Monday, March 11, 2013

Unauthorized Sales of My Thesis

Lately I have noticed a few stores selling my published thesis, Tesla Turbine Torque Modeling for Construction of a Dynamometer and Turbine, without A) asking permission from me, the copyright holder, through oral or written means, or B) giving me royalties for the sales. 

As this is a document provided free to download on the UNT Digital Library website, I expect it to be shared to the global community free of charge. BUT should it be sold, I expect to gain royalties as a result of these sales (though I still dont want to sell it).

I have seriously considered sending a Cease-and-Desist Letter to all of the stores attempting to sell a copy of my copyrighted material, and have already begun with a few of them. I have filed a copyright application to get the ball rolling legally in case I have to take this to court (hopefully I wont have to).

The following websites have already received emails about this, and should be taking action shortly to take them down:

Amazon.com

Barnesandnoble.com

As it stands, if you see this document, Tesla Turbine Torque Modeling for Construction of a Dynamometer and Turbineplease PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT. I am not getting any Royalties, and these sales do NOT benefit me. 

You can download it for FREE from the original publishing location, the UNT Digital Library.

If you have any advice for me, please post away. I can use any advice on this topic.

Thanks for your understanding.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I just found your blog while I was looking for some stuff to do with my raspberry pi. I am actually an Intellectual Property attorney. You can check out my blog at astronomyandlaw.com, or you can contact me directly using my phone number on the firms website http://www.usip.com/attorneys/NormanRVanTreeck.html. I can give you some assistance, but please remember, until there is an attorney/client agreement between us, I am NOT your attorney. Sorry for the disclaimer, but state bar rules apply.

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    1. Thanks for the offer, but I handled this issue myself. I simply copyrighted the document with the copyright office, so its official now. Then I just went around emailing distributors/sellers with a cease and desist letter. Most big name stores pulled it from their websites immediately.

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