Attention: Reviewers
Imitation: Sincerest form of flattery or low-life twits who steal those words you worked so very hard to produce? My vote goes with the latter.
Right before I left for the ALA Conference I had heard that some quote unquote "reviewer" on eBay had stolen some of my reviews word-for-word and put them up on their site. At first I figured that this was one of those cases where Amazon.com (where I always duplicate my reviews) sold the reviews to the site. They can do that, and you’re always credited afterward. However, this does not appear to be the case. I get zippo credit for my words, as you can see here with this republication of my Good Masters, Sweet Ladies review (it’s the second one on the page).
Hey, doofus! That ain’t cool!
The fools even caught the attention of the Smart Bitches, and you can bet they weren’t pleased. They did some digging on the perpetrator in question and found a whole bunch of information. Many thanks to Kathleenn Gilligan and the other sharp-eyed spotters who alerted me to this situation.
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Now I’m back from ALA and it’s time to look this thing over thoroughly. I have contacted this group and have requested that my stolen reviews be either removed or credited. We’ll see if anything happens. I’m letting you know about this because other reviewers who post on Amazon.com might do very well to look at the reviews on this site to determine whether or not they too are being ripped off . . . and . . . oh, shoot! They did NOT just steal my Number the Stars review from 2004, did they? And my Song of the Swallows? Oh me, oh my . . .
If you review for Amazon.com, please check it out.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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They got three of mine so far, and I’ve contacted eBay.
I also emailed the Jane at Dear Author who happens to be a lawyer and has spoken publicly on the subject of Plagiarism. She has blogged about it on their site and included some very useful information on legal recourse. I know I’ll be pursuing her suggestions.
Good luck, Elizabeth!
I am an illustrator who has caught a long term colleague lifting my art TWICE in her books. I called her on it to my publisher and her publisher; my author, rep and editor were also informed (all agreed with me). Then I called the colleague on it personally because the publisher would not take a stand. Said it was common. My reply from the colleague after a two decade connection was snarky, vitriolic and in complete sociopathetic denial. Some friend to quote my editor. Then I found out my latest book idea was lifted by another colleague under a different title and for a liscened character. Emailed the author and she called me paranoid. These so called friends are out of my life now and I’d love to spread their names to WARN others to stay away from them but cannot do it in any public way (except venting as anon). The internet makes it easy to lifft but how come I do not do it and try come up with my own ideas? Simple: When you steal you are stale and not bright enough to think up something for yourself. My big question is why are these thieves making more money than me? Why are they still working and fooling people into respecting them?
To get to the root of the problem: You can do a Google search on Edison Financial Group and find their website, edisonfg.com. Then enter it into whois.domaintools.com. There you’ll find the name, address, etc. behind the site. From there you can find the guy’s Facebook page, if you like (really). Apparently he lives in Montreal. Bonne chance!
So, now do you see how AP writers feel when bloggers cut and paste their news stories?
Uh, no, SamR, I don’t. AP is looking to hit ANYONE who uses their information, even if credited. And I find it hard to see how a blogger pointing to an AP story (and noting it as such, with links) is really the same as lifting entire reviews without credit.
Precisely, David. I don’t mind if people quote my reviews. I do mind if they say that it’s THEIR reviews. When I get news from the AP I always put the news in quotes and make it clear that I wasn’t the one writing it with a link to boot. No such luck with edson, unfortunately.
Oh well, I thought I had you checkmated this time. I guess I’ll throw in the towel.
I think this happens a lot on eBay. The sellers just google a title and then cut and paste the first decent description or review that comes up. It’s the price you pay for being so popular that your reviews are the first to come up in a Google search.
I don’t mind at all if people post my reviews elsewhere, use quotes from them, or link to them. I’m actually honored by it – as long as they attribute the review to me.
EDson Financial Group did not do that. They posted each review claiming them as their own work, when it is not. That is plagiarism, pure and simple.
I have reposted news stories to share with interested groups, but I always quote the story in its entirety, with the proper attribution AND a link to the original source. I never quote out of context and I do not claim these articles as my own.
As of now, their review count is down to 218. eBay has removed six of the plagiarized reviews so far.
Ooo! I wonder if any are mine! Must check…