counter-noticing as a possible remedy. It's scary. Really scary.***
Updating March 5 with the latest. What I sent to KDP a few days ago:
What I just got:
So, there's the answer to that question: Amazon does not consider itself legally bound by the DMCA counter-noticing provision.
***
A final update (March 10), for anyone coming upon this thread in the future: Amazon did agree to restore Nolander. It took an email to Jeff Bezos ([email protected]) to reach people high enough up in the company to get personalized attention. So, it all worked out well for me.
If something like this happens to you, please bump this thread to let the Writers' Cafe know about it. Indie authors may remain vulnerable to this kind of scam. Hopefully Amazon will be adjusting its DMCA-related policies, but we'll have no way to know whether or not they've done that until the person's experience.
ETA: Links to other possible/proven copyright attacks: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,224280.0.html (added October 19, 2015); http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,226272.0.html (added November 16, 2015)
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Thanks for the support, everyone! Like I said, it's scary. Just knowing people are rooting for me is great. 
Great thought, SevenDays, thanks! He commented on my blog from two different IP addresses. I'll send them along to Amazon and Smashwords. Whether one of them will line up with the IP addresses from which he sent the DMCA notices ... dunno. Seems too much to hope for, but maybe!SevenDays said:
Becca, if this doesn't get resolved soon, if I were you, I'd seriously consider approaching the press. Start with the NYT and work downwards. Could be a story they'd be interested in doing.
Got my fingers crossed for you!
Got my fingers crossed for you!
Thanks, Rosalind and Sever.
Here's a rather alarming article on this issue, forwarded to me by a friend: http://www.dbllawyers.com/2014/11/help-my-seller-account-has-been-disabled/
TLR: There's generally no way to get your content back up other than negotiating with the original DMCA complainant and getting them to withdraw their complaint.
Here's a rather alarming article on this issue, forwarded to me by a friend: http://www.dbllawyers.com/2014/11/help-my-seller-account-has-been-disabled/
TL
R: There's generally no way to get your content back up other than negotiating with the original DMCA complainant and getting them to withdraw their complaint.1 - 20 of 280 Posts
