Writer Sanctum
Corporate Sector => What are Amazon doing now? [Public] => Topic started by: TimothyEllis on December 18, 2021, 10:00:45 PM
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I just had a fan let me know someone has uploaded one of my books under a new title and cover, twice. Kindle on the US store, and Paperback on the UK store.
Both are using my series names as book titles. The paperback cover is also violating my cover IP by using elements from my covers.
The amazing thing is whoever this is seems to think they can get away with it on Amazon. I've found links on several other sites so far, but only to the Amazon product pages.
You might want to double check your series names in Google to see if someone is doing the same with your books.
I've reported both to Amazon, and hopefully they will take both of them down quickly. They were put up late in November. No ranks on either, so whatever they paid for advertising hasn't worked.
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Sorry this is happening to you. It's a mark of how popular your books are.
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1 of them now has a rank near 2 million, and ranks in 2 Science and Math categories.
Someone is obviously trying to hide the fact they're pirating books.
Might be a KU scam since the book isn't going to be found by anyone looking in categories.
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Piracy at the next level. Unbelievable! I'm glad you got it taken down.
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Piracy at the next level. Unbelievable! I'm glad you got it taken down.
The report is in.
How long it will take for them to vanish is another matter.
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A 3rd version now found. Same book inside, different cover and title, different author for kindle and paperback.
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It just occurred to me that Amazon's new format, having abandoned Mobi, might be making it easier to pirate their books.
The book used here has only ever been on Amazon, and is in KU.
And since this has happened after the format change, it makes me wonder if it was too hard to do before, and now is a lot easier.
It also seems to highlight that Amazon is not doing any plagiarism checking at all now. In fact, one now wonders if they ever did.
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A 3rd version now found. Same book inside, different cover and title, different author for kindle and paperback.
A third!?! :eek: And what if this reader never brought this to your attention? Was the cover similar? There could be a great many of these pirated manuscripts buried in Amazon out there.
How'd you find the third? Was it by a fan again or Amazon?
I would have hoped that when Amazon does whatever it does to scan and approve our books, they'd detect the same manuscript. But maybe I'm hoping too much for a positive side to AI. I hope all this gets cleared up for you.
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A third!?! :eek: And what if this reader never brought this to your attention? Was the cover similar? There could be a great many of these pirated manuscripts buried in Amazon out there.
How'd you find the third? Was it by a fan again or Amazon?
I would have hoped that when Amazon does whatever it does to scan and approve our books, they'd detect the same manuscript. But maybe I'm hoping too much for a positive side to AI. I hope all this gets cleared up for you.
Yes, another fan left me a message overnight. I'd looked, but not found the other pair.
I always thought the scan and approve process was looking for duplicated books, especially after the KU fiasco.
But the book of mine in question is in KU, and has been copied 100%, and yet, Amazon didn't notice multiple copies of it being uploaded from a different account.
Nor have the bots which should be looking for KU rorts found it as well.
It's troubling to think that this kind of blatant piracy can go for nearly a month on Amazon without Amazon finding it.
Now I'm wondering if someone chose my book as a test case to see how long it would take for Amazon to react, if at all, or if the same thing has been done across a wide range of authors with multiple series.
The only saving grace so far is the fact only a single copy has a rank, nearly 2 mill, so they've not exactly been selling. I can't tell if they're in KU or not, but the rank suggests this is not a KU rort, or at least, isn't yet.
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It's now 4 days and no action has been taken by Amazon at all.
One of the books now has a rank of 129k, and is in KU, and showing up on my also viewed slider.
Given the price is well above mine, I'm assuming KU fraud is involved. But other than the auto-advisement of the complaint being received, I've heard nothing.
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Just checking, did you use the Report infringement option right on the book's page? I'd do it, but they only want it directly from the copyright holder.
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Just checking, did you use the Report infringement option right on the book's page? I'd do it, but they only want it directly from the copyright holder.
Yes I did. I got acknowledgment emails, but nothing since. The email said I'd hear with 1 or 2 days, but it's 4 now. Probably most of the staff are on Christmas holidays. Or this is a KU fraud case, in which case the investigation is probably much larger than anyone knows.
I notice one of my fans has posted a blistering one star on one of them now.
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"or if the same thing has been done across a wide range of authors with multiple series."This is the second time today that I heard of this happening. Just read about it in another writers forum.
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"or if the same thing has been done across a wide range of authors with multiple series."This is the second time today that I heard of this happening. Just read about it in another writers forum.
So it could be either one account doing a lot of this across a lot of authors, many not yet found out. Or it could be there's a whole group of accounts doing it.
Disappointing it's taking so long to remove them, but if this is a big thing, I guess I have to wait for Amazon to process it.
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Sorry this happened to you Tim. Hope it gets resolved soon.
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Sorry this happened to you Tim. Hope it gets resolved soon.
Same, hope they can sort it out soon!
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"or if the same thing has been done across a wide range of authors with multiple series."This is the second time today that I heard of this happening. Just read about it in another writers forum.
So it could be either one account doing a lot of this across a lot of authors, many not yet found out. Or it could be there's a whole group of accounts doing it.
Disappointing it's taking so long to remove them, but if this is a big thing, I guess I have to wait for Amazon to process it.
This is terrifying. I wonder if they're hitting just one genre or are all over the map. Is there anyway to ask other authors to check their books. If so, how do you go about finding them? Is there a phrase search we can do, maybe in the samples? I'm thinking we could look under the main category? Shouldn't take more than six months or so. Just kidding about the six months. I have 60 books.
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Amazon are obviously shut down for holidays.
More than 10 days on, and the books are still there, and nothing from them other than the original acknowledgements saying 2 days to get back about it.
Makes Amazon's statements about piracy and plagiarism into big fat lies. The fact it's taking this long seems to indicate no-one there cares.
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Amazon are obviously shut down for holidays.
More than 10 days on, and the books are still there, and nothing from them other than the original acknowledgements saying 2 days to get back about it.
Makes Amazon's statements about piracy and plagiarism into big fat lies. The fact it's taking this long seems to indicate no-one there cares.
Remember how long it took them to eradicate previous scams? They probably haven't set up an auto-reply yet, you know the one with four paragraphs that answers the wrong question.
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If you are finding more instances, perhaps it's worth starting a whole new complaint.
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Have you submitted a DMCA Takedown Notice?
Just emailing support probably won't get the response you're hoping for.
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Have you submitted a DMCA Takedown Notice?
Just emailing support probably won't get the response you're hoping for.
I filled out the form you get when you press the report button on the product page.
If there's a DMCA Takedown Notice separate to that, how do I find it?
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Have you submitted a DMCA Takedown Notice?
Just emailing support probably won't get the response you're hoping for.
I filled out the form you get when you press the report button on the product page.
If there's a DMCA Takedown Notice separate to that, how do I find it?
Google is your friend.
https://copyrightalliance.org/resources/report-piracy/
You can search Amazon's directory to find the email address to send the notice to.
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Google is your friend.
https://copyrightalliance.org/resources/report-piracy/
You can search Amazon's directory to find the email address to send the notice to.
I already did all that as part of the report process. I included asking for the books to be removed.
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Adding insult to injury.
Now Amazon is recommending the pirated book to me.
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Go to the site I linked. Use their templates to write up a take down notice. Email the notice to the address that can be searched for on that site.
The report form is not an official takedown notice. It might have all the content you would include in a take down notice, but it isn't an official DMCA takedown.
Once an official takedown notice is received, Amazon usually responds within 24 hours.
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Go to the site I linked. Use their templates to write up a take down notice. Email the notice to the address that can be searched for on that site.
The report form is not an official takedown notice. It might have all the content you would include in a take down notice, but it isn't an official DMCA takedown.
Once an official takedown notice is received, Amazon usually responds within 24 hours.
:icon_think:
Amazon isn't listed.
You search on Amazon, and all you get are posts with the word in it. No email address.
KDP has a direct link for reporting IP violations, and it goes direct to the same page I filled out.
I can find no email address to send take down notices to.
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Go to the site I linked. Use their templates to write up a take down notice. Email the notice to the address that can be searched for on that site.
The report form is not an official takedown notice. It might have all the content you would include in a take down notice, but it isn't an official DMCA takedown.
Once an official takedown notice is received, Amazon usually responds within 24 hours.
:icon_think:
Amazon isn't listed.
You search on Amazon, and all you get are posts with the word in it. No email address.
KDP has a direct link for reporting IP violations, and it goes direct to the same page I filled out.
I can find no email address to send take down notices to.
Copyright Agent
Amazon.com Legal Department
PO Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108
Phone: 206-266-4064
Email: [email protected]
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Why isn't there a standard form for Take Down notices? Print, fill in, sign, digitize, send. Or fill in online, add digital signature, and send.
Does anyone have one they use?
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Finally send a take down notice to that email.
I got exactly the same email response as for the submissions 2 weeks ago. Again, promising I'd hear something in 1 to 2 days.
I'm not holding my breath.
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Can you post a review on those plagiarized books accusing them of plagiarizing and then report them via the "Report Abuse"?
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Can you post a review on those plagiarized books accusing them of plagiarizing and then report them via the "Report Abuse"?
There's an IP report button in the full review section. I used that. It's the same page you get by going in through KDP help.
I've held off doing reviews myself.
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Can you post a review on those plagiarized books accusing them of plagiarizing and then report them via the "Report Abuse"?
There's an IP report button in the full review section. I used that. It's the same page you get by going in through KDP help.
I've held off doing reviews myself.
Don't leave reviews. That looks petty (to me, at least).
Someone copied my stuff in the UK. I was alerted by the folks who handle my foreign/sub rights. It didn't bother me. The plagiarizer was getting no traction. Few sales. Few reviews. He eventually disappeared.
It helps to have a solid reputation and healthy fan base, of course. I assume you have both since you've been doing this awhile.
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This is a situation where consulting a copyright attorney might be advisable.
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This is a situation where consulting a copyright attorney might be advisable.
I'm hoping Amazon will do the right thing before that is necessary.
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I'm hoping Amazon will do the right thing before that is necessary.
:icon_rofl:
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I'm hoping Amazon will do the right thing before that is necessary.
:icon_rofl:
Yeah. Looks like the entire legal department took holidays over Christmas New Year, and are still on them.
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I finally got a reply from Amazon saying all 4 ASINs were being taken down.
Took them almost a month, and the usual caveat it might take 2 or 3 days to happen.
Still, at least someone seems to be doing the job again now.
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I finally got a reply from Amazon saying all 4 ASINs were being taken down.
Took them almost a month, and the usual caveat it might take 2 or 3 days to happen.
Still, at least someone seems to be doing the job again now.
Great news! Interesting to think we have to work very hard to promote our books, and then someone comes along, does the pirate thing, and then has to figure out how to promote books they pirated. We''ll have to watch for the next "I didn't do anything wrong" author when his/her account gets closed.
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Glad Amazon finally took action.
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Great news, Timothy! What a headache.
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What a lot of hasle - I'm glad to see Amazon eventually did the right thing.
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I sent them a second take down notice for 2 more, and today got back what was effectively a demand to fill out the bloody form.
In other words, they don't take a Take Down notice seriously, but want you to laboriously fill out their form instead.
The Take Down Notice came back labeled as a 'my inquiry'.
Claims Amazon take piracy seriously seem to be rubbish.
As far as I can see, they don't care at all, and make the author jump through unnecessary hoops before they will take any action.
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I sent them a second take down notice for 2 more, and today got back what was effectively a demand to fill out the bloody form.
In other words, they don't take a Take Down notice seriously, but want you to laboriously fill out their form instead.
The Take Down Notice came back labeled as a 'my inquiry'.
Claims Amazon take piracy seriously seem to be rubbish.
As far as I can see, they don't care at all, and make the author jump through unnecessary hoops before they will take any action.
Have you tried asking to speak to a supervisor? At this point, I'd send an email to whoever is running the company these days. There are executive assistants that will get back to you. This is just nuts!
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Have you tried asking to speak to a supervisor? At this point, I'd send an email to whoever is running the company these days. There are executive assistants that will get back to you. This is just nuts!
Is there such an email now?
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Have you tried asking to speak to a supervisor? At this point, I'd send an email to whoever is running the company these days. There are executive assistants that will get back to you. This is just nuts!
Is there such an email now?
[email protected]
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[email protected]
I thought that one was no longer in use.
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[email protected]
I thought that one was no longer in use.
It's been a couple of years since I needed urgent assistance in a tax matter, and it worked then. Jeff didn't answer me, but his assistant did. Might as well give it a try. Meanwhile, see if you can talk to a kdp customer service supervisor. I'm not convinced the lower level customer service has any idea what we're talking about.
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[email protected]
I thought that one was no longer in use.
also:
[email protected].
Andy Jassy is the CEO at Amazon. Try [email protected]
or various combinations of his first name.
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Worth a try. Let us know if any of them work.
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This is a situation where consulting a copyright attorney might be advisable.
:mhk9U91:
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New response from Amazon.
They ARE ignoring take down notices.
They ONLY want their form used for notifying them.
That after ignoring my first 2 forms for over a month.
Even when the take down notice has everything on it their form does, they're still ignoring them.
Not a good sign.
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Tim, in the D2D seminar I listened to yesterday, they mentioned that Amazon is having a lot of problems with plagiarized books. Some are even changing adjectives trying to spoof the bots that are looking for similar sentences.
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Tim, in the D2D seminar I listened to yesterday, they mentioned that Amazon is having a lot of problems with plagiarized books. Some are even changing adjectives trying to spoof the bots that are looking for similar sentences.
I can't say that surprises me.
As far as I can tell though, nothing has been changed with my book. Just a comparison of the first page should flag the copy.
What surprises me is that I'd have expected all of them to be on the same account, and when they deleted the first 4, they'd have also deleted the account. But apparently not.