The 'whack a mole' approach

First: I'm just thinking aloud, not expecting instant answers.
Second: I'm tired of each of us effectively having to stand alone against piracy.

More of my titles just turned up in Google Alerts listing pirate sites and torrents.
That means Google is not only finding them, but is apparently quite willing to present anyone a link to stolen goods.
I say this because Google knows very well what torrents are and knows what copyright infringements are and they know who these sites are and what they're all about. There's not one whit of confusion.
Yet Google continues to support the efforts of those sites to promulgate stolen goods. Some of them apparently even use Google ads.

The current method of each of us reporting each individual infringement is ridiculously inadequate.
Zap a pirate and it just pops up somewhere else. (yes, I said 'it'.)

We need a centralized reporting outfit specifically for ebooks and that outfit needs to work hard to make search engines willing to freely and quickly act to prevent piracy from appearing in search results.
Is a search engine hit about an ebook questionable?
Zap it. Refuse to display it. If it's legit, the author/agent can register with the search engine to list authorized sources.
An ebook from other than an authorized source shouldn't be displayed.
There will be nits to pick with that system, but they'll be small, easily fixable ones.

It's time for peer pressure and hostile public exposure to be applied.
Any search engine showing piracy links should be considered to be supporting piracy. Lawsuit-legally? Maybe not, but public perception can be everything.
I say that if you're voluntarily holding a sign that says, 'This way to pirated stuff', you're shilling for the pirates.

*
If Google and other SEs were displaying search results for stolen jewelry that was being sold outright or being given away through paid membership plans, how long would that last?
*

I would further say that anyone who might now try to introduce an obfuscatory debate about differences between stolen tangibles and stolen intangibles into this thread is probably someone who can't be counted on to stand against piracy and might even be one who owns some pirated works. In any case, I don't trust people who automatically barf up inventive complications for no good reason.

Author and Publisher groups:
Ever hear of EPIC, the group which would love to claim some sort of leadership role in the world of ebooks?
Why isn't EPIC leading a charge against piracy? For that matter, why isn't EPIC ardently evangelizing, organizing, and ACTING in some noticeable manner against piracy?
Occasional lip service isn't enough, guys. Boots and Saddles. Up and at them. Put your umbrella drinks down, roll up your sleeves, and get some metaphoric pirate blood on your hands. Show us you're more than a vanity club.

That also goes for any other author, writer, or publisher groups that purport to be of value to authors. Are you? Really? Or do you just provide links, feel-good platitudes, and somewhat rewritten regurgitations of info available in 870 other places on the net?

Given the size of the epublishing industry and the size it will become in the next few years and the scope of the piracy problem, why hasn't EPIC or similar formed that aforementioned central reporting agency and made a name for itself among the search engines?

The first one to do so will be the popular leader of the pack. For a little while, anyway.
The one that launches and maintains an effective anti-piracy campaign will end up being the real leader.

And where are the big publishers? They whine and moan about how their stuff is being ripped off worse than anyone else's, but they haven't coughed up a strong response to the piracy problem either. Or do they actually consider piracy an annoyance rather than a real problem?
Consider how many other petty little annoyances have managed to become real problems; they were ignored a bit too long. They were allowed to fester and grow. Allowed to corrode a system.

That's all I wanted to say.
I'm not interested in debate at all.
I'm not interested in discussion, either, unless it has to do with how to create and activate a pirate-strangling machine.
That's what it will take. Strangling the roots, not smashing each leaf. There are too many, too far apart, in places like China that support piracy.
We have to deny them an audience, and that will take the cooperation of the search engines.

Maybe we could also do that by enlisting the embarrassment of credit card companies. Can you buy a stolen ebook with a credit card? Put a membership to a piracy club on a credit card?
If we can shut that down, they'll have to send checks or money orders. Much less convenient. :)

In short, all that could be done ISN'T being done. Why?
Let's start leaning on the search engines and credit card companies to cut the pirates off from their audience and money supply.
Ed
Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press
Science Fiction & Semi-Fiction
http://www.AbintraPress.com



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