COUNTERFEIT BOOKS on AMAZON

By Bonnie Stanard

Counterfeiting is becoming a problem for writers who publish and sell their books on Amazon, according to the New York Times. Though it’s not considered widespread, there’s no reason to believe that book counterfeiters will willingly retrench their profitable activities, especially considering that there’s no organized measures being taken to track down counterfeit books.

How do you know if somebody has copied your novel and is selling it on Amazon? The discoveries so far have been made by readers who have recognized book duplicates or irregularities on Amazon. For example, an Atari buff discovered and exposed a counterfeit copy of Breakout, by Jamie Lendino. A certain Steve S. Thomas remade Breakout and sold it as his own. He got rid of the title and replaced it with the subtitle — How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation. According to the NYT, “He put on a new cover and substituted his name for Lendino’s” and kept Lendino’s biographical details. 

Other writers have said their books have been copied and sold by counterfeiters: Andrew S. Greer (her novel Less); Tish H. Warren (Liturgy of the Ordinary); Danielle Trussoni (Falling Through the Earth); Lauren Groff (Florida). According to the NYT, “For 18 months Amazon has sold a counterfeit of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express despite warnings in reader reviews that it is a ‘monstrosity,’ dispensing with such standard features as proofreading and paragraph indenting.”

Amazon tells prospective publishers and sellers, “It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn’t violate laws or copyright...or other rights.” In other words, Amazon does not assume any responsibility for selling counterfeits. And our courts have not found Amazon liable for selling counterfeit products. The company has successfully argued that it is a platform for sellers, rather than a seller itself.

The Authors Guild, in advocating for the creation of a small claims court, points out that a major factor to the rise in book piracy is that the law does not hold internet platforms accountable for copyright offenses of sellers in the same way as brick and mortar stores, which are held liable for unlawful sellers on their premises.

Andrew Hunt, publisher of a computer book that was stolen, pointed out that when somebody buys a counterfeit, the real author may get cheated but Amazon still makes a sale. “You could ask, What’s their incentive to do something?” he said.

So where does that leave you? It means that you must figure out if Amazon is selling counterfeit copies of your book. When it comes to issues such as copyright infringement, we as individual writers have no clout. Which gives us a reason to join an organization and find strength in numbers. One of the best known for its advocacy of writers is the Authors Guild.

If Steve S. Thomas and a gang of counterfeiters are rounded up, can we expect them to be prosecuted? Will they go to jail? Not according to James Gibson of the University of Richmond School of Law: “...the chances that a copyright infringer will suffer any legal consequence – criminal or civil – are vanishingly small."

There is hope on the horizon. Congress is currently considering the proposed Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act, which would create a small claims tribunal to hear counterfeit charges. Currently such cases must be brought in federal court at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.