SAMPLE Cease and desist letter to a website unlawfully selling or sharing your book(s)
I am the copyright owner of _________________ [title], authored by me, and published by ______________ [publisher]. {If copyright registration has been obtained for this title, give registration information, including certification number.} It has come to my attention that you are selling (or making available for sale) copies of this book in electronic/print form.
To the best of my knowledge, neither my publisher nor myself has ever entered into any distribution arrangement with your site nor otherwise authorized you to sell and/or distribute copies of this book. Even if you purchased or otherwise lawfully obtained a copy of my book, your possession of that copy does not authorize you to reproduce or distribute additional copies or make that copy available for download to others without securing my permission. Your sale of this title, therefore, would appear to be illegal and will constitute an infringement of my copyright.
This book and my rights therein are fully protected under U.S. Copyright law. If found liable for copyright infringement, you could be liable for payment for all loss and damages sustained by my, the copyright owner, including damages from lost sales. You could be liable to pay over to me all profits from your infringing activities. The copyright laws also provide for statutory damages for each act of infringement as well as assessments for reimbursement of my attorneys’ fees and court costs.
Sales that continue after a notice such as this one have been found to be intentional acts for the purpose of higher damage awards. The law also provides separate and additional penalties for subverting or removing copyright management protections from a digital work. Certain willful violations if done for commercial advantage or private financial gain (such as your unauthorized sales of my work) may also constitute criminal offenses.
I demand that you immediately cease selling this title or otherwise reproducing and offering it for sale in any way. I further demand that you immediately notify any and all resellers with whom you may have worked to distribute copies of my book.
Within ten days from the date of this letter, I will need to see copies of those notices as well as documentation that you have ceased all infringing activities. At that time, please also provide me with an accounting of the number of copies that you have sold. Depending upon the information you provide, I may be willing to resolve matters with you informally after an appropriate payment and a signed commitment not to sell this title at any time in the future without securing full permission.
Please contact me at your earliest convenience with documentation as to your total sales and proof that my title has been removed, or I will have to pursue the other legal options that are available to me. Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
[Author]