Two days ago I did something I’ve never done before. I sicced my lawyer on someone.
Believe me, this is not the way I like to operate. People steal material from the Lexicon all the time. Contributors for Wikipedia are famous for it. Yeah, it bothers me. Stealing is wrong. At least three published books have plagiarized quite shamelessly and never even given credit to the Lexicon. It bothers me a lot.
I send emails asking things to be removed and usually that’s the end of the matter. So when I found out about this guy, I just sort of shook my head and figured I’d send my usual gentle insistence that he stop stealing.
Except this one’s different. This fellow is basically out to scam fans out of money as fast as he can before book seven comes out. He’s written a book which he wants to sell and in order to sweeten the deal, he offers bonus material. This bonus material is all from the Lexicon, from Accio Quote, and from Jo’s website. I’m sorry, but that’s where I draw the line. I will not stand for someone stealing my material and using it to scam fans out of money.
So my lawyer sent him a cease and desist letter two days ago. We’re asking that he stop what he’s doing and that he return money to anyone who bought his book.
His response? He sent a jokey email to the people on his email list about being sued. He’s still merrily doing business. Perhaps he thinks we’re bluffing. He’s never met my lawyer.
I don’t like to do things like this. But this leech is not a true fan. He’s an opportunist who sees a chance to make some quick money by playing on fans’ enthusiasm leading up to book seven. I won’t mention him or his site by name because I don’t want to send traffic his way. I also don’t want to generate a storm of nasty emails from other fans or anything like that. We’ll let the legal process do what it’s supposed to do.
