Known Pirate, rumored to be a reviewer (still researching the reviewer status)
IP: 69.141.193.242
ISP: Comcast Cable
Real name: Melissa Mergen
Address: vicinity of HWY 52 and Lenape Rd
City, State: West Chester, PA
Melissa,
perhaps you should research the legalities of stolen property distribution. Proof of your removal of all posted links to books you did not write will remove you from this spot. Your refusal to cease distribution of stolen property equals my refusal to cease broadcasting your information collected via other resources available to the general public.
Just file a complaint with the PA Attorney General who is running for Governor and looking for something to seize the headlines with, and let his office not only locate her but prosecute her. It's a headline making story. Tom Corbin is the AG.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Condor, and I will happily do so.
ReplyDelete@YouDoWhyCan'tI - Posting a person's real name, home address and IP address for all to see is WRONG and in violation of the Terms of Service. You and this blog have been reported for abuse.
ReplyDeleteYou know what the best part to all of this is? I'm not an author. What's even more interesting is that these pirates are pitching fits over this blog, something that cost no one a single cent, yet show no remorse about their distribution of hundreds of books they have no right to distribute almost hourly.
ReplyDeleteAnd if they were intelligent enough to read the TOS, they would see that I have not violated anything. :)
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteYou have failed to see things from poor Melissa's POV. You see, I am always intrigued by personality flaws (must be the author in me). I am not sure what her specific pathology is but I believe Melissa suffers from narcissim for starters and/or a borderline personality disorder.
I believe she is also a serious addict. She believes she is entitled to steal from me and many, many other authors. She gets irate when people don't respect her uploads (I have screen shots of her rantings).
She knows her activities are illegal and has said so on an Astatalk thread SHE created and yet she can't help herself.
So that's a third illness there, OCD.
She needs constant attention and she has made a job of uploading books to Astatalk on a consistent and daily basis.
She is sadly delusional, claiming she is a 110 pound teenager. Boy is she dreaming. I can't imagine how much candy she mows through as she sits online all day uploading other people's work!
This would be called fencing stolen property in the real world. She thinks her weight and age will keep her from being incarcerated (dream on, lady).
To further prove my point, she deleted all her files and profile as MRM89 on Astatalk after a damaging thread made her look real dumb. It has been circulated all over the internet which just goes to show Astatalk has no idea how ridiculous they are.
All this attention and they're still busy uploading illegal content!
Shiver me timbers!!
As for Melissa Mergen, she appears to be back in business this morning avidly uploading the SAME BOOKS as a new user Arctica 86.
Does she think we're all as stupid as she is and we haven't figured it out?
I hope some serious therapy, Jenny Craig, a chain gang and some heavy psychotropic meds help sort her muddled mind.
Thanks for the best blog EVER!
BTW, Shame On You, I am not an author. And if you had read Blogspot's TOS, you would see that I am not in violation of their TOS. I'll re-post it here in case you missed it in my other post or simply overlooked it the TOS.
ReplyDelete---clipped section---
Personal and confidential information: It's not ok to publish another person's personal and confidential information. For example, don't post someone else's credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, unlisted phone numbers, and driver's license numbers. Also, please keep in mind that in most cases, information that is already available elsewhere on the Internet or in public records is not considered to be private or confidential under our policies.
---end clipped section---
So now, Shame On You, where exactly have I violated the TOS? Especially since I merely posted what was already public and merely an intersection, not her precise address, which I do have in my possession, also from a public site?
"It's not ok to publish another person's personal and confidential information."
ReplyDeleteThat depends on where the information originated from and if the information retrieved from the original posted information is available to the general public.
ReplyDeleteThis means there are two responses to your comment.
No it is not if I have to pay to get it.
Yes it is if it was posted by the owner and available to the general public.
Since owner of the information is the person who originally posted the information I have, then yes, it is legal and okay for me to repost what the information’s owner posted. In addition, according to the TOS, as long as it came from a public source, this site is not in any violation.
Guess what?
All the information I have on each pirate is information that each pirate individually posted and all the other information on each pirate is available from no less than three, count them 3, search engines thousands of people use every day.
In case you hadn’t noticed, someone reported this blog for abuse in June. I have no doubt Blogspot did their obligatory investigation. However, since this blog is still here, it is my presumption that Blogspot did not find any violations of the TOS.
Is that so?? You don't feel what you are doing is an abuse?? How many people were aware as to the personal and confidential information of your suppose pirate before you posted it? Its a fine line you swing on.
ReplyDeleteAnd you twitter comment: "Sharing is letting go of what you want to share so who you want to share with can have it--sharing is not an upload or download link" so in essence if Megan had uploaded the ebook to her file save account and then when any of her friends asked she would just privately send them the link, that for you would qualify as "SHARING"??? If not then explain what the difference would be if it was a hard cover book and she loaned it to each friend who asked.
To each her own whatever your real name might be. As an author I get where you are coming from but harsh much...couldn't you stick to basic information; first name only, state...how mean are you??? You are not satisfied with just reporting this person...you have to post her details out to possible crazies...you go too far.
Me, I don't mind how people read my books as long as it gets out any more people want to get to read what I plan to pop out next..but that's me.
Basically don't be bitchy about finding pirates. You access to their unknown exposure of themselves on net does not give you the right to be obnixious and follow a stubborn approach to what you feel is a wrong to be righted. Your mama taught you better, we all learn to be better as we grow. Post basic details and report to authorities if that's your poison but don't be among the crowd that make a bad situation worse. Leave personal and confidential information as it should be. If the person had no idea that he/she had unwillingly put it out, that does not employ you the same...after all they shared a link to a novel not the personal details of the Author. Be fair as to what you put out. Every action has its consequences...even yours will come back to bite you in the *** someday if you keep it up this way. Just find a better approach...unless you as a person are very troublesome, then...
A word is enough for the wise.
If you drive a car you should know your insurance information, how to change a flat, what fluids go where and how to check them. If you don’t, you are risking being stranded and helpless.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think it’s reasonable to expect people to know and understand the items/machines they use. I consider it rather dangerous to place a car in my child’s hand unless my child had knowledge to care for and use the machine safely.
It’s relatively easy to learn what information you are posting by doing whatever you are doing on the net…all you have to do is ask, look or research a little.
If Megan uploaded one book to one and only one person and then the book vanished from Megan’s possession, that is sharing. For Megan to upload a link that allows as many people as she wants to gain a copy of the book, that’s pirating/illegal uploading because Megan not only still has a copy, but she has granted any number of people who ask for it a copy as well.
Is Megan giving only her friends a copy? If so, just how many friends does Megan have? In all essence, there should be a reasonable number of friends that can share before it becomes ridiculous. While 10 copies may seem reasonable to anyone, it’s common logic an author’s contract limits the number an author can hand out. If an author is limited, what grants any purchaser the right to pass out unlimited copies?
The difference, as I explained before, is no matter how many paperback copies she buys, once she hands it to someone, the book is no longer in her possession. Whether she buys 1 or 10 copies of Stephen King’s newest paperback book, she only has exactly that number she can hand out and then the books are no longer in her possession to hand out unless returned to her. Is it legal for her to make a scanner copy of that paperback book? No. And it is not legal for her to right click/make a copy of an eBook or post a link that allows downloads of that eBook because she does not have a contract with the author (aka the only legal copyright holder) to distribute the author’s work. So says the law.
Do you know what it’s like to have someone steal your life’s work? I do. No, I am not author, but the person who stole my work and did what they did destroyed any chance I had to provide something special for my family. Do I have a vendetta? Yeah. And since it was a pirated act, I have no qualms doing what I do, I feel no guilt for outing those who break the law and I do not regret anything I have said or done at this point. If you think I was harsh for what I revealed, you should see what I have kept hidden. You can look up the same information and get the same results, it’s not hard.
Do you care that maybe you have had only one sale and then nothing because the book was pirated? That’s not a made-up incident, but a true one that happened to not one author, but two. So does pirating affect an author? Yeah, it does.
Since a pirate ruined my family’s future, I think I have every right to reveal what I discover about pirates who are stealing and distributing someone’s work.
I am not being obnoxious, just straightforward.
My mama taught me not to steal and not to lie. I do report what I find.
In case you haven’t noticed, the ones I am outing involve countless files. What you don’t see are the ones that are being reported to the authorities.
According to the Google, Yahoo and all the other search engines out there, which is where I get my information from without paying a penny, the information is already PUBLIC and easily accessible and therefore legal to re-post by law.
Since requesting the pirates to cease and desist by email, letter and public statement does not work, what other option do you suggest I take? I simply reveal their activities and make them consider that if I, an amateur, can retrieve the little info I do post that a professional can get much, much more damaging data.
If it makes one pirate think…
Keep up the good work! When a person steals copyrighted work from another (i.e. an ebook, music or video file) they are STEALING. Last time I looked, stealing was a criminal offense. When a crime is prosecuted in court--all the "personal info" of the criminal is published in the docket, i.e. their name, address, etc. The public does have the right to know who the criminals are and how to protect themselves from the criminals' activities, right?
ReplyDeleteIf people don't want their "personal info" posted here as pirates--then they should STOP PIRATING. It's as simple as that.
And please--no more sob stories that these Pirates have OCD and other mental problems... I've worked with the mentally ill and they still have the ability to recognize right from wrong. Stealing is WRONG. I think God mentioned something about not stealing to Moses in the Ten Commandments, right? Let's follow God's law and we can all be happy. ;)