Mary Stewart!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I recall that I tried to report the previous version and you have to be the rights holder to do so (unless things have changed since).

So contact the publisher if you're so sure of your claim.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I recall that I tried to report the previous version and you have to be the rights holder to do so (unless things have changed since).

I've asked Amazon about a number of ebooks over the years. Most of the time, they take down ebooks that have questions about them and normally fairly quickly. They are legally responsible if they fail to take action after an issue is pointed out to them. Of course, it does help if you try to be non confrontational about it.

[AnemicOak]

Jon, if you really want to dig into things you can try contacting Ms. Stewart's niece Jennifer Ogden. I believe she and her siblings are the current rights holders for their aunt's works.

While there are numerous flags that say these aren't being put out by a major publisher there is nothing indicating that the estate isn't self-pubbing them in the US. It wouldn't be the first time that an author, or their estate, has self-pubbed for a certain market and used the name of the old publisher of the pBooks and even used copyrighted cover art from other editions. As for them being on Amazon and therefore legit because of that it wouldn't be the first time pirated books were sold on Amazon, 1984, Harry Potter, etc. Amazon, like eBay and many other places, relies on the rights holders to police their own copyrights. If something is obviously wrong they pull it first and ask questions later, but otherwise they'll only do something if you are the rights holder.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

And it's up to Amazon to remove them. In the meantime, they're legit.

I agree that it's up to Amazon to remove them; however, I am unwilling to let pirates make money from me off sheer theft.

This case is muddied with the Whispersync aspect and I don't know what to make of it. But generally speaking, when it's obvious a seller doesn't have rights to a book, I think people should find the legitimate seller and pay what it takes. And when there's no legit copy out there, move on - but paying someone for stolen content is the worst of the available options.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by issybird

I agree that it's up to Amazon to remove them; however, I am unwilling to let pirates make money from me off sheer theft.

This case is muddied with the Whispersync aspect and I don't know what to make of it. But generally speaking, when it's obvious a seller doesn't have rights to a book, I think people should find the legitimate seller and pay what it takes. And when there's no legit copy out there, move on - but paying someone for stolen content is the worst of the available options.

You have to know it's illegitimate to begin with, and I don't know too many people who'd do the research to find out. For the average book buyer, what's a telltale sign that it's not legitimate?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

And it's up to Amazon to remove them. In the meantime, they're legit.

You don't get it. Just because it is up on Amazon does not make these eBooks legit. I could find a scanned eBook and put it up on Amazon and it would be no more legit then these eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

You have to know it's illegitimate to begin with, and I don't know too many people who'd do the research to find out. For the average book buyer, what's a telltale sign that it's not legitimate?

If I bought an eBook from one of the BPHs and they came with straight quotes, I would be questioning the legitimacy.

Yes, most people would think they are legit. But we can tell if we bother to look.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You don't get it. Just because it is up on Amazon does not make these eBooks legit. I could find a scanned eBook and put it up on Amazon and it would be no more legit then these eBooks.

I do get it. It's Amazon's responsibility to verify the legality of all products they sell, not the consumers. Until such time that Amazon removes the product listing, it's fair game; legal or not.

So tell me, how does the average consumer spot an illegal product listed in Amazon's catalog?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If I bought an eBook from one of the BPHs and they came with straight quotes, I would be questioning the legitimacy.

Yes, most people would think they are legit. But we can tell if we bother to look.

The average consumer is not equipped with this knowledge, so you can't blame them for buying questionable/illegal products.

[Catlady]

You do realize that there are some typefaces in which curly quotes and straight quotes are virtually indistinguishable?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The Kindle book is here. This is showing Eos as the publisher, with a pub date of April 2016. I don't know why anyone would think these books are somehow illegal editions.

Ah, that one shows as unavailable to me... I can only select this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Cave-...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

And when I select the Audible version, I get redirected to the abridged version,

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I do get it. It's Amazon's responsibility to verify the legality of all products they sell, not the consumers. Until such time that Amazon removes the product listing, it's fair game; legal or not.

So tell me, how does the average consumer spot an illegal product listed in Amazon's catalog?

There are some companies that have stopped selling with Amazon marketplace because of the counterfeit items being sold there.

As for how the consumer is to know when something is fake, it's not always easy. But in this case, it's trivial if you know what to look for. You can see bogus publisher, exclusive to Amazon, no DRM, straight quotes, full line for section breaks, UK cover, and not showing as an eBook at the supposed publisher's website. I am surprised at some of the responses in this thread given how I've pointed out the evidence to prove that it's not legal.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are some companies that have stopped selling with Amazon marketplace because of the counterfeit items being sold there.

As for how the consumer is to know when something is fake, it's not always easy. But in this case, it's trivial if you know what to look for. You can see bogus publisher, exclusive to Amazon, no DRM, straight quotes, full line for section breaks, UK cover, and not showing as an eBook at the supposed publisher's website. I am surprised at some of the responses in this thread given how I've pointed out the evidence to prove that it's not legal.

Explain that to the average reader and all you'll get is a puzzled look. They won't have a clue as to what you're talking about, nor would they care.

...straight quotes, full line for section breaks,...

FTR, I have no idea what either of these phrases means nor would I know how to spot them.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Explain that to the average reader and all you'll get is a puzzled look. They won't have a clue as to what you're talking about, nor would they care.



FTR, I have no idea what either of these phrases means nor would I know how to spot them.

For the most part, there isn't really a "this is pirated" indicator with regards to backlist books. You see a range of things depending on who did the actual scan and how much effort was made to clean it up. I would have said, look at the copyright page, but I've seen a number of legit ebooks leave the original copyright page (including the original publisher rather than the ebook publisher) in place. I've seen most of the items listed in perfectly legit ebooks. Many badly scanned and edited legit ebooks have been the topic of threads here. Book covers tend to depend on which book covers the ebook publisher has negotiated the rights to.

My rule of thumb is the likely rule. In this case, it's perfectly likely that they are legit. The audiobooks are becoming available and Amazon is discounting the audiobook if you buy the ebook. That's not just an automatic thing and I find it very unlikely they would do that for a pirated book. In addition, the ebooks have been there for six months. Most pirated editions of well known books don't last a month before they are taken down, especially if you have a book that has a history of being pirated and the literary copyright holder is active. Add in that apparently other Mary Stewart books are starting to appear in (a google search for Mary Stewart showed a magazine book review in England) all add up to say that it's likely that the ebook is legit. I'm not saying that it is absolutely, positively legit, since no one posting on this thread is in a position to say for sure one way or the other. I simply don't see anything that makes me doubt it.

Of course, if it really, really bothers someone, they can always do as suggested in this thread. First, contact Amazon and if they don't get satisfaction that way, contact the likely copyright holder. A number of pirated versions have been successfully dealt with that way.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Ah, that one shows as unavailable to me... I can only select this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Cave-...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

And when I select the Audible version, I get redirected to the abridged version,

Can you get it here?