Suprina Frazier, self-publishing author, recently
discovered that she became the victim of piracy. One of her books got uploaded on the text hosting site
Scribd.com, from where anyone with Internet access could download it without the author's consent.
And what did Suprina do? Rather than contacting Scribd with a takedown notice, she turned to the uploader (aka the pirate) himself.
Quote:
Instead of contacting the site’s copyright agent, I directly contacted the person who pirated my work. Not to take down my e-book. No, to keep it up (after all, it was a freebie anyway), but with certain considerations. I even went so far as to post my requests/considerations in the comment section of her Scribd page so that everyone that links to that book will see that I’ve given this person my permission to leave that e-book up.
I also posted a statement on my main blog giving all my readers permission to post that particular e-book along with another freebie on their sites (with certain considerations, of course).
I decided that if that site can be used to pirate my books, why not use that same site to PROMOTE my books.
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So, instead of freaking out about her discovey, Suprina actually felt the piracy in this particular case was a good point ("it was a freebie anyway") and is now looking into an alternative business model. What do you think - could it work to her advantage?