ASA advises authors to send takedown notices to piracy site

8 March 2019 Books+Publishing

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) is advising authors to contact piracy website Ebook Bike and request the removal of their titles.

The ASA is ‘deeply concerned’ by the site’s free distribution of books, including some by Australian authors. ‘By undertaking this activity without either seeking permission or providing fair payment to the creators, Ebook Bike is undermining copyright and legitimate ebooks sales,’ said the ASA.

The ASA plans to write to Ebook Bike on behalf of Australian authors, but is also encouraging authors to take individual action by notifying their publisher if their work has been available for unlawful download, and by personally requesting the removal of their book, either by using a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) form or writing directly to the website’s operators. The ASA has provided a letter template that authors can adapt for this purpose.

‘We are seeing an increasing number of sites copying and distributing authors’ work without permission,’ said the ASA. ‘As we stated recently in relation to the Internet Archive’s Open Library, it is tremendously difficult for writers to earn a living from writing, and these sites ultimately jeopardise writers’ abilities to build creative careers.’

Category: Local news