Hubs being stolen for books

1. 96

   carolynkayeposted 3 years ago

   Has anyone else have been having problems with their hubs being stolen and turned into books on Amazon and other book retailers? I dealt with this much of last year and just came across two more today. The thieves doing this usually use the same or similar article title or keywords and then add a completely different cover photo so it's harder to trace.

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      Jana Louise Smitposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      How did you find out if I may ask? So sorry this happened. These parasites are too lazy to do their own writing. Urg.

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      1. 96

         carolynkayeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I do a book search on Amazon or other book sites for the hub's title or main keywords. They often just cut and paste the first few paragraphs of the hub to use for the book description on the sales page. Amazon has a "Look Inside" feature so you can get an idea of what's in the book. They also can send a sample of the book to your kindle or e-reader. Many times, they don't even bother changing a few words here and there, they just take the whole hub, photos and all, and turn it into a book. I've had this happen with five hubs so far and haven't had time to check the rest. From what I've seen, these people are doing this on a large and somewhat organized scale from countries where it's hard to track people down, so I doubt I'm the only one whose articles are being taken. It's a big hassle to deal with and when they're using verbatim text, it gets into the search engines and the hub's traffic eventually drops off to almost nothing.

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            liesl5858posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Wow! I can't believe people do this. I have some of my hubs stolen as well but not in e-book form. It is on another blog website. Two people stole my work and copied every word I wrote. I tried and asked them politely to take it down but they haven't taken it down till now. People are so lazy to do their own blogs and think they have the right to steal other writer's hard work.

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               Ben716posted 3 years agoin reply to this

               Same case to me. A year doesn't pass without seeing my articles either copied fully or partially on startup blogs. I send them a polite notice but they don't respond. I seek the company that hosts their blog. I have seen several where the blogs were shut down or the articles were removed.

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2. 97

   alexadryposted 3 years ago

   Wow, the things people do to earn money! I can see this happening more and more though sadly due to the economic situation.
   
   This can turn out being a widespread problem. I once stumbled on a similar problem but found out only after making a purchase.
   
   
   I would expect Amazon though to run some basic plagiarism check before allowing people to sell books using their platform! I hope there's a way you can report this to Amazon so those books using your content are taken off the market!

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      carolynkayeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, it's surprising these big book sellers don't seem to check for duplicate content the way HP does. They don't seem to care because they make money on it and just say the person publishing it is responsible for the content. There are ways to report it but they usually don't make it easy. I'm still waiting to hear back on some of these.

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3. 94

   eugbugposted 3 years ago

   Yes, content was being used for a children's book marketed on Kindle and a printed version existed too. An article was copied in a book available on Google Books also.

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   1. 96

      carolynkayeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry this happened. Were you able to have them remove it?

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4. 87

   Nell Roseposted 3 years ago

   The best bet is for us to make our own hubs into books. That way if copyright ever comes up you can prove it and sue them!

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      viryaboposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      That’s what I’ve been doing this year. Too much theft AND uncertainty with online article writing.
      
      I had to upgrade and expand my articles further to meet KDP standards. Another income basket.
      
      Some of my articles turned eBooks are still doing quite well here.

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         liesl5858posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Viryabo, do you mean that we are allowed to make or turn our articles into e-books. Are we allowed to do that? I don't know about this. Thanks for giving me the idea.

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         1. 98

            viryaboposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Yes. As long as you own the copyright to the article. I had to find out to be sure.
            
            On my book’s copyright page, I have to mention that the article was written by me, where it was written, under what name, and the year it was first published.
            
            There is a minimum number of pages required before a book can be published though.

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               liesl5858posted 3 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you for your reply.

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5. 91

   Lovelli Fuadposted 3 years ago

   This adds to some of the known ways people are already profiting off of stolen hub content. The other day there was something about hubs being used in YouTube videos, and now Amazon books. And Kindle, too.
   
   Did you have any luck reporting copyright infringement to Amazon? I think you can do that if the product is sold in the US, there's a section on reporting text/image.

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   1. 96

      carolynkayeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I reported them but still haven't heard back.

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6. 94

   Glenn Stokposted 3 years ago

   Amazon has an online form to report infringing books. However, it pertains to copies taken from other books, not necessarily from online content. Nevertheless, it’s worth trying. Follow these steps:
   
   1. Go to https://www.amazon.com/report/infringement
   2. Log into (or create) your Amazon KDP account.
   2. Scroll down to “Allegation of Infringement”
   3. Select “Rights Owner”
   4. Under “The primary complaint pertains to” select the first item: “copyright concerns”
   5. Under “The Specific concern is” select the first item: “unauthorized copyrighted content or images.”
   6. Fill in all the required fields.
   7. Enter the ISBN-10 of the book that infringes. Get that from its listing.
   8. Complete your contact details.
   9. Agree to the legal statements listed and click submit.
    
   Here’s a video by a YouTuber showing how to fill out that form:
   https://youtu.be/Dkemho2u6KU?t=352
   
   Here’s an interesting article from 2016 about Amazon’s problems with enforcing copyright infringements.
   
   https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2016/06 … t-problem/

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   1. 96

      carolynkayeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Glenn for the info. I finally got one of the two taken down. Amazon won't tell me why they refuse to remove the other. It doesn't make sense because more than 50% of the book is cut and paste from my hub along with lots of my personal photos.

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