Pre-LLM content is going to become the most valuable substance known to man. Don't blame Reddit and the like for circling wagons around it.
If you think reddit is genuine human content I have same bad news for you buddy.
I would rather see my books get pirated than this
41–50 of 517 posts
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#42Just some of the problems authors already faced online (I'm related to one): - Google indexing and republishing all of their work for free on Google Books (finally resolved after a huge Class Action suit where the authors were awarded a few $$) - List your book on Amazon for $20 and a "third party" reseller will immediately hijack your listing with a poorly printed knockoff copy for $19 - Widespread piracy of Kindle…
> It's very difficult to make money writing books these days
That's been true as long as the printing press existed. I know many authors, and none of them make money worth spit.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#43Haha… Amazon, you say? You mean the large money laundering operation, putting third party counterfeit goods in the same warehouse bins as legitimate goods from legitimate suppliers, so that as a consumer you never know if you’re going to get counterfeit goods? Yes, that’s the Amazon we know and love.
It's amazing how many people aren't aware of this. This should be way more publicized. I was talking to a business partner a while back and mentioned I'm not using Amazon and they were shocked. When I listed all my reasons and this one came up, they didn't believe me and we stopped talking until they looked it up online and were convinced. They were using Amazon to order all supplements and it stopped then and there.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#44I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives.
But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be generated just for you, filled with AI-made reviews and users. The entire internet will just be a computer that guesses what you want and shows you its best guess as the truth. a little matrix-y.
Reading back I sound like T*d K but the next 100 years is going to be unimaginable in terms of what silicon is going to be able to do. It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough most of the time. Like a mcdonalds drive thru.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you "Look Inside" the offending books on Amazon you can see they have extensive "About the Author" page describing Jane Friedman - so it would be difficult to argue that the books are not trying to trick people into believing it's Jane.
I think at that point it’s fraud.
At which point, I'd expect it to be a matter for the author to take it to court as opposed to expecting a bookstore to adjudicate it for them. Which is (sadly) going to be expensive for an individual unless a publisher is going to undertake the effort for them.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#46>I did file a report with Amazon, complaining that these books were using my name and reputation without my consent. Amazon’s response: “Please provide us with any trademark registration numbers that relate to your claim.” When I replied that I did not have a trademark for my name, they closed the case and said the books would not be removed from sale. I see you had a typical customer service experience with Amazon.…
It's not trademark, but you can sue someone for fraudulently using your name and likeness, it varies by state in the US. Of course the actual entity posting the fraudulent books are probably overseas somewhere and will disappear if anyone tries to contact them. Maybe if it happens to enough people a class-action lawsuit against Amazon would force them to do some due diligence when listing a book to make sure that the…
> Of course the actual entity posting the fraudulent books are probably overseas somewhere
Amazon is an international, but is certainly bound by the laws of the United States of America. At least the ones it can't buy itself out of.
"I didn't know" isn't an affirmative defense if your employees are on the record saying they know.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#47I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…
I think people have a lower tolerance for this than that, and will just go back to relying on personal recommendations and other reliable forms of curation.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#48We are already in the world of AI-assisted fraud, and we are starting to see it all around us. Companies like Amazon are going to have to figure out how they want to approach this sort of thing, because it will hurt the trust people have in them. I worry that they see selling creative content as little different than selling a USB-powered table fan.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not trademark, but you can sue someone for fraudulently using your name and likeness, it varies by state in the US. Of course the actual entity posting the fraudulent books are probably overseas somewhere and will disappear if anyone tries to contact them. Maybe if it happens to enough people a class-action lawsuit against Amazon would force them to do some due diligence when listing a book to make sure that the…
> Of course the actual entity posting the fraudulent books are probably overseas somewhere Amazon is an international, but is certainly bound by the laws of the United States of America. At least the ones it can't buy itself out of. "I didn't know" isn't an affirmative defense if your employees are on the record saying they know.
I think Amazon wouldn't say they didn't know, but that it's not their responsibility. For example if Random House published a book that libeled someone, and Amazon sold it, you would sue Random House and the author for libel, not Amazon. Likewise, Amazon would tell you to go sue the publisher, who is probably judgement-proof in some way.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unlike copyright, (registered) trademarks don't exist by default, they have to be registered, defended vigorously and regularly renewed. So you would first have to explicitly register your name as a trademark, and that's going to be quite challenging if you have a common name like "Jane Friedman". That said, a quick poke at TESS shows a bunch of trademarks containing Friedman, including some personal names (Alan, Riv…
In the UK & US at least that's not true, there are de facto (unregistered) and (offering more protection) registered trademarks. In the UK at least if you could show your name gave it some weight, and that you'd suffered some financial harm as a result of its use, then you'd have a case without it being registered.
In the UK, Scotland, specifically, McDonalds has lost at least two lawsuits against a Scottish family for trademark violations.