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Worse Than Pirating

By Robert Swartwood on January 27, 2012

So just about a half hour ago I’m browsing through the top 100 horror Kindle titles on Amazon, as I am wont to do (I don’t check the New York Times bestseller lists anymore, but the Kindle top 100 lists), and I noticed this title was currently free:

It stuck out to me immediately, because my friend Aaron Polson not too long ago published a new book with this cover:

As you can see, a very striking resemblance.

So then I thought, Okay, somebody just stole his cover. That’s ridiculous but not too awful.

Then, on a whim, I clicked on the “look inside” option, and guess what.

It was the same book.

Word for word.

I immediately contacted Aaron and let him know.

The first book — the plagiarized book — according to its pub date, has been available since November.

But that’s not all.

I noticed a few other suspicious-looking e-books and brought them to Aaron’s attention, too.

One of them, he told me, was his as well — a short story published under a different title.

Clearly this is a very fucked up part of digital publishing. Many e-books are published without DRM, which stands for digital rights management. E-books with DRM basically make that title only available on that device. Most authors are encouraged to publish their e-books without DRM to make it easier for the reader.

And while it is easier for the reader to transfer the e-books from different devices (you can even take Kindle titles, download them to your computer, and convert them to epub or anything else using Calibre), it makes it even easier for pirates to take your work and put it up for anyone to download for free.

As I’ve said before, while I don’t agree with pirating, it’s a reality we all need to face. And, to be honest, it doesn’t really bother me. The way I see it, those who download my books from pirate sites wouldn’t have even considered buying the books in the first place. And, who knows, maybe they’ll really enjoy that pirated book and seek out more of my work.

But someone taking my e-books and putting them up on pirated sites is one thing.

Someone taking my e-books and doing like they did to Aaron — republishing them under a different name and cover for profit — is fucking despicable.

How can we fight this sort of injustice?

By being vigilant, for one.

What else?

I’m not so sure.

And that, when it comes down to it, is what I find really scary.

Posted in , | 41 Responses

  • http://twitter.com/jordanellinger Jordan Ellinger

    I linked you an article on this. I AM genuinely curious how they replaced the text on their version but kept the same image. I mean, that’s got to take some skill…

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 27th, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    I saw. I think I’d seen that article before. There’s been a bunch of these douche bags cropping up lately. Until it happens to someone you know, though (or to yourself), it doesn’t really hit home. As for how they do it, I think the Calibre program makes it possible to take the Kindle file and convert it into a Word file or something similar, where they can make changes, and then convert it back into a Kindle file. Really wouldn’t take more than a few minutes of work. 

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  • Barry Napier

    This makes me want to vomit.  And punch something. 

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 27th, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    Find the asshole who did this, and then vomit on them after you punch them. 

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  • http://twitter.com/aaronpolson aaronpolson

    I’m just sick. Of course I’d be even sicker if the SOB was actually making money…

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 27th, 2012 at 9:07 pm

    Those books had rankings, so they did sell a few copies. But yeah, at least they didn’t rake in the dough. 

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  • http://twitter.com/categardner Cate Gardner

    Shameful. I am so angry right now. 

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 27th, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    J.K. Patterson has no shame, I bet. 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/jonathandavidmorris Jonathan David Morris

    I am going to go out on a limb here and share a conspiracy theory that I don’t necessarily believe in: Someone with something to gain from DRM did this. And they’re going to keep doing it, to more authors, and more books, to move public opinion or conventional wisdom in their favor. Who or what they may be, I don’t know. But I bet I’m putting myself in grave danger by…

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 27th, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Interesting. I know major publishers push for DRM. So does Amazon, or at least they did a few years ago. But now? I’ve seen countless articles were this happens again and again. 

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  • Anonymous

    This is not a new thing unfortunately. Even before the digital world, pirates were re-pubbing known works under different names to tap offshore markets and made a freaking fortune off the practice. Now, we have to elude the hackers that want to prove their worth to online security providers with abilities to hack into secure sites and smash and grab what ever they want. Just because some of them make no money off the practice, it is truly disconcerting to writers seeing potential profit fly out the door. I said one on Facebook, that I would gladly give my address to any of those fools that want to come take my raw MS’s and would be waiting with open arms and a loaded shotgun.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Nothing new, no, but the digital age makes it all that more easier. 

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  • Bianca

    has anyone reported this idiot to Amazon? They’re usually very swift about slapping authors with even a hint of doing this

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Aaron contacted them. Many of the other books have been deleted, but for some reason the J.K. Patterson hasn’t, though it HAS become unavailable to purchase. 

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  • Cathy Olliffe-Webster

    Disgusting, pure and simple. Assholes.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    Yes and yes. 

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  • jameseverington

    What a cock. 
    I’ve noticed ‘his’ book is ‘not currently available for download’ on Amazon UK, so don’t know if that’s a sign things are happening to get it taken down… Fingers crossed.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    Same here in the US. Should hopefully be deleted soon. 

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  • Charles Gramlich

    That’s just so disgusting and discouraging.  What useless folks some people are.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    Scum of the earth, yep. 

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  • http://waggingthefox.blogspot.com Rabid Fox

    Human excrement. It’s a modern miracle–and also capable of plagiarism.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    They smell badly, too. 

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  • J.L. Benet

    J. K. Patterson is the “author” of Turning Troubles Into Triumphs. You can make your own jokes about that.
    http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1281668.J_K_Patterson

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    And a sixteen year gap between books. Not a very prolific plagiarizer, our J.K. Patterson. 

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    And a sixteen year gap between books. Not a very prolific plagiarizer, our J.K. Patterson. 

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  • http://twitter.com/AdrianaNoir Adriana Noir

    This goes beyond sickening . . .

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  • Mercedes

    I am so angry right now!

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  • JimmyG

    Thank you, Robert, for the information. For someone getting ready to publish on Create Space and possibly Smashwords, it’s good to know. Maybe it will take something real gross to happen to the person who would do this to make them think twice.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 29th, 2012 at 12:54 am

    Unfortunately people like this never really learn their lesson. This one will pop up again eventually, if he/she/it hasn’t already. As for Smashwords — it can be great for distributing your work into the iBookstore and Sony, but as for Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I suggest you do those directly. You’ll get paid monthly and will have more control with changing prices/descriptions/etc, as with Smashwords it can take weeks for your changes to go through, and you’ll be paid quarterly. 

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  • J H Sked

    Oh, man, that’s infuriating.  I reckon I’d just about roll on the floor and bite the carpet if that happened to one of mine.

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    aaronpolson Reply:
    January 28th, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    Carpet tastes pretty nasty actually. And for the record, Amazon was super responsive–I think there’s been an increase of this sort of thing (at least the publicity).  

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  • Lyn Perry

    I have librarian status on Goodreads and updated the description of the pirated book with links to your blog entries. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13272060-in-the-house-of-the-dead

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 29th, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    Cool. Though I wonder if someone emails Goodreads, they might just delete it completely. With many of the books now at risk on Goodreads, I’m actually surprised it’s still there. 

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    Lyn Perry Reply:
    January 29th, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Well, I did notice the Goodreads entry did not have a cover art. I’m sure it will be pulled down eventually. But we’re getting the word out at least.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    January 29th, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Yep! :-)  

  • C.J.

    The solution is pretty simple. In the academic world, there is a site called turnitin.com. It is owned by iParadigms, a company focused on stopping plagerisms. The site basically stores documents submitted by students and uses some sort of algorithm to search against all documents in the database. If phrases are too similar or too alike, the student’s piece will get flagged for possible plagiarism.

    If Amazon were to partner with this company for services, it could essentially end any person posting anything essentially not original. I’m sure Amazon has some sort of algorithm, but it obviously doesn’t work well if identical rip offs are being posted online.

    I’d think that if you fine tweaked the turnitin algorithm to meet Amazon’s specific needs, you’d be able to really quickly flag any piece of plagiarized work. You’d have to assume that an identical plagiarized stories would shoot warning signs all over the place the moment it is uploaded.

    If Amazon isn’t already doing this, I have no idea why not.

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    Robert Swartwood Reply:
    February 3rd, 2012 at 12:01 am

    That is actually a great idea. Why they haven’t implemented something like that yet, I don’t know. Seems like it would make sense, but when it comes to major corporations, who knows what goes through their heads. 

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  • Gelly

    That is infuriating an I feel sorry for the author. I hope Amazon gives him the money the other person has made with it. However DRM has nothing to do with it. DRM is easily cracked by those who want to plagiarize, so having it wouldn’t make it stop. Don’t bark at the wrong tree here. 

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  • John Ridley

    DRM or lack of it isn’t really the problem here.  There is no DRM that isn’t broken.  DRM will not slow down someone who wants to do this at all, it takes less than a minute to remove the DRM from any title.

    This is not a solvable problem.  It’s not possible to make unbreakable DRM, it’s just a waste of money to try.

    Really the only way to stop this is vigilance.  It’s simply a fact of life that digital media is easily copied.  Detection of copying is the answer, not trying to stop it in the first place.  In most cases that I’m aware of, loyal fans have told authors/artists about cases like this and it’s been dealt with.

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  • http://ficfaq.com/ Subhakar Das

    Disgusting…why should people stoop so low

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  • Matthew Wright

    Plagiarism has always been a problem. This is a pretty blatant version of it, and I guess that’s what the digital age does for us. I expect Amazon would remove the plagiarised book from sale if proofs were put before them as to its true origins. However, the main problem is that the original author will likely have to go through lawyers and perhaps the courts to have any particular comeback from the thief. Not a good situation. As John Ridley’s commented above, maybe peer pressure and market forces is the best way to try and deal with it – but that doesn’t make good the losses the real author has suffered as a result of the theft.

    Matthew Wright
    http://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com
    http://www.matthewwright.net

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