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The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

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Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#21

Post by rolph »

stalfie wrote: post #11
lambdaone wrote: post #4

This is exactly what DMCA takedowns are actually for.

Ironically, the article points out that the original authors publisher actually put out two DMCA notices to google last year, apparently with no effect. I guess DMCA takedowns are only for the big fish fighting the good fight against car pirates.

then DMCA the entirety of google and alphabet, and tender class action for direct and contributory violation, with the option to back it off to the literary work in question when goog takes a seat at the table and takes it seriously

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#22

Post by conception »

tchalla wrote: post #12
stalfie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, the article points out that the original authors publisher actually put out two DMCA notices to google last year, apparently with no effect. I guess DMCA takedowns are only for the big fish fighting the good fight against car pirates.

Eventually almost every other regulation turns out to be one that benefits big players and doesn’t help smaller ones.

Usually it’s easy enough to see who’s pushing for the regulation to figure out who will benefit from it.

Eg https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/06/16/congress/me...

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#23

Post by egypturnash »

shevy-java wrote: post #8
lambdaone wrote: post #4

This is exactly what DMCA takedowns are actually for.

DMCA to take down AI slop? I feel that is twice the mistake. DMCA should not exist in the first place. Neither should AI slop. Here we have AI stealing from people. AI is a thief.

How do you suggest Qontour be held accountable for this blatant theft of Koenig's work and name if the DMCA is a mistake?

And don't pass the blame off onto "AI" from the people who said "let's make a web site that totally steals this book we like". AI is a tool of thieves, founded upon thievery. Qontour is an agency made up of thieves who are using AI to perform their thievery.

In fact let's go down their about page (https://www.qontour.com/about) and point some fingers:

Gala Aranaga, Founder & CEO of Qontour, is a thief.

Jason Chandler, Founder & Creative Director of Qontour, is a thief.

Atif Fazil, Technical Director of Qontour, is a thief.

Pemi Ogunkeye, Webflow Developer at Qontour, is a thief.

Daniela Aranaga, Head of Content & Marketing at Qontour, is a thief.

Ahmed Qayyum, Solutions Architect at Qontour, is a thief.

Bukunmi Ogunmodede, Webflow Developer at Qontour, is a thief.

Hassaan Rasul, Senior UX Designer at Qontour, is a thief.

They used ChatGPT, a copyrightwashing tool developed in a massive act of thievery by the employees of OpenAI, all of whom are thieves. OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Trevor Blackwell, all of whom are thieves.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#24

Post by EarlKing »

echelon wrote: post #5

AI laundering is going to become a major tactic in all domains. Fiction and nonfiction writing, software, video, music, you name it. It's easy to take GPL software and rewrite it in another language without the license. Trivially easy. It's possible you'll even be able to do the same with just compiled bytecode soon. Just recently there was an instance where Nous Research Hermes agent cloned some Chinese OSS. It's ha…

Allow me to introduce everyone here to a new definition (original content, donut steel):

qontouria, n. The feeling of having your work passed off as someone else's.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#25

Post by ilamont »

Just to be clear: The bootleg site is pointing to the Amazon listing of the actual book (ISBN 9781501153648, Simon & Schuster, published 2021). The Amazon link is not pointing to an AI slop version of the book.

So how is the bootleg site making money? The Amazon link was created with Amazon Associates, the Amazon affiliate program (you can see the affiliate link code, tag=promptdigital-20, in the Amazon URI).

This is how AI slop can be monetized: poorly gated Amazon programs like Amazon KDP, Amazon Associates, and that Meta monetization program. Anything goes, from crafty scams like this to over-the-top social media slop like shrimp Jesus.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#26

Post by shimman »

stalfie wrote: post #11
lambdaone wrote: post #4

This is exactly what DMCA takedowns are actually for.

Ironically, the article points out that the original authors publisher actually put out two DMCA notices to google last year, apparently with no effect. I guess DMCA takedowns are only for the big fish fighting the good fight against car pirates.

Why aren't they suing Google in court? Now is the best time to do this politically, the site doesn't mention what state they live in but I'd doubt that you wouldn't be able to get a state AG to listen to you if you reached out.

edit to add: Google has ignored all safe harbor protections, they would lose this protection and be held liable for all damages. This seems like a pretty solid win for the author here if they're telling the truth.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#27

Post by Wowfunhappy »

stalfie wrote: post #11
lambdaone wrote: post #4

This is exactly what DMCA takedowns are actually for.

Ironically, the article points out that the original authors publisher actually put out two DMCA notices to google last year, apparently with no effect. I guess DMCA takedowns are only for the big fish fighting the good fight against car pirates.

Simon & Schuster is a small fish?

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#28

Post by habagav »

ilamont wrote: post #25

Just to be clear: The bootleg site is pointing to the Amazon listing of the actual book (ISBN 9781501153648, Simon & Schuster, published 2021). The Amazon link is not pointing to an AI slop version of the book. So how is the bootleg site making money? The Amazon link was created with Amazon Associates, the Amazon affiliate program (you can see the affiliate link code, tag=promptdigital-20 , in the Amazon URI). This i…

So they’re basically parasites.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#29

Post by Jtarii »

fhdkweig wrote: post #14
echelon wrote: post #5

AI laundering is going to become a major tactic in all domains. Fiction and nonfiction writing, software, video, music, you name it. It's easy to take GPL software and rewrite it in another language without the license. Trivially easy. It's possible you'll even be able to do the same with just compiled bytecode soon. Just recently there was an instance where Nous Research Hermes agent cloned some Chinese OSS. It's ha…

There are already companies like Asylum films. Pay attention to the right hand column of this table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Asylum_films

Parody films do not compete with the actual films they are parodying. It's not a good comparison.

Re: The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows

#30

Post by ryandrake »

tchalla wrote: post #12
stalfie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, the article points out that the original authors publisher actually put out two DMCA notices to google last year, apparently with no effect. I guess DMCA takedowns are only for the big fish fighting the good fight against car pirates.

Eventually almost every other regulation turns out to be one that benefits big players and doesn’t help smaller ones.

The entire purpose of the DMCA is that it’s a bludgeon that the rich and powerful can use to beat the poor and powerless. It was never meant for individual copyright owners to use against giant infringing corporations.
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