Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

The site readfrom.net is stealing from authors, pirating their books, and offering the books for free, without notifying the authors and of course without paying royalties. My McAfee anti-virus program identifies this as a risky site, so anyone who goes there may run into cyber trouble. There’s no value to such a site offering free books unless they do something sketchy when you click. If you’re an author, be careful what you click on as you check to see if your work is there. Just search, don’t click on links. Another site, readanybook.com, also looks quite suspect. They offer new releases and best sellers supposedly free. And they make it very hard to contact them or send a DMCA without clicking on a potentially risky link. If you’re a reader, buy from legitimate, reputable outlets such as Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Scribd, and Smashwords. Rent an eBook from your library if they have Hoopla or Overdrive or another such system. Authors need to get paid. And readers need to avoid risky web sites.

Many thanks for the heads-up, Amber!

Amber wrote: "The site readfrom.net is stealing from authors, pirating their books, and offering the books for free, without notifying the authors and of course without paying royalties. My McAfee anti-virus pro..."

thanks amber, as authors we all need to report these sites for unlawfully giving away property/books without permission...

Amber wrote: "The site readfrom.net is stealing from authors, pirating their books, and offering the books for free..."

Thanks very much for the alert !

Amber, thank you so much for this. I appreciate not only the warning, but the details about suspect links as well!

Best,

Michael

I tried contacting the sites to have them take down my books. Nothing from the first. The second--what a surprise-- has an overfull mailbox and can't answer.

Amber wrote: "The site readfrom.net is stealing from authors, pirating their books, and offering the books for free, without notifying the authors and of course without paying royalties. My McAfee anti-virus pro..."

It sounds like they are harvesting emails which are then sold on the black market. If you can locate what web host these sites are on, try sending them the DMCA.

Bec, thanks for that insight about harvesting emails. That makes it unsafe to email as well as to click on the book links.

I just received an email purporting to be from Goodreads and threatening to post my work on readfrom.net if I don't stop "spamming" this site.
Here's the message:

Jessie asked
WE HAVE A COPY OF GOLD!, WHICH WE WILL UPLOAD TO TPB, readfrom.net AND OTHER PIRATE SITES, IF YOU KEEP ON SPAMMING OUR GOODREADS SITE. ONLY WAY TO STOP US IS TO STOP ASKING FOR BOOK REVIEWS HERE PERMANENTLY. QUIT SPAMMING THIS SITE IF WE DON'T WANT US TO TAKE AFORESAID ACTIONS; YOUR LAWS CAN'T HARM US. DECIDE FAST?

It obviously isn't from GR. I don't know what they want. I suppose they're hoping I'll follow one of the links in the message. That's not going to happen!! LOL.
Has anyone else received a similar message?

No. But if they want to look bad, they've succeeded. They've even admitted to pirating.

I have, I even made a meme mocking them and put it on Twitter. Granted, it got me banned from the erotica authors group because, apparently, denouncing people pirating books is not "on topic" with being a book author (who knew?) but I had a good laugh.

Amber wrote: "No. But if they want to look bad, they've succeeded. They've even admitted to pirating."

Some people wonder if AI is sentient, but every time I spend more than a minute on social media I wonder if the people on it are even capable of boiling water.

Hello, I'm writing here for the first time. I got the same message twice from the same "person." Just the other day. It freaked me out because I was hacked last year on FB, and it was a nightmare to straighten out. I reported it right away, and it disappeared from my dashboard. I mentioned this in another group, and it happened to several people.

Thomas wrote: "I just received an email purporting to be from Goodreads and threatening to post my work on readfrom.net if I don't stop "spamming" this site.
Here's the message:

Jessie asked
WE HAVE A COPY OF G..."
I have received a few of those but mine tend to come from individuals so I report and ignore them. There is a site here on cyberbullying and that is exactly what they are doing. I made a blog post for my site about my books being copyrighted protected to see if that will help or reduce the number of messages I get.

No, I haven't, but thanks for the heads up!

When the "hackers" attempt to threaten the indie authors by claiming to upload their books to pirate sites, so hundreds of new readers can get them.

Alistair wrote: "When the "hackers" attempt to threaten the indie authors by claiming to upload their books to pirate sites, so hundreds of new readers can get them.

"
My thoughts exactly.