Legal

EU Screws Up Copyright Ruling on Student’s Presentation

10 August, 2018 // 6 Comments

One of the few bright spots in US copyright law (along with DMCA Safe Harbors) is the legal principle of fair use - the idea that under certain conditions one can use a copyrighted work without [Read More ...]

Someone Filed a Trademark on the “Guy Holding Axe” Book Cover Design

19 July, 2018 // 7 Comments

If you found Faleena Hopkins's attempt to trademark the word "cocky" infuriating then this next trademark could give you a stroke. An author in the SPF Community FB group just brought my attention to [Read More ...]

US Supreme Court Tax Ruling Means Authors Have to Collect Sales Tax on Direct Sales

21 June, 2018 // 16 Comments

Whip out the Advil, because a recent ruling by the US Supreme Court is going to cause a lot of headaches for authors and other small operators who sell online. The Court issued a ruling today [Read More ...]

How to Cheat the Kindle Store (and Get Away With it!): The Chance Carter Story

1 June, 2018 // 13 Comments

For quite some time now I have been reporting on Amazon's over-reliance on poorly programmed bots that punish the innocent while letting scammers run rampant. Today I have an example scammer to show [Read More ...]

US-Based Instapaper Cuts Off Access in Europe in Order to Fix GDPR Compliance

24 May, 2018 // 14 Comments

If you thought the GDPR didn't apply to you because you weren't in Europe, think again. Techcunch and other sites are reporting that Instapaper, which is owned by Pinterest and based in San [Read More ...]

Internet Archive Wants You to Turn Your Site Into a Pirate Site

13 May, 2018 // 4 Comments

The Open Library is a free web library slash pirate site run by the Internet Archive. It lends ebooks, and can be used by anyone online. A recent update added a new option where anyone with a website [Read More ...]

Guest Post: If Small Print “Terms and Conditions” Require a PhD to be Understood, Should They be Legally Binding?

10 May, 2018 // 3 Comments

You may not realise it but you are signing legal agreements all the time. Think of all those “terms and conditions” boxes you tick when you buy new software or travel insurance. How many times [Read More ...]

Cockygate: Faleena Hopkins Has Registered a Trademark on Cocky, and is Using it to Threaten Other Romance Authors

5 May, 2018 // 81 Comments

Trademark bullying is a pox on industries ranging from breweries to whatever over-priced junk Monster Cable is making this week. A trademark bully's ostensible goal is to keep consumers from getting [Read More ...]

DragonCon Invites the Infamous Lori James of All Romance eBooks as Author Guest

2 May, 2018 // 5 Comments

All Romance eBooks was at one time a leading romance ebook retailer, but by the time it shut down in late 2016 it was clouded in scandal. Not only had authors gone unpaid for months (some for over a [Read More ...]

Amazon’s CreateSpace Provides a Safe Haven for Textbook Scams, Money Laundering, and Rampant Piracy

13 April, 2018 // 13 Comments

Amazon is destroying the Kindle Store from the inside out by letting broken algorithms run the show, punishing innocents while letting major scammers off scot-free. Createspace, in comparison, would [Read More ...]

Amazon Seeks Court Confirmation of Arbitration Ruling, Inadvertently Shows Just How Badly-Run the Kindle Store Is

5 April, 2018 // 10 Comments

behind the scenes in the Kindle Store In September of last year Amazon filed for arbitration against several companies that were using various nefarious means to scam the Kindle Store. Now Law360 [Read More ...]

Online Piracy Is More Popular Than Ever … Says Company That Sells Anti-Piracy Services

26 March, 2018 // 6 Comments

Piracy is such a huge problem that several industries reported record revenues last year. TorrentFreak brings us news of a new global piracy report from Muso that shows record high levels of piracy: [Read More ...]

Internet Archive Ignores DMCA Notices

22 February, 2018 // 11 Comments

the Internet Archive is burning its positive reputation to the ground Edit: The first version of the title of this post was considerably more incendiary than intended. I changed the title about 15 [Read More ...]

Infringement Lawsuit Filed Over “The Shape of Water”

22 February, 2018 // 1 Comment

There used to be a time where the passing similarities between two works only interested academics and aficionados. Now it is grounds for claims of copyright infringement. The Hollywood Reporter [Read More ...]

EU Decides Artificial Market Barriers Are Good, Puts Off Digital Single Market

9 February, 2018 // 2 Comments

When the EU proposed in 2015 to ban artificial market restrictions based on national borders (geoblocking), one of the recommended changes would have lead to a single ebook market across the EU. This [Read More ...]

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