Pirate Sites and Copyright Violation

**AndyDuframe** · #1 06-23-2012, 11:11 AM

Being new to this forum, I'm curious what the members here think about piracy issues, and how concerned you are (or not) about copyright material being distributed on the Web without permission. I've noticed some people go to a lot of effort to protect their stuff (or at least attempt to protect it), while others pay little attention to what the hacker sites are doing.

I fall into the latter category. I've been in the business of selling downloadable PDFs (for myself and past employers) for over ten years now. I suspect that most of these PDFs eventually find their way to the pirate sites, but I've never really bothered paying much attention to that. I don't notice my sales hurting as a result, although I can't say I have any way of measuring this exactly. My sense is that most of my customers are not really the type of people who go online looking for stolen merchandise to begin with. And since the pirate sites rarely show up in search engine results for my targeted keywords (at least in my niche), I don't really feel that threatened. I fact, I've never taken any action against perpetrators, even though I know they are out there.

In some ways I almost welcome the thievery. Knowing that my PDFs will likely be stolen and distributed at some point in time, I just make sure the files include plenty of links back to my website, along with promotional offers for other products I sell. If a pirate site can put my stolen PDF in the hands of a few hundred people, I should probably pay them for the free advertising.

What are your thoughts?

**Rubenandres77** · #2 06-23-2012, 12:09 PM

A long and heated debate can be read here: Pirated Models !
In that thread many members of this forum expressed their feelings about it.
That's great reading, and will probably answer your question.

edit.
Even more information, opinions and thoughts here:
More Copyright Questions

**mbauer** · #3 06-23-2012, 12:19 PM

A crook is a crook.

Low life individual that I wouldn't want living next door to me or my family!

Mike

**josh** · #4 06-23-2012, 12:24 PM

just don't engage in downloading/building pirated models....enough said.

**paper hollywood** · #5 06-23-2012, 12:29 PM

PDF file piracy is an odd thing. They steal paid things and post them for free and steal free things and post the for pay. I think in the area of paid items, as with yours, the piracy problem depends greatly upon the market. For instance, a lady looking for crochet designs is less likely to seek a pirated item than a teenager looking for a video game-related files.

Surprisingly, most of the annoyance I hear of on these forums is about the stealing and selling of model files already offered for free. One of the greatest designers is so plagued by this that he tries to limit access of his files. My favorite solution is by the wonderful Paper Replika site. He makes users click that they've read a usage statement and has passworded the PDFs with his website's name. Anyone who bought a file from an illicit seller would quickly realize it came from a free site.

**AndyDuframe** · #6 06-23-2012, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubenandres77

A long and heated debate can be read here:

Okay...I see now this is kind of an old (and tired) topic. Guess that's what happens when newbies pop into an established forum

Seems like it might be a topic worthy of a sticky, though.

I think airdave probably did the nicest job (in that thread) of summing up the situation in regard to "free" downloads:

1. Files that are free to download are NOT free to share.

2. Files that are free to download can not be resold.

3. If you want to share a file, you must only share a link to the original file sharing location.

4. There are no exceptions to these rules without permission of the original owner/designer.

**AndyDuframe** · #7 06-23-2012, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paper hollywood

Surprisingly, most of the annoyance I hear of on these forums is about the stealing and selling of model files already offered for free.

This is also a huge issue/problem right now in the woodworking plans market. People are getting kind of pissed that they just spent $50 for plans that they could have downloaded for free in the first place. In response, Google is trying to squeeze the affiliate sites (that make commissions on the pirated plans) off of page one results and out of their Adwords program, but it's kind of a runaway train that's hard to stop. Wherever money is to be made, people find a way.

**Zakopious** · #8 06-23-2012, 09:17 PM

Passwords might be enough to keep PDF files off of pirate sites.
Does anyone know of a PDF file with password which appeared on a pirate site ?

**papersmithforge** · #9 06-23-2012, 11:33 PM

As a point of interest, PDF password circumvention/removal software exists, so that isn't a particularly effective means of prevention. Presumably what it does is that since the password is readily available, pirates don't have a problem distributing it along with the password and take no measure to remove it. The password is essentially performing the same function as a watermark.

**Zakopious** · #10 06-24-2012, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by papersmithforge

As a point of interest, PDF password circumvention/removal software exists, so that isn't a particularly effective means of prevention. Presumably what it does is that since the password is readily available, pirates don't have a problem distributing it along with the password and take no measure to remove it. The password is essentially performing the same function as a watermark.

Do you know of a PDF file with password which appeared on a pirate site ?

Ken