Vox Day’s conservative publishing company Castalia House has book pulled from Amazon

[John K]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

[Snip/] Rest assured though, I won't be falling for VD's clever ruse when I do buy it. Not because of this thread, but because I'm literate. As I like to think many readers are.

My enjoyment of the Old Man's War was delayed eight years because of my confusing it with The Forever War.

I think I meet the minimum standards of literate.

Not being, ahem, pedantic (), information overload can lead to problems for me and presumably others that I know who made the same mistake.

[DiapDealer]

But when--after eight years--you decided to buy it (Old Man's War), how many wrong books with the same colored cover, written by someone with the initials J. S. (with the word "War" in the title) were you fooled into purchasing before you got the right one?

[meeera]

Originally Posted by gbm

That would be like buying a blue ford when you meant to buy a blue BMW.

Or a blue skateboard with a couple of wheels missing...

[crich70]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

That's why I called it "Trade Dress", not copyright.

TBH though, most book covers are similar enough that I don't think a lawyer would go near this one.

We don't seem to have protection from dodgy movies on SyFy/Horror Channel either :-
Snakes on a train (Possibly better than the original)
Transmorphers, Metal Man, Atlantic Rim, The Day the Earth Stopped.
The list is endless - Ok, I love dodgy creature features

Certainly the idea couldn't be copyrighted. I haven't read either but from the title I'm guessing it's the idea of an advanced (probably galactic) empire collapsing. Asimov had that idea in his Foundation books and he got it from reading "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" I believe. Not to mention other writers have written stuff using that idea.

[HarryT]

The idea of making your books look similar to those of larger publishers is not an unique one. Does anyone think that the quite remarkable similarity of the covers of "Delphi Classics" ebooks to those of Penguin Classics is a coincidence?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The idea of making your books look similar to those of larger publishers is not an unique one. Does anyone think that the quite remarkable similarity of the covers of "Delphi Classics" ebooks to those of Penguin Classics is a coincidence?

With so many, from single title authors to big 5 publishers, using more stock photo's/art these days a lot of covers are very similar. It goes the other way too, with big pubs making covers similar to self-pub books. Harper Collins was in the news for doing so last year.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

With so many, from single title authors to big 5 publishers, using more stock photo's/art these days a lot of covers are very similar. It goes the other way too, with big pubs making covers similar to self-pub books. Harper Collins was in the news for doing so last year.

Sure the cover graphics can be similar, but when you get similar graphics with similar coloring and the same font with the the same color, size, similar layout and a similar fake name, then you know you have a cover designed to trick people into buying thinking it's the real book instead of this rubbish. It's is so very blatantly obvious that this cover is designed to be just like the cover for Scazi's book and this was done on purpose.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's is so very blatantly obvious that this cover is designed to be just like the cover for Scazi's book and this was done on purpose.

It IS obvious. It's just not very noteworthy (nor a likely candidate for litigation).

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sure the cover graphics can be similar, but when you get similar graphics with similar coloring and the same font with the the same color, size, similar layout and a similar fake name, then you know you have a cover designed to trick people into buying thinking it's the real book instead of this rubbish. It's is so very blatantly obvious that this cover is designed to be just like the cover for Scazi's book and this was done on purpose.

I wasn't necessarily addressing the Scalzi/Day cover specifically hence why I quoted Harry's post about similar covers in general in my reply.

Are the Scalzi/Day covers obviously similar? Yes, of course. I just don't care all that much.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sure the cover graphics can be similar, but when you get similar graphics with similar coloring and the same font with the the same color, size, similar layout and a similar fake name, then you know you have a cover designed to trick people into buying thinking it's the real book instead of this rubbish. It's is so very blatantly obvious that this cover is designed to be just like the cover for Scazi's book and this was done on purpose.

You really want on purpose. There is a guy who used the same titles and very similar covers and descriptions to get people to buy his books instead of the more famous authors.
He used the same characters in a few of the books.
Though the pen name wasn't close.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You really want on purpose. There is a guy who used the same titles and very similar covers and descriptions to get people to buy his books instead of the more famous authors.
He used the same characters in a few of the books.
Though the pen name wasn't close.

Who is this person?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

With so many, from single title authors to big 5 publishers, using more stock photo's/art these days a lot of covers are very similar. It goes the other way too, with big pubs making covers similar to self-pub books. Harper Collins was in the news for doing so last year.

To illustrate my point, by the way, here's a Delphi and a Penguin cover side by side:



I think one might very reasonably suggest that the Delphi cover design has "drawn inspiration" from that of Penguin Classics.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think one might very reasonably suggest that the Delphi cover design has "drawn inspiration" from that of Penguin Classics.

Similar style, but very easy not to mistake one for the other.

[HarryT]

Indeed. I'm not suggesting there's any intention to deceive. Note, though, that the proportions of photograph to the rest of the cover are virtually identical on the two covers. The only stylistic difference is that the Delphi cover has the white strip below the book's title, while the Penguin cover has it above. There's not the least doubt in my mind that Delphi came as close to reproducing Penguin's cover layout as they legally dared.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Similar style, but very easy not to mistake one for the other.

You seem to be overly hung up on readers "mistaking" one book for another. Do you not believe most readers are at least as discerning as yourself when it comes to this sort of thing? Do you honestly believe that there are any relevant numbers of consumers who are being tricked by this this sort of thing?

I can (maybe) see a false air of "legitimacy" being gained by emulating popular covers. A "This book looks a lot like these other ones I liked--maybe I'll give it a shot" kind of thing. But I just can't see a lot of readers being outright tricked into buying the wrong book.