Amazon's Knock Off Problem

Daithi · 04-16-2012, 12:50 PM

Amazon makes it really easy to publish your own books, and apparently a lot of slimy "authors" are publishing books with very similar titles to other highly rated books in an obvious attempt to get people to purchase their books by mistake.

One example of this is Thirty-Five Shades of Grey by J.D. Lyte. The book you were probably looking for was E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey, which itself started as fan fiction based on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.

A couple other examples include, I am the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Twilight New Moon. Probably not the books for which you are looking.

Here is the original article on this story from Fortune Magazine.

I wonder how long before publishers, who already can't stand Amazon, start bringing lawsuits. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the publishers, but I couldn't blame them if they did start suing Amazon over not doing a better job at preventing this kind of thing.

mr ploppy · 04-16-2012, 01:05 PM

I don't think they could, there's been lots of that in films over the years, Snakes on a Train, Evil Dead Trap, etc, if anything could be done it would have been already.

BeccaPrice · 04-16-2012, 01:17 PM

I wonder whether the reason this isn't a problem with B&N as well is simply because B&N doesn't have a large enough share of the audience to make it worth the knockoff artist's tiime to post there too. Or do B&N and Kobo have more editorial say over what's released through their own self-publishing arms?

DiapDealer · 04-16-2012, 01:23 PM

Authors have used pseudonyms to place their product on certain shelves next to certain other names (alphabetically) for years. Yes, I think what's going on in today's digital world is a quite a bit slimier. But I also don't think there's an easy prevention, by any means. There are many examples of legitimate books with the same titles.

susan_cassidy · 04-16-2012, 01:27 PM

Titles can't be copyrighted. There are multiple examples of multiple books with the exact same title.

RainingLemur · 04-16-2012, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I don't think they could, there's been lots of that in films over the years, Snakes on a Train, Evil Dead Trap, etc, if anything could be done it would have been already.

Heh. Asylum tends to do that with a lot of the big movies that come out. Transmorphers, Paranormal Entity, HG Wells - War of the Worlds, the upcoming Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies... Etc.

Some of those movies are hilariously bad. And worth watching with a couple pals just to do your own version of MST3K.

howyoudoin · 04-16-2012, 01:31 PM

I don't see this as a problem at all, given Amazon's 7-day return policy.

Skydog · 04-16-2012, 01:33 PM

If a lawsuit is the goal then why should it be directed at Amazon or any other retailer? Based on what? There are "knock-offs" of many things sold legally everyday. It seems to me any potential legal action should be aimed at the creator(s) of the books and even that may be a weak case.

As far as an unsuspecting/ignorant consumer of such a book - Amazon has a generous return policy.

fjtorres · 04-16-2012, 02:16 PM

If Amazon were to police their listings, we'd be looking at an article bemoaning "Amazon Censorship".

Something like this, perhaps:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...oks-will-fail/

khalleron · 04-16-2012, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Titles can't be copyrighted. There are multiple examples of multiple books with the exact same title.

This. There's no basis for any kind of legal action. It may be slimy, but it's not illegal or actionable.

<Shrug>

Move along, nothing to see here.

Andrew H. · 04-16-2012, 03:00 PM

There's not realistically any legal action that can be taken, particularly given Amazon's return policy. However, Amazon itself should (and, I hope, does) listen to complaints and police its store to remove deliberately misleading works.

andyh2000 · 04-16-2012, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Heh. Asylum tends to do that with a lot of the big movies that come out. Transmorphers, Paranormal Entity, HG Wells - War of the Worlds, the upcoming Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies... Etc.

Some of those movies are hilariously bad. And worth watching with a couple pals just to do your own version of MST3K.

I nearly accidentally bought "Battle of Los Angeles" thinking it was "Battle: Los Angeles". I thought it was odd it was out on DVD when it was still playing in the cinema...

Andrew

QuantumIguana · 04-16-2012, 03:39 PM

If we could copyright titles, we'd run out of titles soon. We would have to entitle books something like "The Grom Blerthek of Merklorpriam".

andyh2000 · 04-16-2012, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

If we could copyright titles, we'd run out of titles soon. We would have to entitle books something like "The Grom Blerthek of Merklorpriam".

You'd be a natural sword and sorcery writer!

Andrew

Daithi · 04-16-2012, 04:03 PM

You can't copyright titles, but Trademark law most definitely applies to book series, even if the author or publisher never explicitly files for trademark protection (do your own Google search). This doesn't apply to all book series, but it applies to a lot of them. Many of the major selling series are even explicitly trademarked, and I'd be quite surprised if the Twilight series wasn't explicitly trademarked. "The Girl with/who" series may have a tougher go claiming it has a trademark.

In any event, this really wouldn't be a difficult problem for Amazon to solve. They don't have to check proposed titles against every title they have on hand. They really only need to check against major bestsellers.

Maybe other online sellers don't have this problem because they actually do check titles.

04-16-2012, 12:50 PM	#1
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	Amazon's Knock Off Problem Amazon makes it really easy to publish your own books, and apparently a lot of slimy "authors" are publishing books with very similar titles to other highly rated books in an obvious attempt to get people to purchase their books by mistake. One example of this is Thirty-Five Shades of Grey by J.D. Lyte. The book you were probably looking for was E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey, which itself started as fan fiction based on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. A couple other examples include, I am the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Twilight New Moon. Probably not the books for which you are looking. Here is the original article on this story from Fortune Magazine. I wonder how long before publishers, who already can't stand Amazon, start bringing lawsuits. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the publishers, but I couldn't blame them if they did start suing Amazon over not doing a better job at preventing this kind of thing. Last edited by Daithi; 04-16-2012 at 12:52 PM. Reason: My grammar book was apparently a knock-off.

04-16-2012, 02:16 PM	#9
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	If Amazon were to police their listings, we'd be looking at an article bemoaning "Amazon Censorship". Something like this, perhaps: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...oks-will-fail/ Last edited by fjtorres; 04-16-2012 at 02:19 PM.

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04-16-2012, 01:05 PM	#2
mr ploppy Feral Underclass Posts: 3,622 Karma: 26821535 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Yorkshire, tha noz Device: 2nd hand paperback	I don't think they could, there's been lots of that in films over the years, Snakes on a Train, Evil Dead Trap, etc, if anything could be done it would have been already.

04-16-2012, 01:17 PM	#3
BeccaPrice Wizard Posts: 2,146 Karma: 11174187 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Sony 350, K3-3G, K4SO, KPW	I wonder whether the reason this isn't a problem with B&N as well is simply because B&N doesn't have a large enough share of the audience to make it worth the knockoff artist's tiime to post there too. Or do B&N and Kobo have more editorial say over what's released through their own self-publishing arms?

04-16-2012, 01:23 PM	#4
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,378 Karma: 203720150 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Authors have used pseudonyms to place their product on certain shelves next to certain other names (alphabetically) for years. Yes, I think what's going on in today's digital world is a quite a bit slimier. But I also don't think there's an easy prevention, by any means. There are many examples of legitimate books with the same titles.

04-16-2012, 01:27 PM	#5
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	Titles can't be copyrighted. There are multiple examples of multiple books with the exact same title.

04-16-2012, 01:31 PM	#7
howyoudoin how YOU doin? Posts: 1,100 Karma: 7371047 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: India Device: Kindle Keyboard, iPad Pro 10.5”, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Libra 2	I don't see this as a problem at all, given Amazon's 7-day return policy.

04-16-2012, 01:33 PM	#8
Skydog Wizard Posts: 2,286 Karma: 7409537 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83 Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Libra Colour, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Oasis3, Voyage	If a lawsuit is the goal then why should it be directed at Amazon or any other retailer? Based on what? There are "knock-offs" of many things sold legally everyday. It seems to me any potential legal action should be aimed at the creator(s) of the books and even that may be a weak case. As far as an unsuspecting/ignorant consumer of such a book - Amazon has a generous return policy.

04-16-2012, 03:00 PM	#11
Andrew H. Grand Master of Flowers Posts: 2,201 Karma: 8389072 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Naptown Device: Kindle PW, Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard), iPhone, iPad 3 (not for reading)	There's not realistically any legal action that can be taken, particularly given Amazon's return policy. However, Amazon itself should (and, I hope, does) listen to complaints and police its store to remove deliberately misleading works.

04-16-2012, 03:39 PM	#13
QuantumIguana Philosopher Posts: 2,034 Karma: 18736532 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2 gen, Kindle Fire 1st Gen, Kindle Touch	If we could copyright titles, we'd run out of titles soon. We would have to entitle books something like "The Grom Blerthek of Merklorpriam".

04-16-2012, 04:03 PM	#15
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	You can't copyright titles, but Trademark law most definitely applies to book series, even if the author or publisher never explicitly files for trademark protection (do your own Google search). This doesn't apply to all book series, but it applies to a lot of them. Many of the major selling series are even explicitly trademarked, and I'd be quite surprised if the Twilight series wasn't explicitly trademarked. "The Girl with/who" series may have a tougher go claiming it has a trademark. In any event, this really wouldn't be a difficult problem for Amazon to solve. They don't have to check proposed titles against every title they have on hand. They really only need to check against major bestsellers. Maybe other online sellers don't have this problem because they actually do check titles.

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