February 2nd Update:
Well I received an email regarding my copyright infringement claim, from Amazon which stated that "The Kindle item you identified appear to have been removed from sale on ." I think that means that Amazon actually acted pursuant to a complaint received prior to mine, but the matter is concluded. I want to thank everyone who notified me of the theft, posted negatives reviews and complained to Amazon. The fan fiction community rocks! We win; yay!
I have since learned that Amazon will not post reviews which have the words "thief" "plagiarized" or "stolen" but apparently does not have a problem with the word "stole" (as I was able to use that word in my review and get it approved). You can say things like "not this author's work" and a work-around is to post a review that does not contain those words and then edit it later. I ran across this issue before in regard to the word "screwed" which was not approved for a product in which I was literally describing how something came together.
February 1st 2nd Update:
As of now, the page for the story is gone! Yay! I am guessing it was pulled as Amazon investigates as I have not heard back from Amazon yet.
February 1st 1st Update:
Earlier I posted that someone stole my story and put it on Amazon under the title "The Candlelight Engagement." I learned this from two very kind FF users who messaged me. I requested help from readers in posting one star reviews indicating that it was stolen. I reported the copyright infringement and am waiting for Amazon to act.
As of now, there are 4 negative reviews including my own. I have also received many kind reviews here and pms. Thanks so much!
I've been messaged by a couple of readers that they can't post reviews to it on Amazon now. I was hoping that meant Amazon had taken action, but as the story is still available for purchase. I suspect Amazon has an algorithm to prevent a whole string of negative reviews from going up at once. If you still want to help, click the "helpful" button under these negative reviews.
I am still considering what to do per my other stories; at this point it is good that I have all of VMC I up as it helps to prove my ownership (as it is a violation of Kindle Unlimited to have the whole story up somewhere while in that program and FF gives the date that I started posting it).
There is a line coming up in VMC II that Mr. Gardiner speaks to Darcy about the Earl, which I think also speaks to the situation I find myself in: "I do not believe those that are good should give up all that they hold dear only to try to avoid harm from those who are not." I hold sharing my stories with you all dear and don't want to give that up.
However, my decision as to what I need to do will depend upon what Amazon does and how quickly. I need to also figure out if there is a way to search Amazon to see if any of my other stories have been stolen, which is a challenge as the title and description of the above give no clue that it is my story. I will keep you posted.
