Amazon's Knock Off Problem

[BeccaPrice]

Originally Posted by Daithi

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

That's my question: do they? or are other online sellers such a small percent of the market that it's not worth the scammer's time?

[taosaur]

The solution is already there: ratings and reviews. If the title slips past a careless reader, then maybe a 1 star rating with 15,000 votes and a string of reviews entitled "FAKE!!!" will get their attention.

Of course, the bestselling publishers would prefer that everyone who buys their ebooks provide a credit report and recent medical history, and scan a thumbprint for every page turn, because doing that to their paying customers will stop other people from ripping them off...

[plib]

I think the Romans had the best idea - caveat emptor.

[Fbone]

Another problem is complete plagiarisation. That's slimy too.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by taosaur

The solution is already there: ratings and reviews. If the title slips past a careless reader, then maybe a 1 star rating with 15,000 votes and a string of reviews entitled "FAKE!!!" will get their attention.

But what if it has 15 fake five star reviews?

Originally Posted by plib

I think the Romans had the best idea - caveat emptor.

Caveat emptor is an invitation for consumers to be ripped off with no recourse. No thanks.

This isn't about actual books that coincidentally have the same or similar titles. This is about fraud - using a similar name to mislead someone into buying crap that is only intended as filler and was never intended to be an actual book.

That's why it's best for Amazon to take care of the clearly fraudulent cases itself.

[yoho]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

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.

the good thing is those pseudonymers only use the similar title or cover of those famous books. i mean, they are much better than those who are commencing plagiarism.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

But what if it has 15 fake five star reviews?

Then you leave your one star review and let the chips fall where they may. Or you bemoan the sorry state of the world and wait for Them to Do Something.

[plib]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Caveat emptor is an invitation for consumers to be ripped off with no recourse. No thanks.

No. Actually Caveat Emptor means the crooks have been around for at least a couple of thousand years (which was kinda my point), and they are not going away anytime soon. It means learn to use the intelligence God gave you and protect yourself. It probably also means that people will still be complaining "something has to be done about all those fake diamonds from the Moon" in another hundred years or so.

[flipreads]

While titles can't be copyrighted, if you read the article, those books also had identical book descriptions as the books they were copying the titles from, which can confuse the customer.

[xg4bx]

i make it my business to 1-star fan fiction and inform potential buyers. if you still want it, more power to you.

i've yet to see anything like the OP described. i'm sure its out there but i generally fall on the side of 'hey, pay attention to what you're buying next time'. if i buy Lord of the Necklaces by JD Tokem, i really can't blame anybody but myself.

[heeby]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i make it my business to 1-star fan fiction and inform potential buyers. if you still want it, more power to you.

i've yet to see anything like the OP described. i'm sure its out there but i generally fall on the side of 'hey, pay attention to what you're buying next time'. if i buy Lord of the Necklaces by JD Tokem, i really can't blame anybody but myself.

I am not a fan of fan fiction at all...but leaving reviews for books you haven't read or items you haven't used is messed up. I don't trust online reviews at all because of the number of people who do things like this.

Also...people need to pay attention...it isn't hard. Someone who would fall for this reminds me of the people who buy a laptop box off of ebay because they couldn't be bothered to read the description that says no real computer is being sold. Scummy of people to do such things? Sure...but equally as stupid to fall for them.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by heeby

Also...people need to pay attention...it isn't hard. Someone who would fall for this reminds me of the people who buy a laptop box off of ebay because they couldn't be bothered to read the description that says no real computer is being sold. Scummy of people to do such things? Sure...but equally as stupid to fall for them.

A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place?

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

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

Yeah. When I worked in a video store, people would come in and rent/buy those even after I insisted they weren't the same movie. I actually got into a bit of an argument with a customer about it.

"Hey, is that new War of the Worlds movie out yet?"
"No, it's still in theaters. Probably wont see it for a couple few months on DVD."
"Oh." *A couple minutes later* "Oh, here it is! Right here! I thought you said you didn't have it."
"That's...a knock off."
"But, it says 'War of the Worlds' on it."
"Yeah, HG Wells' War of the Worlds."
"It's the same thing, right?"
"Not even close. The real movie is in still in theaters."
"But it's right here."
"That's a knock off movie meant to cash in on the big-name theatrical release."
"But, it's right here."

It was like the real life version of that "iPhone vs HTC Evo" video that was made on xtranormal.

[carpetmojo]

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".

That sounds interesting......

Seriously, does Amazon have any yea or nay about what they flog - or will they just flog anything that's got words...?

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by plib

No. Actually Caveat Emptor means the crooks have been around for at least a couple of thousand years (which was kinda my point), and they are not going away anytime soon. It means learn to use the intelligence God gave you and protect yourself. It probably also means that people will still be complaining "something has to be done about all those fake diamonds from the Moon" in another hundred years or so.

Once Amazon goes completely subscription based and no books are actually bought, these titles should go away, although I'm not a member of the KDP so I can't say how the the beta test is going, is it mostly filled with garbage like this?