Suspicious Buyer Request

[jsilvalive]

A buyer posted online that they wanted to do an audiobook and were on a tight budget. I responded and asked for more information. They responded saying they had an offer from a narrator to read 100 pages for $10 and asked if I or anyone else could beat that. They then gave a list of books they want done and they also say that they don’t care about the quality… just that it gets read. It’s a long list.

I looked up the books which are on Amazon and they are copyright protected. This makes me very suspicious of what this person plans to do with the narrated books he gets on the cheap from Fiverr Freelancers and not sure if I want to be in the mix if there is a copyright infringement.

Anyway, I wouldn’t read 100 pages for $10 because that is just ridiculous. Regardless of quality, you still make mistakes and have to fix them which is time consuming. Anyway, he’s found people to do some of the books on his list.

Is there a way to report this?

[newsmike]

A buyer posted online that they wanted to do an audiobook and were on a tight budget. I responded and asked for more information. They responded saying they had an offer from a narrator to read 100 pages for $10 and asked if I or anyone else could beat that. They then gave a list of books they want done and they also say that they don’t care about the quality… just that it gets read. It’s a long list.

I looked up the books which are on Amazon and they are copyright protected. This makes me very suspicious of what this person plans to do with the narrated books he gets on the cheap from Fiverr Freelancers and not sure if I want to be in the mix if there is a copyright infringement.

Anyway, I wouldn’t read 100 pages for $10 because that is just ridiculous. Regardless of quality, you still make mistakes and have to fix them which is time consuming. Anyway, he’s found people to do some of the books on his list.

Is there a way to report this?

Is there a way to report this?

I’m not sure there is anything to report. I agree that the $10 price is not worth considering, but as far as copyright, two thoughts:

1. You are not the police in this situation. If a producer hires you to read a script and there is later litigation between the author and the producer, they do not go after the narrator, the sound engineer or any other support people. They go after the producer.

2. There may not be a copyright violation. What if they want someone to read it for their blind grandmother? Maybe no infringement there, each publication may have a different copyright provision. I may well be able to legally hire you to read text to me on tape, for my own private listening. If I hire you to read to my granny live, you are certainly not violating any public performance clauses in the copyright.

I agree they may have something shady up their sleeve, but if you don’t know, it s best to just walk away. Reporting seems a bit heavy handed. Now if you knew they were going to sell them, maybe so.

Me, I just walk away if it feels weird and is too much work for the money, so this fails both tests.

Hope that helps.

[tracybarnhart]

I think that sounds very suspicious. I sure hope none of my books were on that list.

[misscrystal]

I don’t think there is anything you can do to report it anywhere since it is not an admission of any type of crime or infringement.

[mariokluser]

A buyer posted online that they wanted to do an audiobook and were on a tight budget. I responded and asked for more information. They responded saying they had an offer from a narrator to read 100 pages for $10 and asked if I or anyone else could beat that. They then gave a list of books they want done and they also say that they don’t care about the quality… just that it gets read. It’s a long list.

I looked up the books which are on Amazon and they are copyright protected. This makes me very suspicious of what this person plans to do with the narrated books he gets on the cheap from Fiverr Freelancers and not sure if I want to be in the mix if there is a copyright infringement.

Anyway, I wouldn’t read 100 pages for $10 because that is just ridiculous. Regardless of quality, you still make mistakes and have to fix them which is time consuming. Anyway, he’s found people to do some of the books on his list.

Is there a way to report this?

100 pages for $10

One has to be very desperate in order to do this job.

Is there a way to report this?

As long as they don’t publish the result in anyway, there is nothing to report. It would be like reporting someone to the police before he did something.

If you find the material somewhere published, you can reach out to the copyright owner, who on his/her turn can take the necessary steps.

However, I wouldn’t want to get involved in something like that.

[misscrystal]

100 pages for $10

One has to be very desperate in order to do this job.

Is there a way to report this?

As long as they don’t publish the result in anyway, there is nothing to report. It would be like reporting someone to the police before he did something.

If you find the material somewhere published, you can reach out to the copyright owner, who on his/her turn can take the necessary steps.

However, I wouldn’t want to get involved in something like that.

100 pages for $10

One has to be very desperate in order to do this job.

Isn’t that just so sad that some will do it? 🙁

[mariokluser]

100 pages for $10

One has to be very desperate in order to do this job.

Isn’t that just so sad that some will do it? 🙁

There are people out there who totally do it. As OP said, the buyer in question doesn’t give a darn about quality, so they will find someone with a heavy accent to do the job.

[misscrystal]

There are people out there who totally do it. As OP said, the buyer in question doesn’t give a darn about quality, so they will find someone with a heavy accent to do the job.

Someone with such garbled “English” you can’t understand it and it’s half some other unknown language. My housekeeper could do it who thinks she is talking English all the time but really isn’t and I just nod my head and smile like I understand her.

[miiila]

You could tell Customer Support of your suspicion and then leave it up to them whether they want to look into it. They could keep an eye on it when they know the titles, to see if they get published commercially, like Mario mentioned above, or ask the buyer to clear up the situation. In case the buyer plans to violate copyright/IP, that might deter them, at least from doing it through Fiverr’s help.