Note: Please see updates at end of article.
Anna Sky, my publisher at Sexy Little Pages, notified me this morning that some of my ebooks were being sold without my authorization at on Belarus-based KissLibrary.com. The site was designed as a place to publish and sell books on academic and specialized topics, but one or more of its users have violated the terms of service by uploading pirated e-books. They’ve uploaded tons of romance and erotic titles to which they don’t have the rights.
In a Facebook post, author Charlotte Howard reported that she contacted the site’s customer service, and they were helpful in getting books removed. They seem to have been proactive after learning about the issue, because by the time I went searching for the books my publisher had notified me about, they were no longer there either.
Still, it’s worth your time to check the site for pirated material, since this is one instance where the site owner will actually remove infringing content. You can do that by going to KissLibrary.com and entering your author name or book title(s) into the search bar at the top of the page:
If you find something, contact them through their online takedown form at https://kisslibrary.com/dmca, the chat function at the bottom of each page, the US phone number +1-213-394-9806, or contact@kisslibrary.com.
Please note that KissLibrary has had issues with its server getting overloaded today, so some authors have not been able to access the website. If you have this issue, make sure you’re using https://kisslibrary.com and not http://www.kisslibrary.com. If you still can’t get through, try again in a few minutes.
Update on September 28, 2017:
Several users have reported being unable to access KissLibrary.com over the past couple days. Some users report getting error messages that indicate a server overload, while others enter the url and get a black white page. One user reported landing on a page indicating that the site was for sale. Still others get through to the KissLibrary.com website and say that it looks the same as it did two days ago, but with fewer pirated titles.
Most disturbingly, one user reported that when she went to http://kisslibrary.com using the Firefox browser, she got a pop-up with a message requesting her permission to download a file. She shut down the browser, but the pop-up returned when she started Firefox up again. Because of this report, I’ve removed the hyperlinks to KissLibrary.com from this article.
For now, I would advise NOT going to the KissLibrary website to check if it has your titles. If this advice changes, I’ll post another update.
Update on Nov. 8, 2017:
KissLibrary is back up and working. It has added a few more details to its About page, including that it was “founded in 2015 by Jack Comstock and Nikolay Korolev” and that “publishing capabilities are currently actively tested with a small group of users. We’re only accepting new users per invites.”
Update on Nov. 10, 2017:
In recent days, I’ve started receiving suspicious comments on this article. They include testimonials about how Kiss Library is a quick delivery service with competitive prices (what automatic download service isn’t “quick”?), with some leading to the illogical conclusion that therefore, there couldn’t be a piracy problem on the site (even though pirate sites have some of the best prices around!). Since I moderate comments on this blog, these comments don’t automatically appear in the comments section below. I chose to let one through that was better worded than the others, but the others are in the moderation queue and will likely continue to stay there.
I was careful in the original article not to imply intentional wrongdoing on the part of Kiss Library, and I even praised them for their responsiveness. But some the comments I’ve been receiving deny the piracy ever took place. If Kiss Library is sending its friends to defend its reputation, it could use friends with better powers of argumentation, because denying that piracy ever happened moves them into definite wrongdoing territory. And if its friends are appointing themselves, Kiss Library should inform them they are doing it no favors and, in fact, making it look bad.
Update on Feb. 7, 2018
An author wrote to say that a book of hers had been illegally offered for sale on KissLibrary, but the book was not showing up in a site search. (Read her comment here.) Not having the URL where your book appears can make it hard to file a DMCA complaint or a request to Google to remove the sales page from its search results.
If you believe your books are being offered on KissLibrary but can’t find them through the site’s search engine, try using Google instead. Just enter your search terms (such as book title, author name, or a sentence from your book’s summary), followed by site:https://kisslibrary.com. Here’s an illustration:
Image credit: CREST Research Personal Data via photopin (license)
Thank you for warning us!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for warning but I have read their rules. KissLibrary is fully cooperative and compliant following the guidelines dictated by DMCA. I often order books from their website and I have no problems with shipping and I can even print the books.
Thanks for your comment, but I’m not sure how it relates to the content of the post. The post is not about whether or not KissLibrary is a legitimate business; it’s about a pirating problem that KissLibrary verified it was having, and it provided instructions to authors on how to get pirated books removed. Even Amazon has a problem with pirated books on its site.
On an unrelated note, any business can post that they are “fully cooperative and compliant following the guidelines dictated by DMCA,” a quote you took directly from the KissLibrary website at https://kisslibrary.com/dmca. In this case, KissLibrary did cooperate with removing pirated materials, as far as other authors have reported to me. But I’ve seen hundreds of sites that exist for no other reason than pirating books make that claim, so consumers should always take that claim with a grain of salt and conduct further research they are interested in protecting the rights of authors and their ability to continue producing new work.
I Just asked them to cease selling my book ‘Nullius in verba: Darwin’s greatest secret” which is a pirated version, they have no right to sell. And they must surely know this.
Thanks for letting me (and others) know by posting here. So sorry it happened to you. I hope they remove it.
My book was on their site this morning, and this afternoon it is gone.
I did not even get the chance to ask them to do it, which tells me that when I searched for it they had it flagged and took it down.
The real question is whether or not they put it back up later…
I’m glad to hear it was removed so promptly.
Unfortunately for us, the only way to know if our books go back up is to keep looking, or hire someone else to do it for us.
Hi, they have now removed it, as far as I can tell. But, as I am sure you are aware, many more illegally copied books remain for sale there. Most ironically, books on e-piracy and other internet crime.
I’m glad to hear they removed your book.
Alas, I have no insider knowledge on what’s pirated and what isn’t unless the authors tell me. Most of the specific titles I knew about were removed after the authors contacted KissLibrary. But it wouldn’t surprise me if pirated works have gone undetected.
Just learned that my book was pirated by KissLibrary and I came across your site via Twitter. So sorry this happened to you too! My concern is that my book didn’t show up in a search on the site. Instead, I was notified that it was there by a concerned customer who had just bought it. Not sure how to find it if they just switch it to another page since it’s not coming up in a search. Also not sure how the customer found it in the first place!
Ugh! That really sucks. Is the person who contacted you able to go through their browser history to send you the link they used. (It might be a lot to ask, but since they contacted you, hopefully they’re willing.)
Another option might be to use a google site search. In the Google search engine, enter your keyword followed by site:https://kisslibrary.com. I’ll add info on how to do this in the article.
So sorry this problem is affecting you!
Browsing through their site, you can come to the quite plausible conclusion that all they do is illegally selling ebooks. Their business is based on selling a PDF conversion of Kindle files for a few dollars, heavily undercutting the market rate. It is highly implausible that kisslibrary.com has individual contracts with their owners and that authors would have individual contracts with them. Thus, your judgment on kisslibrary.com is far too kind.
Back in September, I was inclined to be diplomatic about it. Their continued sale of pirated ebooks shows it was wasted diplomacy.
So, yes, it was far too kind.
Today I discovered some of my books available for sale on Kiss Library. I submitted a complaint and they were quick to remove the titles. I saw a friend’s books and she said she didn’t see them in a search whereas I could. I did some testing and experimenting and discovered that searching from the UK or the USA from a clean browser with no cookies didn’t return any results (switched location via VPN). Searching from Thailand did. I tried repeating the search in the same browser I used without a VPN (making my location Thailand), with a USA IP address and all the titles appeared in my results (perhaps cached or somehow cookie related)?
The strangest thing by far is that my pre-order novel is available for purchase and download right now. It hasn’t even been finished yet. I was tempted to try buying it just to see what the file looked like. If it’s the same early draft I uploaded to Amazon to get the pre-order page listed, this raises serious questions about Amazon’s security.
Great article, unfortunately it didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know because I found it after searching the telephone number on the Kiss Library website having found my books available for sale there at twice the asking price. This is a very common issue that happens when you sell your book through Amazon since this is the second website I’ve found with my books on them.
To the people who think that this is a good website, it isn’t. These people are thieves hoping to make money from the sale of other people’s work. I like writing but I don’t do it just for my own amusement. I put my life on hold to care for my dad whilst he was dying of cancer and now that he’s dead I can not find a paid job because I have a massive gap in my employment history. I write because it’s something I enjoy and I think I can earn a little money from it too. A bit like how I design and make things to sell on Etsy (from which my designs are also stolen).
People who think that it’s ok to use other people’s work especially things that only have entertainment value, to get money for themselves are thieves no different to someone who shoplifts or breaks into a home. They are NOT Robin Hood or some altruistic figure, they’re just wicked people who don’t have any creative ideas of their own. But it’s ok because what goes around comes around. If you think that what they do is ok, go to your work place and tell your boss that you no longer want to get paid for working. It’s exactly the same thing. If you can’t or won’t do that then stop defending them. You’re need to be entertained doesn’t outweigh a creators right to earn from their work.
They do know. They’re just thieves. It’s as simple as that. Actually there are an entire range of “kiss” websites which pirate everything from Asian dramas to anime, cartoons and more. So this is a brand, not some venture trying to educate the impoverished masses (with ebooks that impoverished people with no access to electricity can’t use..) as these swine always imply.
Hi..my book got pirated too..can you guys tell me what to do?
You can follow the directions in the article. You can also send a DMCA notice to the site’s host or sign up for a DMCA-sending service like Blasty (https://www.blasty.co/).
Thank you. That helped.
I just received this message after I reported my book tonight that someone else apparently posted to their site. I had tried calling, but the number wasn’t working! I guess I have just learned my first big lesson in being a published author….I have to stay on the watch for folks stealing my work! Bah humbug.
Happy reading.
Hi,
We’ve removed the following books by your request: (I removed the link deliberately)
They might still show up in search even though the book pages are removed – search index is automatically updated every
hour, so the books will be gone from the search soon.
We’ve suspended the users who have uploaded these books, we’ll give them a week for explanation,
if they fail to provide proof of having a legal right to sell these books, we’ll see if they have
any pending payments, which we can redirect to you instead. We’ll use your email in this case.
We’re very sorry about this situation – we’ve had an influx of copyright complaints recently
which we haven’t seen before. Apparently someone has found a way to work around our copyright protection mechanism.
We have paused uploading of new listings to our site until we can design a better copyright verification system.
If you have any more questions, please write to dmca@kisslibrary.com
Best regards,
KissLibrary team
KissLibrary, Liutsinskaya str, 15 office 17, Minsk, Minsk, 220055, Ukraine,
Thanks for letting us know. I’m a little late to the party but just found 8 of my books on Kiss. Here comes the DMCA!! Swell…
I’ve sent cease-and-desist letters to KissLibrary this morning–I’m waiting to see whether they respond appropriately.
Now that it’s mid-2019, I came across Kiss Library recently while searching for my wife’s book. They pirated a lot of our books, and I used their DMCA page and they “disappeared.” I also have a note to myself to check next month to see if they came back.
Unlike the Firefox user above who reported it was trying to DL a hinky file, I got no such notification from Firefox.
Thank you for writing this. I got a Google Alert for them having one of my books and found all five of the books I’ve written, including out of print editions and even a free ebook (they weren’t giving it away). I checked with my distribution partner, Smashwords, and the site wasn’t listed so I did a search and found your article. I submitted a DMCA request and the books were removed immediately. I’ll check again every few days or so to make sure they didn’t put them back up.
You should update again as of August 2019 (probably occurred earlier but I only came across this today). The site is now KissLibrary (dot) net. The old domain redirects there as do numerous ‘fake’ domains that this dubious trader has set up and uses via Google Seraches to forward the unwary to their pirate book store. Whether they do, or do not, take books down if approached is not the real important issue — their whole business is based on stealing material/images and content and selling it with no royalty to the unwitting authors or to the host of their legitimate books (mostly, i suspect, Amazon) — where items are also cheaper for books by some of the ‘unknown authors’ like me! This company ought to be closed down but as many of their products are low value — unless a big entity such as Amazon takes legal recourse against them — they will keep exploiting and ripping off small authors and making whatever profits they undoubtedly do for free at the expense of others! Their latest incarnation ‘claims’ on site to be based in Calgary, Canada — BUT I suspect your locating them in Belarus is still more likely — so would seem they are also obfuscating their true whereabouts for obvious reasons!
I notices they are also selling my book! I sent them an email as, apparently, their phone does not answer.