Hi all.
I am an author in a small niche industry - the Magic/Magician industry. Recently, our industry has been damaged severely by pirates selling both the published works of both myself and numerous other creators and authors. These pirates operate sites where 100% of the goods they are selling is stolen and are using paypal as a gateway. They know this is illegal, because they won't use a direct-to-paypal cart system in their 'store'. Instead, what they do, is they get you to place an order which includes your email. They then send you an email with custom paypal payment links in order to make payments . It is severely affecting the income and livelihood of bot myself and many others in our small industry.
While there are numerous sites that are doing this, the main culprit is this site: www.erdnasemagicstore.com There is good reason to believe that the individual running this site also have other sites that are designed to appear as being owned and operated by others but, aren't. DMCA notices to remove content only works on a case-by-case basis and has not been effective in stopping this person. A few weeks ago, and after the new release of one my products, this person started selling my newly released ebook at their website and profiting. I noticed an immediate cut in sales from this as the book sells for $45 and this individual sells the pirated works for dirt cheap - $18 in this case. I contacted the owner and threatened I would inform paypal of his illegal activities and this seemed to have an immediate reaction because they removed my products immediately. Well....I just looked today and they are all back up on their store once again.
This is KILLING small nice businesses like the one I am in. Myself and other creators have tried to get this to stop repeatedly with this person and to no avail - it is a constant game of cat and mouse. They know they are operating a business that is 100% illegal and are using paypal for their payments. Surely paypal can step in and revoke their paypal accounts so that they can't take payments anymore, no? This does completely violates paypals terms for use as it is 100% illegal. Not a single item on thjis person's website has been authorized by either myself or that of the other creators whose work is also being sold on their site. Please help!
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