If you haven’t heard of ebook.bike, it is a website that lets its users post pirated ebooks for anyone to download. Not only do they list files, but actively promote popular pirated titles for people to download. The piracy site has a ton of authors including including many LitRPG ebooks. Travis Robert McCrea, the site founder and manager, has also regularly been accused of ignoring Take Down and DMCA notices sent by authors.
His response to the accusations?
“If people don’t think that I am upholding my duties as a web developer or the website owner to prevent copyrighted material from entering my website ... take me to court,” he said. “I’m confident that I’m upholding the letter of the law.”
(https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2019/03/09/authors-irritated-by-smug-defence-of-vancouver-website-they-say-is-stealing-their-work.html )
Well, John Van Stry, author of the Portals of Infinity series, Valen’s Legacy series, and Days of Future Past series, has had enough and is suing the founders and managers of that site. He’s already invested over $19K of his own money in the legal battle with piracy site eBook.Bike.
Now, John Van Stry has started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover future legal costs associated with the battle and readers and authors have responded. He’s raised $20K of the $30K goal in just a few days, which reflects the sheer frustration that authors have had with the site.
On a related note, Travis Robert McCrea tried to also do a GoFundMe to cover his side of the legal expenses but it was shut down, likely because it violated some terms of service or because of user complaints.
You can read a little about many author’s issues with McCrea and his responses at the link below.
https://www.gofundme.com/bring-ebookbike-to-justice
http://eroticauthorsguild.org/1-main.pdf
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2019/03/09/authors-irritated-by-smug-defence-of-vancouver-website-they-say-is-stealing-their-work.html
