Authors Spamming Amazon With Fake Books, Knock-Offs

[exfileme]

Fake ebooks are becoming a wide-spread problem in the book industry, and Amazon isn't helping the situation.

Authors Spamming Amazon With Fake Books, Knock-Offs : Read more

 

[tramit]

They need to set up a filtering service.

 

[Parsian]

we seem to love trash things, do we? :S

 

[lamorpa]

Maybe I misunderstand something, but isn't Karen Peebles just a criminal? Does she really think that plagiarizing and using dishonest methods is OK because "I am a single mother who home schools her children"? Schools them in what? Amoral and Criminal activity?

 

[Guest]

"interviews with Jeve Stobs"

didn't realize folks who read books were so illiterate......

 

[Maxor127]

I actually wondered about how easy it would be to do something like this and how profitable it would be. I wonder what the legality of it is. There's probably a difference between plagiarism and using a misleading title. Just like how ripoff movies like "Transmorphers," "Terminators," and "Battle of Los Angeles" can exist.

 

[gm0n3y]

On a somewhat related note, I bought a book from the Kobo ebook store a while ago that ended up not being in English (it was a translation of an English language book). There was no text on the page stating that the language was anything other than English. One would assume that a book sold on a website would be in the same language as the website unless otherwise stated. Anyway, I contacted them to swap for the English language version of the book or, if that failed, get a refund and they refused.

 

[aevm]

Amazon also has a big problem with spam in physical books, IMO. For example go to www.amazon.ca, select Books, type stargate as the word to search for, sort by publication date. Items 2 and 269 are legitimate (maybe 267 too, not sure), and everything in between is garbage, mostly copied from wikipedia.

For example why does Amazon Canada allow items with titles like:

Stargate: Aflevering Van Stargate, Personage Uit Stargate, Technologie in Stargate, Volk Uit Stargate, Lijst Van Afleveringen Va by Bron Wikipedia (Paperback - Jul 2011)

Kanadai Filmek: Angyalsz V, Stargate: Continuum, a Fantasztikus N Gyes ?'S AZ EZ St Utaz , Csillagkapu: AZ Igazs G L D Ja, F?r Sz IV by Forr?'s Wikipedia (Paperback - Aug 2011)

Fiktiva Milit Rer: Fiktiva Generaler, Milit Rer I Tintin, Knasen, Obi-WAN Kenobi, Lista Ver Rollfigurer I Stargate, James Bond by K. Lla Wikipedia (Paperback - Aug 2011)

This used to work very nicely about two years ago. Now the good stuff is so deeply covered in junk that you can't even find it any more. I hope they fix it soon...

 

[svdb]

Phony books existed long before Amazon. Nothing new here. All you need is provide better information so the customer wouldn't confuse one book for another.
Do you really want a comity to determine which books are allowed to be published and which are not? Haven't we had enough censorship with SOPA, PIPA and CISPA already?

 

[olaf]

they should just make it so that you could randomly read a chapter befor buying or in smaller books some randomly selected pages( in reading orde so you can make sense of it)

 

[Guest]

The correct term is a "knock off" and they have always existed. How many knockoff novels of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code were published: mostly by major publishing companies. It's always a good idea to have a clue what you're talking about before you open mouth and insert foot.

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]J R Tomlin[/nom]The correct term is a "knock off" and they have always existed. How many knockoff novels of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code were published: mostly by major publishing companies. It's always a good idea to have a clue what you're talking about before you open mouth and insert foot.[/citation]
Get a clue and open your mouth for your own foot. Imitating the style of something and jumping on the band wagon of a trend is one thing. Of course, no major publishing companies came out with a lookalike book called the "The De Vinci Code" by Dan Broun, or "The Da Vinsi Code" by Dane Brown. The ebooks here are made to intentionally fool people and contain nonsense or illegally copied material. In any case, "always existed" or not, knock offs are illegal.

 

[IXfearlessXI]

Epic fail Amazon, but the copies have had to be on there for a long time they just now noticing this?

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]On a somewhat related note, I bought a book from the Kobo ebook store a while ago that ended up not being in English (it was a translation of an English language book). There was no text on the page stating that the language was anything other than English. One would assume that a book sold on a website would be in the same language as the website unless otherwise stated. Anyway, I contacted them to swap for the English language version of the book or, if that failed, get a refund and they refused.[/citation]
I bet Amazon would have at least given you a refund. In my experience they have always provided excellent customer service in the event of fraud or other problems, regardless of whether the goods were physical or digital.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]olaf[/nom]they should just make it so that you could randomly read a chapter befor buying or in smaller books some randomly selected pages( in reading orde so you can make sense of it)[/citation]Uh, you can already do this sort of thing on Kindle. Click "Download a sample" to read the first pages. You can also preview books (physical books too) on Amazon's website as well, even if you don't have the Kindle reader software installed. On their site you can view the first pages like the sample option on Kindle, and you can also view a random page ("Click here to view random page" or "Surprise me"), as well as the cover and back.

That doesn't even count reader reviews, which are a valuable asset for determining whether ANY self-published book is worth giving a shot, including perfectly legit self-published titles - which are often available at stellar prices, since the author and book may not be well known. Amazon gives you the tools you need to avoid buying knock off junk books. Further, if you really did purchase a book on Kindle and were somehow fooled into thinking it was another book, I'd be willing to bet they'd refund your money.

 

[Guest]

Why don't the authors take legal action?