Indiana, the state where plagiarizing publishers are pampered. Consider the case of David B. Boyer, still on the loose selling plagiarized materials through Amazon, through Lulu, etc.. Consider the Consumer Fraud Division that won't shut him down because he's just stealing from writers. That's you and me.
Writers don't have rights, do they? A book full of stolen materials is a physical product and to sell it under false label (without the author's permission and under someone else's name) is consumer fraud. So why isn't the Assistant Attorney General of Indiana closing down the state's most blatant plagiarizing scam publisher- namely David B. Boyer of Vincennes, IN?
So I'm going to up the game and start writing to the Attorney General of Indiana, and congressmen in Indiana pointing out that this kind of lax enforcement gives their state a bad name.
Right now David B. Boyer is still selling plagiarized writing from a variety writers both known and unknown. He sells them under his own name and under many aliases.
We writers have to demand that the State Attorney General treat this as fraud.
Look, they want us all to file copyright infringement suits across state lines against nickel and dime con artists like David B. Boyer of Vincennes, IN. Well, the fact is creeps like Boyer are stealing from writers, producing a falsely labeled product and selling it across state lines via the Internet. It's a crime. They're criminals.
But because we're only writers and it's only "intellectual property," we're all supposed to roll over for these spineless thieves.
No way.
I'm going to start this ball rolling again. I'll take all the help I can get. You've all been great so far but I'm going to ask for your help again. We need to band together against this.
Plagiarism and re-publishing for profit is a crime and I'm going to work to see creeps like David B. Boyer locked up.
He sent me a confession. I can't wait to find the right law enforcement officer to send it to.
5 comments:
This guy sounds like a real little prick! Plagiarizing is just lame... it's like cheating in all your classwork; what happens when you get to the exam at the end of the year? There are no answers at the back of the book then. What happens when someone tells this guy to write to prove that he actually can? He won't be able to. What's he achieved? Nothing.
I think that this is par for most state guv'ments: Concentrate on the high profile things (i.e. repealing the death penalty, Sunday alcolhol blue laws) and give the things that matter the most to people (i.e. the economy, red ink, unemployment) the short end of the straw.
Theft is theft, no matter what it may be, and just because in this instance its something that is theoretically intangible, doesn't mean we should ignore it.
If the big industries and the federal guv'ment can make the honest effort in cracking down on stuff like this, why can't it be done on the local level?
Right on, Bonnee. What bothers me is that writers are treated like second class citizens. Imagine two calls received by the police.
Here's call 1: "What's that, a business is selling stolen bikes? Thanks for the tip, we'll go shut them down?"
Call 2: "What's that, a business is selling stolen stories? Isn't that a copyright issue? I'm afraid you'll need to retain an attorney specializing in intellectual property issues. Oh, the publisher is out of state? I'll think you'll need at least two lawyers- one in your state and the other in the state where the publisher is."
You get the idea. We let government treat stolen stories sold for profit as no big deal. It costs a fortune to even get into court, which is how they try to keep the courts free of "nuisances" like writers.
You're right, G. And that's how I'm going to push this.
I've always been a loner, and I thought when I encouraged people to write the Assistant AG of Indiana to treat stolen stories under Consumer Fraud law that he would at least consider it.
Now I'm finding out that if anything is going to be done to protect the writing community, it's going to need to be done as a community.
I'll start writing the various writing organizations to sign a petition to the man's boss, then the congressmen, then the Vincennes, IN City Council members.
The thing is, we all need protection against creeps like Boyer.
Hey, guess he's not hurting big enough celebrities or politicians. At least not yet!
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