Romance Writers of America® Supports Authors in the War Against Internet Piracy

RWA® to provide a clearing house of file-sharing sites and instructions for copyright holders to protect their works.

Romance Writers of America (RWA), a professional association representing almost 10,000 romance writers, is committing its resources to providing information on how to protect copyrighted works and help fight the growing problem of Internet piracy. As theft of intellectual property affects all creators, RWA hopes to raise awareness of this issue and assist authors with the knowledge to demand take down of unauthorized copies of their works by establishing a clearing house for authors of all genres.

RWA has published a list of websites that contain unauthorized downloads or other copies of copyrighted romance novels. The list includes contact information for the website administrators and links to each website’s takedown procedures. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires online service providers to promptly block access to infringing material (or remove such material from their systems) when they receive notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder. The information provided by RWA includes instructions for sending notice to these websites as well as a sample takedown letter.

The database containing the list of these websites and other related information can be found within the Member Resources/Professional Relations section at the association’s website, www.rwa.org. Due to the nature of piracy and the fact that this service was originally intended for RWA members, the list is by no means complete; writers are encouraged to report similar, additional sites by sending information to reportpiracy@rwa.org.

Change can only happen through the combined efforts of everyone affected. Agents, publishing professionals, and writers are urged to utilize and contribute to the database maintained by RWA. Permission to forward this release is granted and strongly encouraged. For more information or questions regarding RWA’s list of Internet piracy sites, contact Carol Ritter, Professional Relations Manager, at (832) 717-5200 ext. 127.

Sample Takedown Letter

If you have granted electronic rights to a publisher, please be sure to check with the publisher to verify that it has not granted a site the right to post the work.