Wow, this is very scary => Independent Publishing and DMCA Abuse, or “How a Scammer Got My Book Blocked with Very Little Effort” <= and it’s a currently ongoing case.
Basically, some a-hole sent a fake DMCA notice to Smashwords and Amazon and got Becca Mills’ book “Nolander” taken down. Then he turned around and contacted her, offering sympathy that her book was taken down. From the emails, he’s about a step away from offering to help her get it back up… probably with a request for money.
How did he do it? Well, it looks like he posted snippets from her book on a WordPress site, then pointed Amazon and Smashwords to it and claimed that her book — which was published in 2013 — was published earlier in 2011.
A few backdated posts, and all of a sudden an author is looking at trouble. How dumb is that?
“Nolander” is back up on Smashwords, but remains unavailable from Amazon at this time.
I believe that DMCA Notices can be a powerful tool for authors fighting to keep their works from being distributed without their permission. But I kind of figured a bit of research would be done by companies like Smashwords and Amazon.
Google requires several bits of proof that you’re the copyright holder and that your work is being infringed upon. What’s up with Amazon/Smashwords not even bothering to listen?
