Wattpad allows removal of infringing material
By Paul Biba
I’ve received some press releases from Wattpad in the past, and have taken a look at the site several times. Wattpad bills itself as:
Founded in 2006, Wattpad’s mission is to revolutionize the way people publish and read written works. The material on Wattpad is created by the community of users. Anyone can upload whatever they want to read – a romantic story, a fan fiction, poetry, an essay, a joke, a novel or their own work – and share with the community. All the content can be easily accessed on Wattpad’s website (www.wattpad.com), mobile site (m.wattpad.com) or through the Wattpad application on virtually all feature phones, such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sanyo, Panasonic, as well as smartphones such as Symbian, Blackberry and Apple iPhone / iPod Touch.
However, I’ve been reluctant to mention them because when I go to the site it seems to me to contain a mass of unlicensed copyrighted material. I guess Wattpad recognizes this problem, as I just received the following from them:
Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community, today announced an innovative pilot program for authors to identify and remove copyright infringing material. It is the first user-generated content community to take such an initiative in order to protect content owners and at the same time support creative uses of the service for both writers and readers.
Participating authors will be given the privilege to immediately remove any works created by them but uploaded without their permission. While Wattpad already monitors user uploads, due to the high volume it is not possible to screen and verify all uploaded content, the Authors In Charge Program will allow removal of copyright infringing material accurately and in a timely manner.
Participating authors include New York Times and USA Today best selling authors such as Karen Chance and Lisa Kleypas. The program will be expanded over the coming months.
More information about Wattpad Authors In Charge Program is available online at www.wattpad.com/faq#aicp.
Does anyone have any experience with this Canadian operation?
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