March 6, 2019
Update, March 8, 2019: It appears that Ebook.bike is back online, having found another hosting provider. The site is using a security service to mask its location. We will continue to investigate and provide updates as we work on taking the site down.
Update, March 7, 2019: The pirate website Ebook.bike is offline. We believe that the site was removed by its hosting provider, so it may come back online if and when its creator Travis McCrea finds a new host. We will continue to monitor the situation, and make sure that Ebook.bike and sites like it stay down. We want to thank author Suzan Tisdale and the indie author community for their efforts, and for sending a clear message to pirates that authors will not sit idly by while their works and their livelihoods are stolen.
March 6, 2019: As many of you are aware, the pirate website “Ebook.bike” is back online, hosting thousands of books for illegal download. A number of authors have sent takedown notices to the website using its DMCA form. But as far as we know, its DMCA compliance is deliberate subterfuge as its DMCA form often doesn’t work; and even when it does and the books are taken down, other users almost immediately re-upload infringing copies.
This is a perfect example of how malicious actors use the DMCA’s safe harbor provision to skirt legal liability, and a strong reminder that Congress needs to reform the safe harbor urgently (you can read about our advocacy on this issue here).
Until Congress closes this loophole in the law that allows websites like Ebook.bike to thrive, we have to band together and take action. For a start, authors have to collectively send a message to Google to delist links to the site’s illegal downloads from search results. There’s no reason why a site that traffics in stolen books should be so easily accessible. If enough authors send Google a takedown notice, it will be compelled to take action against Ebook.bike.
If you are an Authors Guild member, we can send this notice on your behalf. Please contact us for more information.
It’s about time Google and other platforms closed the door to pirate sites like Ebook.bike.
