Sarah of the awesome website, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a new post up that should be read, especially if you review. It seems that book reviews written by users on Amazon and other review blogs are being posted on eBay under this group called EDson Financial Group and not notifying the reviwers.This burns my butt like you wouldn't believe because I review on Amazon!
If you review for a blog, or another website, I recommend you go to the EDson Financial Group review Ebay page and see if you are a victim.
Blossum is not pleased.
UPDATE: Jane from DearAuthor.com also has a post.
12 comments:
I found out about this when Kathleen Gilligan posted it on the Amazon Discussion boards yesterday and subsequently found three of my own reviews stolen by EDson Financial Group.
I promptly reported this to eBay, and then posted it on my blogs, MySpace, Bebo, and on a couple of hundred Yahoo Groups and message boards I am a member of last night.
I was very glad to see Smart Bitches post it also this morning, since they have a very large audience. I hope every person affected by this theft sees it and report them to eBay.
eBay needs to take serious action against these illegal activities by their member. Over 200 counts of plagiarism seems to warrant it.
Thanks for posting it on your blog too! Have a terrific holiday!
Jennifer: I am like you, who posts reviews on Amazon and to think that someone would steal my words without asking is very disturbing. I hope along with you, Smart Bitches and here at Ramblings, something can be done :D
I emailed the story to the Jane at the "Dear Jane" blog who is also a lawyer and has spoken publicly on Plagiarism.
They have a pretty extensive audience as well, so if they pick up the story, it would be a good thing. :)
I agree it's time Ebay did something about this. Not only plagiarism, but they don't ever follow up on my complaints when I report that an ARC is being sold. I mean, Ebay is only as good as it's members.
Dev:I never knew eBay had reviews for products. I only thought the had buyer and seller feedback. I wonder how this will play?
Jennifer :: That is just terrible. I hope eBay removes the plagiarized reviews and both eBay AND the EDson Financial Group issue you an apology. How sad that people don't have any reservations about stealing other people's words, ideas, or art and claiming it as their own?! Its a quite a basic principle in humanity, let alone IN LAW!
One of the commenters at SBTB compared the role of eBay (the company) to what a fence does of thieves. All that "well, we are just the middle man, you know--we can't police our sellers" is just unethical in the extreme.
Sadly, I have to say again that I'm not surprised.
As of now, their review count is down to 218. eBay has removed six of the plagiarized reviews so far.
This is great Jennifer! :D
Hey Zeek, it is okay :D
Ebay bad! :(
Hi Zeek! Yeah, the issue here is not that they were reposted, but that the individual who did so claimed our work as his own.
Personally, I am always honored if someone wants to either repost or quote one of my reviews, as long as they attribute it to me. In fact, I'm happy if my work can be of use elsewhere.
Hi, all. got an update for everyone, which I posted on my blog. The EDson group is no longer a registered user on EBay and all the stolen reviews have been taken down. I received an apology in the comments section of my original post in this subject from a supposed employee of the company and I posted that in my update post as well.
Don't know how or why they finally came down, if it was all this person's doing or not, but good job to all those that spoke out about it and did something.
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