I just discovered that the website
www.socscience.com is *selling* a pdf of my dissertation. Without listing my name on the sales page (there's no field for author). The only organization that I've given permission to sell my dissertation is UMI/ProQuest, which pays me a royalty (or would, if anyone ever bought it...hasn't happened, yet). I'm planning to send a polite email to this website "informing" them that I am the author and own the copyright, and have not signed an agreement granting them permission to sell my work. (My book, based on my dissertation, is coming out from a university press later this year.) If anyone thinks this is a bad idea for some reason, please let me know. Otherwise, I suggest others in the social sciences check this cite (or search it via Google) to see if it's trying to profit from your work, too.
FYI, after two emails to the seller, I got no response but my dissertation has disappeared from the site. I'm sure they were sad to take it down. I mean, think of the money they must have been making from sales...
