Romance Writers of America® Supports Authors in the War Against Internet Piracy

RWA® to provide a clearing house of file-sharing sites and instructions for copyright holders to protect their works.

Romance Writers of America (RWA), a professional association representing 9,800 romance writers, is committing its resources to providing information on how to protect copyrighted works and help fight the growing problem of Internet piracy. As theft of intellectual property affects all creators, RWA hopes to raise awareness of this issue and assist authors with the knowledge to demand take down of unauthorized copies of their works by establishing a clearing house for authors of all genres.

RWA recently published a list (please see list below) of websites that contain unauthorized downloads or other copies of copyrighted romance novels. The list includes contact information for the website administrators and links to each website’s takedown procedures. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires online service providers to promptly block access to infringing material (or remove such material from their systems) when they receive notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder. The information provided by RWA includes instructions for sending notice to these websites as well as a sample takedown letter.

The database containing the list of these websites and other related information can be found under “RWA News” at the association’s website, www.rwanational.org. Due to the nature of piracy and the fact that this service was originally intended for RWA members, the list is by no means complete; writers are encouraged to report similar, additional sites by sending information to reportpiracy@rwanational.org.

Change can only happen through the combined efforts of everyone affected. Agents, publishing professionals, and writers are urged to utilize and contribute to the database maintained by RWA. Permission to forward this release is granted and strongly encouraged. For more information or questions regarding RWA’s list of Internet piracy sites, contact Carol Ritter, Professional Relations Manager, at (832) 717-5200 ext. 127.

Sample Takedown Letter

If you have granted electronic rights to a publisher, please be sure to check with the publisher to verify that it has not granted a site the right to post the work.

* On April 25, 2008 RWA verified that the websites listed below contained books that could be downloaded or would transfer users to websites to download books.

File Sharing Sites
Company	Site	Contact Information	Procedures/Contact Information for Take-Down Requests
4 Shared	www.4shared.com	http://www.4shared.com/contact.jsp	http://www.4shared.com/ copyrightReport.jsp?link
The Audiobook Emporium	http://www.audiobookemporium.ca/ website points users to other file sharing sites, such as RapidShare, which is based in Switzerland	Information not found	Information not found
Badongo	www.badongo.com *Website may attempt to download software on user's computer	http://www.badongo.com/about/ contactus	http://www.badongo.com/? page=bcopyright
Box.net	http://www.box.net/	http://www.box.net/about/ contact	Email legal@box.net
Direct File Access	http://www.directfileaccess.com /index.php * will direct user to an adult site to process a credit card payment	http://www.directfile access.com/support.php	Information not found
DivShare	http://www.divshare.com/ Note: The best way to tell if a DivShare user has uploaded one of your copyrighted works is to put your name or book title and DivShare into a search engine such as Google.	http://www.divshare.com /page/support	Email support@divshare.com Mail Diversion Web Publishing, LLC Attn: DivShare Intellectual Property P.O. Box 605 Manlius, NY 13104
Esnips	www.esnips.com	Yaron Alkolombre eSnips Ltd. POB 8858 Poleg Industrial Park Netanya, Israel 42507 Telephone: +972-9-865-3789 Facsimile: +972-9-8855240 Email: notice@esnips.com	http://www.esnips.com/ statments/terms.jsp
Fanfiction	www.fanfiction.net A fan fiction site. At least one Author has reported finding her book reproduced with only the title and the character's names changed. The site was notified and the book was removed.	support@fanfiction.net	support@fanfiction.net
Figator or Filedonkey	www.figator.com or www.filedonkey.com WWW.figator.com is a search that transferred to another site called www.filedonkey.com which either required software to be downloaded or transferred to other sites.	Information not found	Information not found
In.solit.us	http://in.solit.us/	http://in.solit.us/contact	http://in.solit.us/about/terms
IpMart	http://www.ipmart-forum.com/	Lot 2975, Plot 6 Block 10, Ground Floor 3 rd Miles, Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce Kuching, 93150	Information not found
MediaFire	www.mediafire.com Note: The public files on this site can only be found via search engines such as Google. For example, type in “author name and MediaFire” and view the search results to see if your work shows up as a downloadable file via MediaFire. *may redirect user to www.rapidshare.com for downloads	http://www.mediafire.com /contact_us.php	Email abuse@mediafire.com
Megaupload	www.megaupload.com *Website may attempt to download software on user's computer	http://www.megaupload.com/ ?c=contact	http://www.megaupload.com /?c=abuse
MiHD.net	http://mihd.net *User must sign up and download software on computer to use website.	http://mihd.net/contact	Email administrator@mihd.net
Rapid Share	http://rapidshare.com/	RapidShare AG Gewerbestrasse 6 CH-6330 Cham Schweiz	Email abuse@rapidshare.com http://rapidshare.com/ en/imprint.html
Real Haunted Places	Click here for link Site will re-direct to another site for downloads.	isoHunt, Inc. Allen Parker Email: copyright@isohunt.com Telephone: 1(213) 234-7555 Instructions on contacting website can be found here.	Email copyright@isohunt.com copyright@isohunt.com
Scribd	http://www.scribd.com/	http://www.scribd.com/contact	http://www.scribd.com/copyright
WarezQuality	http://www.warezquality.com/ Note: The best way to tell if a WarezQuality user has uploaded one of your copyrighted works is to put your name or book title and Warezquality into a search engine such as Google. * may direct user to an adult site to process a credit card payment	Note: This is a site with a paid membership. The only public contact information found, is: qualitymember@gmail.com .	Information not found
XBoard.us	http://www.xboard.us/	http://www.xboard.us/ sendmessage.php	http://www.xboard.us/ sendmessage.php

Online Communities
Company	Site	Contact Information	Procedures/Contact Information for Take-Down Requests
LiveJournal, Inc., dba LiveJournal.com	http://community.livejournal.com /ebookshare/profile *User must join online community.	http://www.livejournal.com/contact/	http://www.livejournal.com/ legal/dmca.bml
LiveJournal, Inc., dba LiveJournal.com	http://community.livejournal.com /_audiobookshare/ *User must join online community.	http://www.livejournal.com/contact/	http://www.livejournal.com /legal/dmca.bml