Can't trust reviews on google maps, glassdoor, amazon, or trip advisor. Can't trust products fulfilled by Amazon or any site with a 3rd party market integrated (Walmart does this too). Can't trust that new book by an author you like and buy is actually written by them and not a scammer. Can't trust nothin' anymore!
I would rather see my books get pirated than this
61–70 of 517 posts
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#62I 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 imagine everything constantly hovering on the threshold of what is tolerable enough for most people. If you could never buy anything useful on the internet, the system would collapse and people would do something different. But instead, the quality etc will just decline to a point where it is still marginally better than alternatives like shopping in person etc.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#63[deleted]
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#64I 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…
Even that's optimistic. I'd say "its best guess as the truth" should read "its best guess at what you will accept as the truth". It will be entirely about what sucks in the individual.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#65Earlier 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…
Rumor has it that TikTok'ers are doing explainers on how to easily create these for a quick buck, so why wouldn't there be plenty of takers stateside. It being the onslaught it is, murky territory and all, much enforcement seems pretty unlikely anyway, so why not give it a try.
People used to sell this sort of information, it was the classic digital multi level marketing scam without the overarching marketing company. There were ads on YouTube google and Amazon all the time for get my book about how to successfully make money self publishing books on Amazon… people bought it tried to do the harder part of writing stuff then eventually some decided they could crib the book that convinced them to do it in the first place and plagiarised/rehashed the material and wrote the next generation of how to make money writing books to self publish on Amazon and the cycle would continue, slowly growing as more customers fell for the cheap garbage books and the promise of easy income…
Then large language models utterly annihilated this as it becomes obvious that you just write spam books and hope people buy them, job done…
Kind of amazing to see thevalue collapse reaching a new phase, where the only reliable way to drive sales for garbage books is to try and parasitically leach reputation by pretending a real author who has a real reputation is the author of the garbage book.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#66I 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…
Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there?
If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#67Instead of "working" with Amazon to get one of these books removed (sounds super fun), here's a solution I could help an author implement: attach an NFT to each "official" book sold. Either at payment (for digital copies; might require marketplace buy-in) and/or via an NFC in the book binding. Use the token/NFC as a means of authentication, and a way connect with the author, other fans, etc.
How would that stop people from getting ripped off by fakes?
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Out of curiosity, how do intellectual property laws handle someone publishing a work under someone else's name? Is that a trademark violation? I assume in the same way they handle somebody else who actually has the same name publishing books... they do nothing. Unless perhaps they are associating themselves with you "By the author of Such and Such "
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.
Jane Friedman is a renowned author, publishing expert, and advocate for writers in the digital age. With over two decades of experience in the publishing industry, Jane has become a trusted authority on writing, publishing, and the ever-evolving landscape of eBooks.
Jane's passion for writing and her deep understanding of the publishing industry have led her to empower countless aspiring authors to fulfill their writing dreams. Through her books, articles, and speaking engagements, she has provided invaluable guidance on crafting compelling content, navigating the publishing process, and maximizing the potential of eBooks.
[...]
Jane's dedication to helping authors succeed extends beyond her writing and consulting work. As a respected thought leader in the industry, she has contributed to numerous industry publications and served as a mentor to emerging writers. Her insights and advice have been sought after by authors at all stages of their careers.
[...]
It is apparent that the books are trying to trick people into believing this is the Jane Friedman who is now complaining about misattribution.
But it's not apparent that they're doing anything they're not supposed to be doing. It's obviously fine for the fake books to be written under the name Jane Friedman. I am not sure how common it is for fictional authors to have fictional biographical information printed on their books, but it seems hard to avoid for something like Naked Came the Stranger that was attributed to a single author without actually having one.
And even if we think a fictional biography is beyond the pale, most of the bio here isn't fraudulent. Everyone is free to say they are a renowned author and publishing expert regardless of the facts. ("Puffery.") There is a factual claim about having two decades of experience in the publishing industry, and a factual claim about having contributed to numerous industry publications.
And after all of that, if you thought you could make a case that the bio in the back made the book fraudulent, the injured party would be someone who had purchased the book, not the author being imitated.
-----
Jane Friedman (the real one) asked Amazon for the wrong remedy. There isn't a reason to remove the books from sale, and Amazon was right not to do that. She should have asked for Amazon to stop claiming that she had written the fake books, which is something Amazon is doing that they shouldn't be doing.
(And Amazon's problem there is not limited to books that are intentionally pretending to be written by the more well-known Jane Friedman. If you go to their page for "books by Jane Friedman", it is headed by The Business of Being a Writer, identifying the Jane Friedman in question, but it is mostly full of books that do not have a Jane Friedman listed as author or contributor of any kind, such as Atopic Dermatitis and Eczematous Disorders.)
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#69I 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…
Is it not the case that AI is pretty good at detecting AI generated content?
Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this
#70Instead of "working" with Amazon to get one of these books removed (sounds super fun), here's a solution I could help an author implement: attach an NFT to each "official" book sold. Either at payment (for digital copies; might require marketplace buy-in) and/or via an NFC in the book binding. Use the token/NFC as a means of authentication, and a way connect with the author, other fans, etc.
How does that help solve the problem, especially given it's a problem that the marketplace isn't interested in solving?