Thursday, July 03, 2008

Hey, That Review Sounds Familiar....

Stealing reviews isn't funny.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reports on blog and Amazon reviews being used by an ebay store. Click thru to get the full details, including links to discover the books in question.

Yes, it does include children's and teen books. I've seen at least one review by a book blogger I know. You really should head over and make sure your work hasn't been stolen.

UPDATED TO ADD: Thanks to Jennifer A Ray for keeping us up to date with this; it looks like eBay is slowly removing the stolen reviews. She shares in her blogs what she has been doing to get the reviews (hers and others) off eBay; take note, in case you're an affected reviewer.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liz, could Amazon and Ebay have a deal? I believe that the copyrights for readers' reviews are owned by Amazon once they're posted at the site, and so Amazon can sell them, right?

Liz B said...

Great minds think alike -- I was wondering the exact same thing! And it's a reason I rarely post a review on Amazon; the whole copyright ownership issue.

Paige Y. said...

I recognized Fuse's review of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! and sure enough, it's an exact copy from her blog and from her Amazon review. I can certainly understand why they chose it -- it's a beautifully written review. I've never posted a review on Amazon and this convinces me that I never will.

Kelly Tyler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelly Tyler said...

They have reviews from Amazon and from blogs. I'm thinking edson.financial.group just Googles the book and grabs the review that best "sells" the book. What really irks me is that they are listed as an eBay top 100 reviewer!!

I just filed a complaint with eBay suggesting that they add something very specific in their terms banning the theft of reviews and boots edson.financial.group from the site. At the very LEAST they should take away the top 100 reviewer status and order them to remove the stolen reviews.

Jennifer A. Ray said...

When you post a review at Amazon, you grant them license to use your review, and I believe their affiliates may also, but you still own that review.

In this case, EDson Financial Group does not appear to be an affiliate, and they haven't simply used the reviews to promote with. They have actually posted them as their own work, which is false and blatant plagiarism. They claim they are their reviews, although a quick look at any of the books they've posted reviews for will show the true review author at Amazon.com.

They stole three of my own. If they had simply reposted them, attributing me as the reviewer, I would have been happy for them to use them. But claiming my hard work as their own is reprehensible.

I've submitted official complaints to eBay using their VeRO program, and am awaiting their response concerning my three reviews. I also urged eBay to investigate all 223 plagiarized reviews that this person has on their site. Simply removing my three is not enough. This thief needs to be stopped.

Jennifer A. Ray said...

As of now, their review count is down to 218. eBay has removed six of the plagiarized reviews so far.