Longer Stories

[lovecraft68]

I don't think length matters if you can hold the readers interest.

My SWB series all told was 246 lit pages. No one complained it was too long, other than one dedicated troll. And at the end I recieved a lot of e-mails that I could have taken it further or complained that something I 'referred to" was never explained in detail.

 

[sr71plt]

On the other hand, if you don't care whether you look amateurish, giving your author name and stating that the story is from Literotica will often give people who stumble across stolen stories or bits of stories and enjoy them the ability to find the rest of your work.

While it would be easy enough to remove, most of the sites that have been stealing stories from Lit don't do so, because most of them lift the stories with bots that just scrape the page and automatically post.

I've added quite a few favorites and picked up a lot of feedback from people finding my stolen stuff and using that information to track me down. I consider it making the thieves work for me

And then you do what? I chose to go another route. I publish it before or rather than posting it here, so I make money off it before the thieves can--and if they submit to Amazon or some similar pay site, it's a breeze to show I was there first with it. As far as posting it to other fly-by-the-night sites, no manner of policing is going to stop that. If you don't want the grief of having that, just don't post it to a free-use site to begin with.

 

[lovecraft68]

And then you do what? I chose to go another route. I publish it before or rather than posting it here, so I make money off it before the thieves can--and if they submit to Amazon or some similar pay site, it's a breeze to show I was there first with it. As far as posting it to other fly-by-the-night sites, no manner of policing is going to stop that. If you don't want the grief of having that, just don't post it to a free-use site to begin with.

But do you end up with the headaches of Amazon saying your work is "freely available" on the net? Because whether you posted it there first or not they get a bug up there ass, if its for free somewhere.

 

[Derroreaper]

No, that's not what he said. He said:


That does not say it's illegal. It says that the copyright symbol that many of us (including myself) put on a story carries no legal weight without a formal copyright, which most of us, I bet, do not have. Nowhere in there did sr71 say using the copyright symbol "was illegal if it wasn't registered."

You're joking right? Read post 18, the one I quoted...

 

[sr71plt]

You're joking right? Read post 18, the one I quoted...

I presume you read where I acknowledged that I did mean to say that it isn't lawful to use the symbol unless you do hold formal copyright--in the United States? (because that's the way it is.)

 

[sr71plt]

But do you end up with the headaches of Amazon saying your work is "freely available" on the net? Because whether you posted it there first or not they get a bug up there ass, if its for free somewhere.

Haven't had that problem yet, no. When/if I do, I'll probably just pull it from Amazon. I have loads on Amazon; I get sufficient returns after just one month on Amazon anyway--that's the peak buying window; and, although I could pull from here, I'm not going to spin wheels by trying to pull it from those stealing and reposting it.

Also, I've stopped posting material here I'm publishing with publishers I take royalties from. Almost everything I have here is what's published at eXcessica, a publisher I let keep all my royalties. When push comes to shove, I'm not the one with any financial stake in any of those.

So, I'm not planning to have any headaches. That's what I have publishers for--and that's why I have so many published. One or two lost puppies (not that any have been lost yet) won't cause me to cry.

I'm not writing erotica to spend a whole lot of time trying to keep up with story thieves. Thus far that's pretty much a no-win activity.

 

[PennLady]

You're joking right? Read post 18, the one I quoted...

I quoted post 15. Sorry, missed 18.

 

[lovecraft68]

Haven't had that problem yet, no. When/if I do, I'll probably just pull it from Amazon. I have loads on Amazon; I get sufficient returns after just one month on Amazon anyway--that's the peak buying window; and, although I could pull from here, I'm not going to spin wheels by trying to pull it from those stealing and reposting it.

Also, I've stopped posting material here I'm publishing with publishers I take royalties from. Almost everything I have here is what's published at eXcessica, a publisher I let keep all my royalties. When push comes to shove, I'm not the one with any financial stake in any of those.

So, I'm not planning to have any headaches. That's what I have publishers for--and that's why I have so many published. One or two lost puppies (not that any have been lost yet) won't cause me to cry.

I'm not writing erotica to spend a whole lot of time trying to keep up with story thieves. Thus far that's pretty much a no-win activity.

Yes, I have made note of the 1st month is the Peak time

I had one run in with Amazon on something I once had up here, but sent an explanation that it must have been lifted while it was here and it's nowhere with my permission. I never heard back and the book is still up so I guess they bought it.

But that's why for the most part unless it's a incest title I can't post there anyway I won't post anything new here.

 

[Darkniciad]

And then you do what? I chose to go another route. I publish it before or rather than posting it here, so I make money off it before the thieves can--and if they submit to Amazon or some similar pay site, it's a breeze to show I was there first with it. As far as posting it to other fly-by-the-night sites, no manner of policing is going to stop that. If you don't want the grief of having that, just don't post it to a free-use site to begin with.

And then what?

I enjoy the new readers and feedback.

At what point did I say anything about stopping the thieves from taking it? About anybody making money off it? About any legal force?

Unless I wrote it in some sort of subliminal code language without my knowledge, it isn't there

 

[sr71plt]

*nevermind*

 

[Darkniciad]

I didn't say anything about searching for it, either.

While I give people pointers on how to find stolen work if they choose to do so, and how to protect themselves from the malware and invasive ads common to thieving sites once they do, I haven't said a word about that here.

I gave a tip on how you can make some of the multitude of inevitable thieves work on your behalf with a single sentence that contains your author name and a mention of Literotica.

That's it.

I don't see why you're insisting on reading more into it than what's there.

As to why I search: I've managed to have my work removed from or taken down about a dozen ad and malware laden sites by reporting them to their hosts for a variety of things, of which copyright is usually low on the priority list. Such sites are usually in violation of a multitude of points in the terms of service beyond the stolen stories.

I've reported even more to the various malware and spam blacklists where appropriate, which has effectively taken them down for anybody using sensible malware/spam protection measures.

I'm well aware of the futility, but I get a few smile moments from seeing those sites go down. It's worth it to me, and that's all that matters, because it's my work, and it's my ( minimal ) time.

 

[PacoFear]

Oh, god, we're not going to go through copyright again, are we? This (as I posted) is for those who formally registered for copyright. And that's all I'm going to post. So few are able to understand how U.S. copyright law works (and the law was constructed that way--I know, I was on the commission that worked out how the U.S. was going to respond to signing the Berne Convention when it didn't want to adher to the Berne Convention. It says nice things about ownership--to meld with Berne--and then won't back it up with any teeth unless you hold a formal copyright).

*puff puff puff* Sorry, I'm showing up to the party late as usual. SR has it almost right...

In several jurisdictions--at least those covered by the 5th, 7th, and 9th Circuits--a plaintiff author only needs to attach a copy of his application for a copyright registration to his complaint. Basically, a plaintiff can start suit and get his registration at the same time. Citations for the folks who care: Positive Black Talk Inc. v. Cash Money Records Inc., 394 F.3d 357 (5th Cir. 2004); Chicago Bd. of Educ. v. Substance Inc., 354 F.3d 624, 631 (7th Cir. 2003); Cosmetic Ideas Inc. v. IAC/InteractiveCorp, 606 F.3d 612 (9th Cir. 2010).

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

It would seem that UK copyright law is vastly superior to US Law in two respects:

1. I own the copyright to every piece of fiction I write from the moment I write it down anywhere;

2. Sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 define the moral rights, which an author must assert. Basically it is the right to be identified as the author, and for the work not to be changed. Briefly "The right of the author ... under this section is ... in the case of commercial publication or the issue to the public of copies ... to be identified in or on each copy ...". See here and here.

 

[cocput]

No one complained it was too long.... And at the end I recieved a lot of e-mails that I could have taken it further or complained that something I 'referred to" was never explained in detail.

Is this a common issue in all very long stories?