Hi there, guy-who-I-won't-link-to-for-obvious-reasons,
I'm Wil Wheaton. I wrote Just A Geek, and I created the audiobook you're helping people steal. You may not know this, but I 'm just one guy, without a publisher, so when you help people steal this copy of Just A Geek by making it available for download, you're basically stealing directly from me. You're not stealing from some big publisher with deep pockets who is trying to rip you off with overpriced stuff; you are stealing directly from me, an indie artist and publisher who counts on every sale to make a living. I have to tell you, guy-who-I-won't-link-to-for-obvious-reasons, what you're doing sucks. It sucks a lot.
I worked hard on this audiobook. I invested almost 50 hours into the production, spread out over several weeks. I priced it under the average market price for audiobooks of its length, and I deliberately did not put DRM on it, because I don't believe in treating my customers like they are criminals. I mean, let's face it, guy-who-I-won't-link-to-for-obvious-reasons, DRM only punishes honest customers, because people like you, who steal from people like me, always find a way around it.
I notice that you have a nice big banner at the top of your webpage, imploring the people who are visiting your site to click on the ads you've put there, so you can keep the site running. I also see that you have a link for people to donate money to you. That's, um, that's rather ironic, isn't it? You are stealing from me and other authors, and then asking your fellow thieves to click on ads and give you donations, so you can make money from our work. Maybe it's just me, but that strikes me as what we would call "a real dick move."
I realize that I can't stop you from doing what you're doing. Even if I went through the hassle of filing DMCA takedown notices and filing complaints with the various authorities who handle this sort of thing, you'd just open up a new site somewhere else, and start all over again. But listen, guy-who-I-won't-link-to-for-obvious-reasons, maybe you don't realize that you're actually taking money right out of my pocket, and maybe you don't realize that what you're doing is no different than walking into a store, putting an audiobook under your jacket, and walking out with it. You're stealing from me, guy-who-I-won't-link-to-for-obvious-reasons, and I hope you'll read this, and stop.
I'd really appreciate it if you'd take these links down, and replace them with links to the place where people can purchase it from me, support my work, and ensure that I continue to release audiobooks without DRM or other annoying restrictions.
Thanks for listening,
Wil Wheaton
Sorry, but almost everything you wrote is wrong, misleading or irrelevent.
1. Just A Geek was apparently not CC licensed, so Creative Commons has nothing to do with this case. It is simple copyright infringement.
2. Some of the CC licenses allow commercial use and some don’t. CC as a whole is not anti commercial.
3. CC do not consider advertising to be commercial use, so this site would in fact be fine if it was sharing CC works. But see point 1.
pandave, the only reason it remotely resembles a “marketing technique” is because so many of Wil’s fans have got his back, largely (I feel) because they like the kind of person he has shown himself to be. Otherwise, I think some people would offer their advice for how to get even with the nameless bandit, some would post a “man, that sucks” comment, but the dominant reaction would be to say, “meh”, and click over to the next blog in their Favorites list. I don’t think you’d see a lot of the “I must strike a blow for Right by giving Wil my money forthwith!” reaction we’re seeing. JM2cW.
I am not sure where in my post I even IMPLIED that stealing in any form was right, justified, or appropriate. And I fail to see how attacking my personal ethics moves any dicussion forward. My comment was ment to speak more towards the impact of the crime (and yes any theft is a crime). But thank you for reminding me why I usually do not post in public forums.
Got linked to this from Fark, and I must say – classy move, Wil. I had no idea you wrote a book. My knowledge of you was from your acting, and I have recently been enjoying listening to you play D&D in the podcasts. I am definitely going to buy a copy of your audiobook if for no other reason than to possibly offset one of the illegal downloads this guy helped to promote.
Have a great day!
I was not referring to JAG. I am well aware that it is not covered under CC. I was speaking in hypothetical IF JAC was under CC like some of Wil’s other work.
I was also speaking to how CC can be used, nothing more or less and how some artists have said their material covered under CC can be distributed. I am also aware that there are other uses. However, since in every thing Wil has produced that does happened to fall under CC, he states it is for non-commercial use.
I do not understand why you would not support CC. It allows people to freely share with others without having to worry about breaking laws. I am trying to understand your POV here. There is no need to be defensive.
Thieves suck. I’m sorry.
I do support CC, or at least I did until Anne Nonimusse s informed me that CC are claiming copyright is property. If true, I believe that would go against the founding principals of the movement. I have not checked out whether it is true – perhaps Anne is simply wrong.
The reason I posted is I am confused as to whether Wil supports CC. He has released works under CC licenses, so I thought he did. But when his copyright is infringed he starts using words like ‘theft’ to imply that copyright is property. It might seem like a subtle distinction, but I think it’s fundamental to the whole free culture movement to remember that copyright infringement and theft and two completely different things. One is a crime while is merely a civil offence. But there are a lot of powerful corporate interests trying to blur the distinction.
Wil: Just saw this. Frankly “dick move” doesn’t cover it.
Folks, for those who get this far: Wil is one of the most outspoken and honest people when it comes to DPRM, Creative Commons licensing, Open Source, and all things technological. Albeit it was the devil’s advocate, I don’t believe Wil is going “Snidley Whiplash” on us, wringing his hands and creating an amazing marketing scheme to sell more books. It’s not in his DNA to do that. Look at the motto: “Don’t be a dick.” That would totally violate that.
I applaud Wil for taking the high road, and suggest we as a community support Wil to the fullest in whatever way we can, whether that’s just venting here, or buying his book, or letting others know that this dood is an el-schmuck-o.
Although, Wil could have hooked up with Peter’s evil brother Thaddeus to do concoct such a scheme….Nyah! Nyah!
That guy is a total cock-knocker. There I said it for you. I know you wanted to say something like that, but in the interest of diplomacy, you hands were stayed from typing something more colorful to this douche bag. It’s a real shame when people take something away from someone else, who obviously worked really hard on it. It’s also not like you don’t sell your books for cheap enough. It was a steal (no pun intended) compared to other audio books.
I released a song about three years ago for .79 a download on a friends website and well I don’t have iTunes money so I was unable to protect it with digital protection so for a while I was going alone selling about 50 a month, not great money, but it was comic book money. Then one day I found the song on a website, from a former friend of mine. Well at the time he was a friend, but I think you understand why he is a former friend now. Anyways he was giving the song away for free. I didn’t, couldn’t really do anything about it, but it really pissed me off. You are a popular person, who has a huge following and I was a little fish in a huge internet pond, but I know what it feels like. It was terrible. I wish you the best of luck in getting this guy to take it off his site. You deserve the money for what you created, just like I did.
Don’t let this giant smegma stain ruin a perfectly good day. Keep up the good work and your true friends/fans will continue to support you.
Michael
By saying that it is different, that seems to imply that it hurts someone more than someone else.
Sadly, no matter how hard I try, I can’t grow my mustachio long enough to twirl it.
Wil – I am so sorry that you are experiencing stress over the actions of an unethical, self-centered idiot. Although the possible lost earnings is of great importance to you, and all of us who work hard to support ourselves, I think it is also important to note that this bonehead has a total disrespect for you by taking advantage of your talent and generosity. And profiting by that disrespect – yuck.
I hope that is it a small comfort that so many of your fans have rallied to your defense and praised your efforts to be such a giving artist. Since the download is not possible here at my work, I will wait until I get home and purchase it there. I have almost all of your collected works (with the exception of two of your chapbooks that you sold at events attended), including the audio for JAG. But I have yet to grab the audio version of HDOOL, and this issue has inspired me to get off my ass.
This person-who-shall-not-be-named will get what is coming to him/her/it, times three – that’s just the way the universe works. Yay for that. Don’t let this harden your heart – there are still many wonderful, loyal people (like most of the posters here) who will support you, emotionally and financially. Sending you a comforting virtual hug…..
There’s also the TWiT Army. We have a knack for killing websites just by having them mentioned on any of the shows. Or in the IRC chat. Or on the website. If we can noticeably slow Bing down, we can drop this guy’s site.
I know this may not be the place to mention this, Wil, but I do have reasonable rates. And I’ve never tried to hide a body in Malaysia before…. Hmmmm.
Yeah, this guy did a really dick move, and, I suspect, he will not change. Whacking his money stream is probably the only way to get him to listen. Or, you know, the above offer…
Just a follow-up to my post – the website to purchase is overloaded, and I had problems with my redirect to download the mp3. David Lawrence responded right away to my e-mail, and sent me a fresh link. I just want to say, hooray for good service, and I look forward to listening to your book!
You nailed it right on the head. There’s entire generations of people alive now that grew up with the instant gratification “give it to me now” mentality, which goes hand in hand with bootlegging and pirating. There are people walking around who have never purchased an album in their entire lives and it’s only getting worse, what with the availability of bootleg movies that they can download right to their iPhones, books that they can download right to their Kindle and audiobooks that they can download right to their iPods. No wonder society is becoming more and more screwed up. Nobody has a moral compass anymore, and that’s just sad. These people will never know the satisfaction of working hard to save up the money to treat themselves to a movie, CD, book, etc. What they don’t realize is that ultimately, they’re cheating themselves just as much as they’re cheating the people that they rip off. How sad.
…maybe you don’t realize that what you’re doing is no different than walking into a store, putting an audiobook under your jacket, and walking out with it.
Actually, its more like they walked into your house and put the audiobook copy under their jacket. Stealing from a store would be more like a deep-pockets situation.
You work for a living or your bills don’t get paid.
I’m curious, did your wife had any choice words?
Looks like the download links are down now. Win?
Am I the only person who wants to start referring to Guy-who-Wil-won’t-link-to Lord Voldemort, instead? No copyright infringement intended towards J.K. Rowling, but every time I read that title it reminds me of He-who-must-not-be-named. Better yet, I think I’m going to rename him Guy-who-is-about-to-have-Danyiel’s-foot-in-his-ass.
That’s great news, and yes, I’d call it a win.
Thank you, everyone who supported me!
Based on the information provided by other commenters:
1. Sending a DMCA to the ISP might be useless. I’d still send one anyway. To where the actual file is stored. Since where the actual file is stored is hosting the material.
2. The domain owner appears to use a Malaysian domain registrar, Malaysia is one of those countries that have weak copyright laws.
3. The PayPal donate button is absolutely certain a violation of the PayPal polices, in that they forbid Paypal being used on sites that encourage copyright infringement.
4. The Google ads, can be reported to google for 1. for being on a website encouraging clicking, 2. being on a website hosting copyright infringing materials.
5. If this is being done by a run of the mill pirate from south asia or eastern-europe, chances are it’s impersonal and they are unlikely to voluntarily remove the content.
6. By publishing this on your blog, you may unintentionally cause a mob to destroy the site anyway, win-win.
Well obviously I cannot speak for Wil on that one point.
However, my understanding on copyright (and I am far from an expert here) is that it protects your property from being distributed, copied, etc., in a fashion that is no according to the owner’s consent. It gives the owner of said property to right to keep control over distribution. It is protecting their property.
Maybe it is not stealing or theft in a criminal code type of way (I really do not know but I understanding is that it is a criminal offense) but it is still theft regardless. By copying something that is not your property it is stealing. What else would be the point of copyright if not to protect someone’s property from being duplicated etc?
I think that maybe people are getting stuck on a word, but that is just me. I understand that maybe the use of the word “theft” may have huge implications on the movement to be able to freely distribute media. However, it is a double edged sword. Those that produce these things we get to consume need to eat and make a living. We do not yet live in Gene Roddenberry’s world where people get to do what they love and don’t need to worry about making money doing it. They have bills to pay. They deserve the right (when they chose) to have their property protected from illegal distribution. Last I understood, piracy was punishable with fine and or jail time. Again I could be way off base here but I swear that is what those FBI warnings tell me and my cable provider tells me in their anti-piracy commercials that it is in fact a criminal offense punishable by law.
Hey Will –
That truly sucks. I would never encourage people to do illegal acts and things, being a Boy Scout type and all, but it sure seems to me that if someoneS with fairly high-capacity internet connections and programming skills could figure out a way to set a browser to download his five largest files over and over and over again, this individual might find himself/herself/itself looking at some pretty big internet fees – and the ISP may shut them down because they’ve gone over their account limit, or something.
But that’s probably not the sort of behavior one should encourage, because it is… well, unethical, one supposes. Then again, there is that saying – something about what goes around comes around, isn’t it?
(cue evil chuckle, fade to black).
I’m just sayin’ is all…
Looks like you have more support than you may have thought Wil. Folks, having bought the JAG and HDooL audiobooks and had hours of enjoyment with I thoroughly recommend them. People like Wil and David Lawrence need and deserve our support.
He’s using Hotfile.com for his hosting and I can almost guarantee you that if you file a simple takedown they’ll yank his files within 24 hours:
http://hotfile.com/reportabuse.html
You should do it!
So, just to be clear, it WOULD be cool if he put it up for download if you had a big-pocketed publisher distributing the book?
Copyright ‘protects’ (or restricts) the expression of ideas. It has nothing to do with property. You seem to have already fallen victim to the propaganda and confusion of language that creative commons was created to fight against.
You might like to start your education here: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/not-ipr.xhtml
Why is it different if you’re stealing from a corporation? Stealing is stealing. Who cares how deep the pockets are?
Grant as far as I can tell Jive Ass Sleepers music is available through Magnatunes which only sells licensed music so you BUY your membership and buy a license to use the downloads on that site. Check out the licensing page for more information.
Happy National Sarcastic Awareness Week dude!
Just A Geek and The Happiest Days of our Lives audiobooks were easily worth every penny I spent. I think that true fans should and will pay for the item. I think this should be thought of as an open letter to the public to do the right thing and then sites like the one which shall not be named wouldn’t matter.
David totally rocks and does a great job with support of the site in my experience.
I had to look it up myself as I have to deal with copyright and royalties on a daily basis in my job working for and managing a media outlet.
According to the US site it copyright protects property.
“Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.” http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
According to Canadian Law, it is indeed both a civil and criminal matter depending on what part of the law was broken. “If one does not obtain appropriate permission from the copyright owner(s) to use protected works, both civil and criminal penalties can be imposed.”
http://www.yorku.ca/univsec/documents/copyright/StudentFAQ.htm
http://www.yorku.ca/univsec/documents/copyright/text1.htm
As soon as someone creates something, it does not even have to become published yet, it is protected under the law from duplication. There doesn’t even have to be a copyright notice.
I fail to see how anything you quoted says that copyright is anything to do with property. If you’d bothered to read the link I posted you’d know that the term ‘Intellectual property’ (which is the only mention of property in your quote) is a misnomer and does not refer to property.
You’re right that some forms of copyright infringement are now criminal offences in some countries, but this is a fairly recent development that is being pushed for by corporate lobbyists. It doesn’t mean copyright infringement is anything to do with physical theft however – the laws are quite separate.
I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t think you’ve understood anything I’ve posted so I’m not going to read any further replies from you.
“Borrowing” what we poor artists put out IS stealing. There is no grey area here. How much money do you think the average musician or writer makes? If you guess nothing, then you’d be right. People put their sweat, their time and their talent into creating something and every average Joe thinks they are entitled to “borrow” it because they can’t justify paying for it? What if you spent years of your life on a job and was later told the company couldn’t justify paying you because they weren’t sure they liked all the work you did? Does that make you think twice? Self-entitlement is so pathetic.
Just checked the site: Google ads are still down, but he’s deleted all the comments referring to the theft and blocked commenting. The links are still active.
He’s deleted all the comments except one in favor of the DL posted by “Picard”, turned off any further commenting, and the links are still active.
dick.
He was exceedingly polite and helpful to my e-mail. Made me glad to miss the link only so that I could be so courteously directed to a fresh one! You don’t get such friendly service much these days. Thanks David!
über dick.
This happened to us with some copyrighted graphics my husband sells online. Some are free, some aren’t, and the ones that aren’t cost all of a few bucks. And with all his work, he’s skeptical of CC, but he sticks to the social norms of “ask and ye shall receive” for anyone who wants to port his work or tweak it or what have you.
The worst case was a software developer actually stealing the icons and posting them under a name that rhymed with my husband’s online name.
But the sweet moment of victory came when the dick shot himself … in the dick. He went to a few forums and claimed that it was his right. When it was pointed out otherwise, he said he didn’t do it. When that was proven false, he said “well we’re in different countries so they can’t do anything.”
He didn’t seem to realize he totally admitted guilt there. What happened was that no one uses his crappy program anymore and his “company” doesn’t even exist.
Of course the wharezes sites are just about impossible to battle. There was one that was like your case though – dumb enough to put the Paypal donate button and have google ads.
Like here, while the ISP ignored us, Paypal and Google did not.
It was the taste of sweet victory when they started trying to internet detective us, trying to hack all our various accounts. We knew we’d effectively made business hard for them, and that felt good.
So yeah, start changing passwords on your favorite sites. Because it’s OK for them to steal from you, but woe be to you for stealing from them. 😉 It’s annoying, but it feels good to know that you pissed them off.
It’s also nice to see so many great comments here, with only a handful of dick ones. It’s traumatic to see content you’ve made appear elsewhere on the nets without your knowledge or consent. I’m not even talking copyright here, just rather the ethics of it. Anyone who thinks Wil is trying to Puppetmaster his own personal disaster must have dropped out of school in the 1st grade.
/Already purchased JAG audio and print ages ago.
//The audiobook is so totally worth it, even if you hate audiobooks. It’s an audiobook for people that hate audiobooks.
Oh Wil I’m so sorry someone would do this to you. 🙁 I truly hope he will stop. Thanks for posting this though, people need to understand what truly happens on these kind of sites. Keep up the great work- you are very appreciated by me and countless others.
love ya!
Kathy Porter
Just as an update – the files that the website-that-shall-not-be-named links to have been removed by hotfile.com – yay!
After my next paycheck, I’m going to buy at least the paper version of the book, and (hopefully) both, in order to make up for the dick that pirated it. 🙂
Downloaded it. Honestly, I would have been disappointed had I paid $35 even though parts were interesting.
Did you ever consider pricing this a little more competitively? $5 or $10 for a digital download would make it available to many more people whom have limited budgets for this sort of thing (and make far more sense). Remember, the ones and zeros are costing you nothing at this point. Piracy isn’t theft.
Something to think about.
I’ll just check it out in our city library. If I like it I’ll let my friends know about it so they can check it out when I’m done. Oh wait, someone said that’s stealing, not borrowing. I guess you’ll have to send a DMCA letter to all the libraries eh Wil? Why don’t you call them dicks too huh? Blast those public libraries for taking your hard earned money eh? Who ARE they for letting me and my friends read YOUR work for FREE!! MY God! I mean, were not talking about some rag like Tom Sawyer or The Red Badge of Courage. I mean we’re talking the mighty work of WIL WHEATON!!
Scr%w you, you money grubbing has-been. I’d rather watch Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow than listen to you cry you don’t have any money or read your crap. You know, that co-star of yours who encourages kids to go to library to read?
That’s some played-out, new-jack, horse-crap!
Good on you sir for handling this brigand with class and dignity, you really are a class act. I doth my chapeau to you.
Having said that, if you would like some dark, clandestine nerd-wraith to handle this situation with decidedly less class and dignity I’m sure you’ll have no shortage of volunteers thrusting their arms into the air shouting OOH! OOH! PICK ME! PICK ME!
I send my best wishes for swift and brutal treatment of this tiny, vile, thieving, scum-fuck.
DON’T BE A DICK!
Pretty lame. I hope someone slaps his ass down. I’ve set aside a bookmark to buy the audiobook when I have some spare expendable cashola.
Just as an aside; holy crap, you did a voice acting part in Secret of NIMH! I had no idea, but I was streaming it off HULU and was checking Wikipedia on it just for grins and there was Wil Wheaton as Martin Brisby. You were in something I loved even before Stand By Me. Sweet. 🙂
You know, the devil doesn’t really need advocates, or disingenuous arguments. If you didn’t mean what you said, why did you bother saying it?
does anyone here watch burn notice?
in the words of fiona: “shall we shoot him?”
seriously, if *we* contact the dick’s server host wil won’t have to. . .
Oh hey, if it’s just a delay and I’ll get it eventually, awesome. I’m not in any kind of hurry, and if it’s just because we’re all jumping up and down to buy your book, then… double plus awesome.
We’ve recently stepped into indie developer land, so posts like this are particularly frustrating. It just makes me want to curl my fists into a tight ball and squeeze so the blood isn’t there. And shake them at the screen while making a menacing facial expression. Yea.