Our story and Mike Essex’s original post have sparked discussion across the Web (oh yeah, and the spammers weighed in too).
Ben Metcalfe wonders why Amazon “continues to prioritize on penalizing its customer base [shutting down sites like Lendle, for instance] while practically ignoring the rampant content abuse and fraud that is going on further up the chain within its own house.” Of course, as Making Light points out, “there isn’t any pressure on Amazon to stop ‘em, since they get their cut regardless.”
Bruce Schneier notes that in addition to publishing spam content, a second type of fraud is also possible on the Kindle Store: “stealing a book and selling it as an ebook. So someone could scan a real book and sell it on an ebook site, even though he doesn’t own the copyright. It could be a book that isn’t already available as an ebook, or it could be a ‘low cost’ version of a book that is already available. Amazon doesn’t seem particularly motivated to deal with this sort of fraud. And it too is suitable for automation.”
In fact, at least one author has already reported his content stolen and posted on Amazon by someone else. S.K.S. Perry found his Darkside for sale on the Kindle Store–but he wasn’t the one selling it. “All I can assume is that someone convinced Amazon that they were S.K.S. Perry, and submitted my book for sale. I have no idea how hard that is to do, or what steps Amazon uses to verify that you in fact have the right to sell whatever book on their site, but obviously in this case their process has failed. Amazon has a copyrite email addy to address this very kind of thing, and I’ve contacted them to let them know, but as yet I’ve heard nothing back.” In the absence of a response from Amazon, Perry fans have taken to the stolen book’s Kindle page to report that the author was ripped off. In a comment titled “A real-life thriller,” Harold Frances Jenkins Jr. writes, “This is the book that asks the question: ‘How will Amazon react when it learns that an author’s work has been made available as a Kindle download without his permission?‘ And ‘How quickly will Amazon resolve this situation?’ We’ll all have to stay tuned to see how this story ends.”
Well, here’s what’s happened so far: After e-mailing Amazon’s copyright e-mail address to complain, Perry still hasn’t heard back from Amazon. So he decided to try uploading Darkside and its sequel to the Kindle store himself, under his own account. He then received this e-mail from Amazon: “1. State that you are the author of this title — and, if the name on your account does not match the name of the author of the title, please provide an explanation. 2. State that you hold the eBook publishing rights to this title – and provide any documents you have from the author (or other copyright owners) of the titles which confirm your eBook rights. Alternatively, if you are affiliated with or are the physical book publisher please provide a statement or resource verifying this.” Presumably the person who posted the book originally received this e-mail as well.
Guess what? Amazon is now selling both Perry’s edition of his own book and the stolen edition. “That’s right, Amazon allowed the same book—written by the same author—to be published on their site under two different accounts and ASIN numbers.” Meanwhile, 9 days after filing his original complaint Perry still has not heard back from Amazon.
