Category Archives: Guy Anthony De Marco

As authors, piracy is a constant threat to our income and property. Some don’t mind having their works available for download, while others are adamant that their work should be purchased. Should you find your works posted on a pirate website — or worse, plagiarized with someone else’s name as the author — you can take action to remove the infringing material using the legal tools provided by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. Please note that sending false claims can get you into legal trouble, so don’t use the DMCA tools to play a practical joke. These tools can be used by non-US authors. The good news is it’s easy to do the steps required; the bad news is it may take some time for the works to be removed.

To be proactive, you should request your fans to alert you when they find pirated works on the Internet. Another proactive approach is to set up a Google Alert using a unique sentence or two from your story. It’s best to catch the pirates as soon as possible to get the link removed before too many people find it.

Our first stop is Google, currently the world’s most popular search engine. Using their copyright infringement tool to delete links to your stolen material is simple. For example, to delete a link from Google’s web search results:

Log into Google. Note you must be logged in to Google to fill out the form. You can create an account if you don’t have one. If you have a GMail account, log in using that.
Surf to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice?pli=1&
Fill in the complete form. If any field is not completely filled in, no action will be taken.

You may, of course, send a notice via fax or post. Most sites require your first notice of infringement to be sent via fax or post so they will have your signature on file, but Google does not. Google will post your DMCA notice (without your name and signature) to chillingeffects.org.

For Yahoo and Bing, you will need to send your first request via fax or post. Subsequent requests can be emailed. I have included a generic sample DMCA request at the end of this article, plus links to targeted DMCA sample requests, including Yahoo and Bing.

Mail or fax your Yahoo request to:

Copyright Agent
c/o Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Fax: (408) 349-7821
Email: copyright@yahoo-inc.com

Mail or fax your Bing request to:

DMCA Request
Attn: K. Carlson
Microsoft Corporation – The Microsoft Network
One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Fax: (425) 936-7329
Email: dmcaagnt@microsoft.com

Now that we’ve taken care of the links, we can focus on getting rid of the actual infringing content. There are two avenues we can take. The first is to request the infringing website to remove the content. Places like Scribd.com and Pastebin.com will typically act on a DMCA notice quickly because they are concerned the US Government will seize their domains. The other path is to send the request to the hosting company of the infringing website. If your content is posted on a random person’s site, this is a better method to get the content removed. Some overseas sites and host providers, especially in China, will not care about copyrighted material, and they’ll ignore your request.

To start, we must first find out who owns the domain and where they are hosted. The research tool to find the owner and host is called a WhoIs Lookup. There are several versions available. I will typically use either MXToolbox or Network Solutions. For MXToolbox, surf to their site and click on the down arrow at the end of their menu. Select WhoIs Lookup from the menu and enter in the pirate domain name. For Network Solutions, at the bottom of their page you will find a WhoIs link. Click on that, then enter in the domain name. You should get something similar to this, using FICTORIANS.COM as our example:

Domain Name: FICTORIANS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1647105966_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2014-03-24T12:24:08Z Creation Date: 2011-03-24T04:32:50Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-03-24T04:32:50Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Registration Private Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309 Registrant City: Scottsdale Registrant State/Province: Arizona Registrant Postal Code: 85260 Registrant Country: United States Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.4806242598 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: FICTORIANS.COM@domainsbyproxy.com

(truncated a long repetitive list)

Name Server: NS2339.HOSTGATOR.COM
Name Server: NS2340.HOSTGATOR.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

Lucky for us, this domain seems legit and has plenty of contact information. You can send a DMCA request to the Owner, Administrator or the Technical Contact. If someone’s site was hacked and is being used to host pirated material, this method would get a fast response. The site owner may thank you for alerting them to the hack.

Let’s say that the site had false or outdated information. We can send our DMCA notice to the company that owns the actual servers that contain the pirate website, known as the host. At the bottom of the list are listings for the Name Server, which is how computers translate website names into numeric addresses that they can understand. Copy the site name and extension, in this case HOSTGATOR.COM from the above FICTORIANS.COM example, and run it through the WhoIs Lookup tool. The tool will show you who is hosting the infringing website.

Domain Name: HOSTGATOR.COM Registry Domain ID: 91478876_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: WHOIS.ENOM.COM Registrar URL: WWW.ENOM.COM Update Date: 2015-04-13T21:33:43.00Z Creation Date: 2002-10-22T22:07:55.00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-10-22T22:07:55.00Z Registrar: ENOM, INC. Registrar IANA ID: 48 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: ABUSE@ENOM.COM Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646 Domain Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: ADAM FARRAR Registrant Organization: HOSTGATOR Registrant Street: 5005 MITCHELLDALE Registrant Street: SUITE #100 Registrant City: HOUSTON Registrant State/Province: TX Registrant Postal Code: 77092 Registrant Country: US Registrant Phone: +1.7135745287 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.2814767800 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: Registrant:

(truncated additional information)

It turns out the (probably undead) pirate site FICTORIANS.COM is hosted by HOSTGATOR.COM. Send your DMCA notice to the host. They will either help to get the copyrighted material removed or kill the entire pirate site.

You can, if you feel it is warranted, send a DMCA notice to the website and the host. Remember to always be professional — finding your work pirated or plagiarized is not a fun thing, but getting it removed will give you at least a modicum of satisfaction.

Generic DMCA Request follows. Notes are in [square brackets].


Attn: Legal Department, [Web Site Legal Name: ARRGH-A-PIRATE.COM]
Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A),

this communication serves as a statement that:
1. I am the exclusive rights holder for the title(s), listed below,

of copyrighted material being infringed upon:

	Title, Publisher, Date of Release, ISBN

	My Cool Book, Tor, 4/1/2001, 9781234567890

	My Warm Book, Tor, 4/1/2002, 9780123456789
	[TITLE (you can do more than one on a single take-down and save time),

	PUBLISHER (list the full publishing history of a book), DATES OF RELEASE,

	and the ISBNS the title has had. If the book has had several ISBNs,

	list them all. If there were multiple publishers, list them all.]
2. These exclusive rights are being violated by material available on your

site at the following URL(s):

	a)	http://www.arrgh-a-pirate.com/stolenbooks/My-Cool-Book.html

	b)	http://www.arrgh-a-pirate.com/stolenbooks/My-Warm-Book.html

	[Use the full URL address to the infringing material]
3. I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion

is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law.
4. Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the

information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am the exclusive

rights holder for the material in question.
5. I may be contacted by the following methods:

EMAIL: me@myemail.com

URL: http://www.myauthorwebsite.com/contact.htm

POST: Ima Author, POBox 123, Town, NY, 12345-0123

[Your email address may be placed on a spam list. Use GMail or an email with a good

spam filter if you can.]
6. I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears

on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.
Regards,

[If you write under a pen name, you can use it here. Otherwise, use your real name.]

I would like to thank and acknowledge both Cari Silverwood and Sam Stone for a copy of the DMCA notice they’ve used to successfully remove infringing material.

An example Yahoo DMCA notice, in Word format, can be found at http://www.seologic.com/worddoc/dmca-yahoo.doc
An example Bing DMCA notice, in Word format, can be found at http://www.seologic.com/worddoc/dmca-bing.doc

About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award^®; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, NCW, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at Wikipedia, GuyAndTonya.com, and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.

Avoiding Publishing Conflicts

April 21, 2015

Guy Anthony De Marco

A few years ago, the blogosphere was all atwitter concerning the story of Mandy DeGeit, a new author who discovered the story she submitted to an anthology wasn’t the same as the story that was published under her name. The “editor” had added in minor items like a suggestion of a rape, animal abuse, changing an ungendered character to a boy, and even introducing spelling errors on the title. Heavyweights like Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Maberry waded in to give their take on the carnage.

Authors who have been around the block a time or two have watched these kinds of publishers come and go, watching the cycle repeat itself every so often. Just like the emails that proclaim you’ve inherited a few million dollars from an unknown relative who lived in Nigeria, these scams and otherwise questionable practices keep resurfacing to ensnare the unwary.

The way to protect yourself and avoid unnecessary conflict is to take the time to do a thorough background check of your potential publisher. In order to do this you have to separate your ego from your business instinct. Receiving an email from a publisher that says they want to publish your story is a heady experience. You’ve bled yourself dry, spending untold hours crafting your novel. It sure would be nice to receive some compensation by seeing your name on a cover. The problem is it can end up costing you time, money, your novel, and even your reputation.

There are several well-known websites you should visit when you’re interested in a publisher. AbsoluteWrite is a good place to start (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php). Their forums are full of first-hand experience when dealing with most publishers, both good and bad. There are cases where a well-respected publisher lost their way, such as Dorchester/Leisure. If the forum threads span multiple pages, make sure you read the last two or three to see what’s new with a publisher. If you see one or two complaints, but otherwise positive feedback, that publisher is a decent candidate for your novel.

Once your visit to the AbsoluteWrite water cooler is complete, stop by the Writer Beware blogs (http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/). This project is a public service offered by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). They don’t pull punches, and they do their best to give as much detail as possible. The blogs and forums are filled with experience for you to gather and consider.

Our next stop is Predators and Editors (http://pred-ed.com/). This website contains so much information about bad presses that they’ve been sued several times. Additionally, they have whole sections on similar topics, including agents, magazines and organizations.

Just to be thorough, you can always visit the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and Ripoff Report (www.ripoffreport.com) to see if there are business complaints unrelated to authors. Things to watch for include complaints that books were not received and complaints of unpaid bills from suppliers.

After digesting these sources, and assuming you still wish to continue researching, I personally recommend doing a couple of custom Google searches.

+“QuestionablePressName” +(sucks|scam|warning)

The above search string should return any pages that have your potential publisher and the words “suck” or “scam” or “warning”.

At this point, you’re either putting stamps on a manuscript package or thanking your lucky stars that you avoided a scam. Hopefully it’s the former, and you’re on your way to not only being published, but being published well.

About the Author:

Write What You Know

March 4, 2015

Guy Anthony De Marco

Craft & Skills Guy Anthony De Marco 2 Comments

One of the most mentioned writing rule is to write what you know. It’s also one of the most misunderstood rules for authors.

If writers were to follow this rule blindly, whole genres would be swept from the literary world. Science Fiction? Since there’s no way to accurately predict the future at this time, nobody could write novels like Dune or the Foundation series. Fantasy? Magic doesn’t exist in this plane of existence, so Harry Potter and Game of Thrones are gone. Mysteries would only be written by law enforcement personnel and thrillers would be penned by spies (who would then lose their jobs because people would know what they did when they went to a book signing.)

A better way to look at this “rule” is to write what you can extrapolate, learn, or research, and to do it as accurately as possible.

If you’re writing a weird western tale, you need to be reasonably accurate. Having someone draw a semi-automatic pistol with a 13 round clip during a gunfight will not go over well with the western crowd, unless you’ve already established the story as a time-travel or alternate history version. You’d have to understand the weapons of the period. If a character in 1844 drew his Colt Dragoon Revolver, you’d lose some of your readers who know Dragoons were used by civilians from 1848-1860. It took me less than two minutes to research that firearm by looking at Wikipedia for “old west guns”, then picking one from the list at the bottom.

Now let’s turn our attention to a less “concrete” situation — having a character lose a family member. If you are fortunate enough to have never dealt with the death of a loved one, it’s difficult to imagine the hurt and loss. Trying to write about something so personal in a manner that will evoke emotion from your readers is a tricky thing to do when you have never experienced it in real life.

So, how can you “write what you know” when you really don’t know? Try one of these possibilities:

Read. Pick up a book that you’ve read before if it has a similar incident and you remember it as an emotional story. Analyze how they evoked different emotions and incorporate some of the techniques in your novel.
Talk. Find someone who’s willing to talk to you about how it felt to lose a loved one.
Be resourceful. Use your imagination to convince yourself you’ve lost the most important person in your life. You’ll be able to understand some of the feelings that your characters are going through.

Another angle folks take on the “write what you know” rule is to stick with writing only one genre. Poppycock, in my opinion. Experiment and write in different genres. Break that rule, and break it often. By expanding your writing abilities, and bringing different skillsets to bear, all of your stories will be more interesting.

Go dabble in horror, then ramp up the tension with a spy novel. Whatever you like to read, give yourself the opportunity to try writing it. Start with short stories, and if you end up enjoying the genre, dig in and write a novel. Even if there are stories you don’t normally read, such as historical novels or romance, try picking up some of them and give it a chance. You might find a new way to make your money disappear at the bookstore. At the very least, you can pick up some writing chops and add in better romantic elements into your military sci-fi novels.

So go ahead. Break this rule. Nobody will know, and I promise not to tell anyone unless you write a runaway bestselling novel.

About the Author:

Resolve to Resolve…

December 9, 2014

Guy Anthony De Marco

Guest Posts Guy Anthony De Marco The Writing Life 1 Comment

A guest post by Guy Anthony DeMarco.

With the holiday season in full swing, many folks decide to make a resolution for the upcoming New Year. With this in mind, here are several ideas to consider for 2015.

Resolve to Write.

Sometimes it seems silly to tell writers that they should write. Too many of them finish a big project, such as a novel, and spend far too much time tweaking, publishing, and promoting their book. Yes, these are important details, but the majority of your time should be spent writing your next book. If you have only four hours to devote to writing a day, three and a half should be spent on writing. As Dean Wesley Smith said, be a writer (one who writes) versus be an author (one who has written). The best way to be noticed is to have a large assortment of items for sale. Each book is a hook on a line. If you have one hook in the water, you may catch a fish. If you have twenty hooks in the water, the odds are a fish will notice one of those juicy worms and you’ll be dining on fish tonight.

Resolve to Complete Projects.

If you’re like me, you have dozens of half-finished projects that are taking up space on your hard drive. Make a decision to pick some of them and get them completed and in the marketplace. If you decide to take on a project, resolve to get it done, barring emergencies or medical disasters. A half-written project of 20K words is wasteful, so go over it, replot if necessary, and get it out the virtual front door.

Resolve to Learn About Writing.

There are quite a few blogs and websites that can keep you in touch with what’s happening in the marketplace. Ralan’s and Duotrope can help you spot markets that are open for submissions. Joe Konrath, The Passive Guy, and Hugh Howey have excellent blogs concerning self-publishing. Local conventions usually have a writing track, so bring a notepad and take notes. If you’re new to the Fictorians, go through the archives and see what catches your attention. Buy a book or three about writing, then actually read them. If you write off of the top of your head (aka a Pantser) or go through great troubles to plot out every detail of your story (aka an Plotter/Outliner), take some time to try out the other method. I personally find it’s easier to be a Pantser when writing short stories and flash fiction, but for a complex story or a novel, being an Outliner comes in handy.

Resolve to Learn About the Business of Writing.

This is a big resolution, and it will certainly take some time over 2015 to complete. The good thing is it can be easily done if you nibble on the elephant, one bite at a time.

Probably the easiest way to cover this resolution is to attend a seminar or workshop dealing with the business side of writing and publishing. The aforementioned Dean Wesley Smith conducts workshops on the west coast with his brilliant wife Krisine Kathryn Rusch. Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta run a seminar on the writing and publishing business each year in Colorado Springs, Colorado, called the Superstars Writing Seminar. The date for next year is February 5-7, 2015, and will feature Kevin, Rebecca, Jody Lynn Nye, James Artimus Owen, Eric Flint, Toni Weisskopf, and a host of additional top authors and editors. They cover everything you could ever wish to learn from award-winning professionals.

There are dozens of books on the business side of writing. While anyone can write a book and publish it, make sure the author has extensive experience before commiting to reading an advice-centric book. Dave Farland has several excellent books (not to mention an excellent free blog), and Wordfire Press in particular has a wide variety of business advice books.

Resolve to Learn About Copyrights.

This is a smaller resolution, one which every writer should know. There are plenty of folks who give bad advice on copyrights because they’re only parroting what they heard—and they heard it from someone who also didn’t have a clue.

In my opinion, the best book on copyrights is published by Nolo Press. It’s a longish book, but you will know exactly what a copyright is when you’re done. It would be a safe bet that you’d learn something new—something that contradicts what you believed for a long time—when you learn about what a copyright is and is not. For example, many new authors are convinced that copyrights cover ideas. They don’t—they only cover the execution of an idea, such as a finished book.

Take the time to learn how to be a professional writer and author. Not only will it help you avoid the pitfalls on your career path, but it will make your journey more enjoyable.

About the Author: