Words of a Wolf - Poetry of a Veteran is now live on Amazon Kindle ... Reviews needed!

Morning folks,

the book made it to the Amazon Kindle store and is available for purchase or a free read through their lending system.

I found a problem with Amazon: the lack of information exchange between the different sites with regard to content and reviews of the same product.  So people looking at the book in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain won't see the same information.

If you have been kind enough to leave feedback about the book elsewhere and have an Amazon account, I would be very grateful if you would please copy your comments to all the pages below - including the paperback pages. You should only have to log in once and it's all been setup to help you copy and past the information from section to section.  It'll probably take you 5 minutes. Top tip - once you have signed into the first Amazon page - leave it open in the background and you won't have to sign in to the other Amazon sites.

There are different languages but the location for comments is the same under product information - it's the last link on the 'Product Information' section.

You can copy your existing comments from here or write a new comment.

Amazon Kindle Pages

France
Click to the right of Moyenne des commentaires client


Germany
Click to the right of Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung


Italy
Click to the right of Media recensioni

Spain
Click to the right of Opinión media de los clientes

United Kingdom
Click to the right of Average Customer Review


USA
Click to the right of Average Customer Review


Amazon Paperback Pages (Click to the right of 'Average Customer Review' for these pages too)
United Kingdom
USA


Thank you in advance if you can find the time to do this for me.  The project is dependent upon your help and support.


Regards

Villayat 'Wolf' Sunkmanitu

MPG Books Group Ltd refuse to sign Intellectual Property Agreement ...

Words of a Wolf was released on paperback in 2010 and printed by MPG Biddles Ltd (previously Biddles but acquired by MPG Book Group Ltd).  I was impressed by the level of service by MPG Biddles and was keen to get the setup on the safe list of companies that do respect Intellectual Property (IP) on http://www.wolf-photography.com/html/IP-UK/html/companies_respect.html.

I contacted the company and asked them to sign an IP agreement stating that they would safeguard my work and delete it from their systems once instructed to do so.  I sent them a sample copy of the agreement which would have needed to be customised to this specific area of printing (eg kept on file until instructed to delete, title of book etc - whereas a graphic print job would be deleted as soon as the print job has been completed).

Unfortunately, MPG Biddles Ltd now have to refer all such enquiries to their parent company, MPG Books Group Ltd (based in Cornwall), who refused to sign.  When I contacted the Manager of MPG Biddles for a reason I was told, 'He doesn't want to sign it'.  This left me feeling very concerned with regards to the security of my Intellectual Property, so I contacted Neil Boulcher of MPG Book Group Ltd and explained that the IP agreement had to be signed if they wanted my business and that this requirement was part of a project to provide disabled veterans and other people with a safe list of companies that respect Intellectual Property who would be willing to sign an agreement stating so.  I also explained that there is also a list on 'RespectIP' that list companies that refuse to sign IP Agreements.

A few days later I received a letter from the Chief Executive, A Chard, together with a CD that had my book files saved on it.  The letter said,

'Dear Mr Sunkmanitu,

Further to your telephone conversation with Neil Boulcher and subsequent email, I hereby return your Intellectual Property 'Words of a Wolf'.  I can also confirm that no other copies are held by MPG Books Group and all files held on the Pre-Press systems at MPG Biddles Ltd have been deleted.

Whilst we appreciate your need to protect Intellectual Property, we have every right, without prejudice, to determine on what basis we undertake work for our customers.'

You have to ask yourself a question or two here:  Why would a company refuse to sign an Intellectual Property Agreement with a customer, especially when their business revolves around printing mainly copyrighted materials?  Why would they terminate the printing contract?

MPG Book Groups and MPG Biddles Ltd have since been added to the following list: Companies & Organisations that either don't Respect IP, refused to sign an IP Agreement or refused to reply to the enquiry.  You can draw your own conclusions as to their reasoning for refusal.  I see no valid excuse for refusal whatsoever by a company that I pay to print hard copies of my work for me.

Be careful with who you use to print your Intellectual Property or design your website etc. If they don't want to sign an Intellectual Property Agreement with you, I wouldn't do business with them as you don't know who's going to do what with your work behind your back.

The other thing to bear in mind is that, currently, copyright expires 70 years after the death of its creator.  My feeling is that, with current technologies, companies may decide to farm Intellectual Property for the future when copyright expires.  Make sure you know who holds your work and safeguard it.

Wolf

Copyright across the Atlantic ...

What interesting times we live in as creative people.  Here in the UK the government are trying to reduce the effectiveness of copyright by trying to introduce less effective legislation and methods of licensing that don't look after the interests of creative professionals (pause for breath  - those of you needing an inhaler, please use now) while over the side of the pond we have a media battle over the implications of PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) and SOPA Stop Online Piracy Act).

I like the idea of what PIPA and SOPA are trying to do but it seems to have gotten lost in the political spin.  Basically they want to protect Intellectual Property ... but I feel that it's important to know that the money pushing this forward has come mainly from the music and film industry.  I haven't seen much hype about the abuse of photography, paintings or the written word.

The waters surrounding the issue have been muddied to the degree that the bills may well fail as politicians seem to be worrying more about staying in power rather than doing the right thing.  One of the issues being raised is that the bills will affect the citizens' freedom of speech over the internet.  I fail to see how these acts could do that as you can still say what you want to say about anything you want (as long as you don't breach libel laws) but you just don't put links to any pirated media alongside the article.

Here in the UK, the reason for changing the copyright legislation is clear.  Big business and educational establishments want to be able to use intellectual property without having to pay for it or without having to pay an appropriate price for using it.

There have been comments stating that the copyright laws are too tight.  Copyright is copyright - it is automatic and it is there to serve a purpose: to stop creative works being abused.  As such it achieves its aims. 

I haven't seen any form of analysis to estimate how much is lost annually in earnings by creative people (musicians, poets, writers, photographers, artists, film makers etc).  What the UK legal system DOES need is a quicker, cost effective way of bringing copyright cases to the courts.

The copyright legislation as such in the UK is fine but it does need to start taking account of 'moral rights' that are granted us by both International & Europrean Human Rights legislation:

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 27 (2) states:


1.  Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

2.  Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Note also that a recent UK court ruling (20thC Fox vs 'Newsbin2') established that -

Copyrights are property rights protected by Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, as also expressed in Article 1 of the First Protocol of the Human Rights Act 1998;

piracy of copyright work is a breach of the copyright holder's human rights;

the copyright holder is therefore entitled to legal redress;

and, because 'so far as possible, primary legislation and subordinate legislation must be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with human rights', legislation drafted and enacted subsequent to the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 must also be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with human rights.
 
I have no doubt in my mind that Hargreaves was hired to present a particular point of view rather than a balanced review of the UK's copyright laws.
 
So what's the common donimator in both of these big scale efforts accross the pond?  Money!  Both of these nations are trying to achieve opposite aims, the politicans are are treading carefully around the voters and the creative communities are sat waiting wondering what's going to happen next.
 
Somewhere in Eutopia someone's sat there thinking, 'Imagine what they could have done globally if they'd pooled their resources and involved other countries and came up with a set of global legislation to protect artists' rights?'  Let's face it - it could be done with the amount of money that's probably changed hands in the corridors of power.
 
In the mean time...
 
All creative people that use the internet MUST take steps to protect their intellectual property.  You'll find free help on the basics on RespectIP and Creativity Resources brought to you by Wolf Photography ;)
 
All the best
 
Wolf