Yesterday I sent an email out that pointed out Joel Comm’s latest promotion – his $97 AdSense book for just $9.95.

Tongue firmly in cheek, I suggested it might be because Joel has had an unexpectedly large tax bill. It’s not uncommon for people to do specials around tax time…

Below is the email I sent:

“Hi,

Just a quick email because you may wish to take advantage of what looks like a “I-need-money-for-my-tax-bill” sale.

Joel Comm’s just released the 4th Edition of his New York Best Seller AdSense Guide and he’s priced it at $9.95 which is about £5 at the current exchange rate.

I don’t know the real reason why he is selling it so cheap…

Could it be that it is tax time in the US?

Maybe that’s just me being cynical…

If you’re interested in using AdSense on any of your websites, or creating websites especially to use AdSense (Virtual Real Estate as it is known) then Joel is recognised as the “industry expert” in this field.

So $9.95 is a bit of a bargain if you ask me!

Be aware that should you buy the book you will get an offer – a “MASSIVE AdSense Premier home training” as he puts it – at a 75% discount on the usual price.

I can vouch that it is at a huge discount, I saw Joel speak at a seminar some time ago and his Premier package was several thousand dollars.

It’s very good value but not essential by any means.

For most people the book will be more than adequate to explain advanced AdSense strategies in detail.

The offer can be found at:

[Link removed]

Hope that’s of use to you!

Thanks,

Ben”

I’ve since discovered that buyers were automatically signed up to a continuity program when they bought the eBook. It’s a membership at just under $30 a month and you get the first month free – after that you must cancel if you do not want to receive any more issues.

Now this WAS mentioned in the sales letter but not highlighted on the order form.

So, if like me, you have bought Joel’s book without realising you’ve been signed up to a monthly continuity program then make sure to remember to cancel the newsletter subscription if you do not like the first issue.

I will be ensuring that I do not get charged unless the newsletter contains 100% superb information.

After all, I did not specifically request this membership and I doubt I would’ve ordered it if had had a choice!

So, my apologies for suggesting this was a great buy at $10 – I honestly did think it was a good buy – which is why I bought it myself.

However, if I had realised that there was a forced continuity program contained in the offer, I probably wouldn’t have promoted this book.

If you have any issues whatsoever cancelling the monthly charge, then please let me know. I will let you know how I go on cancelling it – I really hope they don’t force me to phone the US.

Very sneaky Joel, very sneaky. I’m not impressed.

We may only be eight years into the new century but I think I have found my number one pick for the award of Moron of the 21st Century.

On a regular basis I like to browse eBay, especially for business opportunities – just to see if I can find any bargains and to see what’s being auctioned off. 

More often than I’d really like I find people who copy material from my websites and paste it into their eBay auctions – I guess to help them get higher winning bids for their items.

I can’t say I’m ever particularly happy about this and on some occasions I do let it lie but most of the time I will contact the seller and ask them to remove my copyrighted text from their auction listings.

The vast majority of people remove the material quickly and also send me a note apologising and insisting they will ask permission in future.

Every so often, though, somebody will really take the piss.

Take this one moron for example, he’d copied an entire page from my site and pasted it into his auction listing with no credit given to me whatsoever.

I found his listing a couple of days ago and sent a polite note asking:

“Please remove any text you are using which has come from my site – bizoppsuk.com. Thanks, Ben“

It was a very fair request, I think any sane person would agree, considering that the work he had copied was my own intellectual property. And perhaps, if he had actually asked I may have allowed him to use some of the text.

Let’s not forget that at the bottom of each page on my website it does specify that all the content is copyrighted and that you should seek permission if you wish to use it.

So, it was very shocking to receive a reply from this particular eBay seller several hours later which said (and I quote it exactly as it was written):

“What is the problem Ben? Your site and content is not copy protected, it is freely available in the public domain. Which inturn means I have full rights to use any part of the content on your biz opp site.”

Stunning.

I was so shocked by this reply, I had to walk away from the computer for a couple of hours so I could calm down.

What a @#%^)#!

Obviously this particular person is extremely misinformed, to the point where he could get himself in a great deal of legal trouble were he to steal content from the wrong person.

Where on earth he got the idea that all web content is in the public domain I have no idea.

Just so that everyone out there does not make the same mistake as this idiot, if you’re in ANY doubt about copyright laws, consult the UK government’s website:

“Copyright applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission.”

From http://www.ipo.gov.uk/whatis/whatis-copy.htm

and also:

“Copyright applies to computing and the internet in the same way as material in other media. For example, any photographs you place on the internet will be protected in the same way as other artistic works; any original written work will be protected as a literary work, and so on.”

From http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy/c-applies/c-compute.htm

Material presented on my website is the result of independent creative effort by myself and, in very selected cases, one or two other individuals who specifically gave me permission to use the material.

The work is most definitely copyrighted and it certainly isn’t in the public domain.

I’m watching this particular seller like a hawk now to make sure he isn’t stealing anything else from me.

Moral of the story: If you ever want to get me wound up, steal from me.

Rant over…