Now, a Word To Our Sponsors

Taral Wayne posted about the unwonted notoriety he’s gained thanks to the internet scavengers at Betascript. Since then he’s corresponded with them:

In response to my email they claim they have used no copyrighted art of mine in the publication.  I can’t tell if this is true or not… I can only say one online service described it as “b/w, 68 pages, illustrations.”  But it might have been generic stuff, similar to the “cover.”  In any case, the only way I could find out is spend $45 to buy the book.

Taral wondered how this outfit gets away with cluttering up booksellers’ databases:

Who’s going to buy a book about me, the guy who invented the pretzel, or the second monkey on the right in a Planet of the Apes sequel? Makes it harder for customers to find what they’re really looking for.  I’m expecting the dealers will eventually refuse to list crap by outfits like Betascript.

Robert Lichtman hopes to accelerate that outcome with KTF reviews of Betascript’s Taral book on Amazon Canada, UK and Germany, plus Blackwells, Alibris and the DEA Store (Italy):

Don’t buy this book. Betascript Publishing is a pirate organization, and stole writing and artwork *copyrighted* by Taral Wayne for their sleazy little overpriced efforts. Yes, per the production description he is a well-known and honored artist, but please don’t support his hard work being ripped off by this disreputable publish-on-demand gang of thieves! Thank you.

3 thoughts on “Now, a Word To Our Sponsors

  1. It’s listed because it has an ISBN and the data is submitted by the publisher to the ISBN agency … and then that information gets fed to all sorts of book databases. Very few carbon based life forms are involved.

  2. While I do not condone the type of publications done by Betascript and others, those, like Robert Lichtman, may want to be careful in their printed criticisms. To be honest, I am not as well versed in libel law as I once was (and what I say should not be considered to be legal advice), but claiming that the publisher “stole writing and artwork *copyrighted* by Taral Wayne,” without having seen the book in question, may be troublesome, especially in light of the publishers assertion, in the letter to Taral, that they used no copyrighted artwork. In other words, as set out at

    http://www.theindependentpublisher.com/run/legal/libel.shtml

    “When you call someone a thief, and it can be proven through court records or official documents that that person is, in fact, a thief, you don’t have to worry about losing a libel suit. If, however, you have no firm evidence supporting your comment, go back and reevaluate what you’ve written.”

    Calling them sleazy and calling the book overpriced should be OK.

  3. In Lichtman’s “Yes, per the production description [Taral] is a well-known and honored artist, but please don’t support his hard work being ripped off,” shouldn’t the “but” be “so”?

    Even were he obscure and unhonored, he shouldn’t be ripped off, of course; his being otherwise just adds to the imperative not to do so, because it creates an incentive for it.

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