Current Events > til the faqs on gamefaqs are being poached and sold on amazon.

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/7ydnoh/udemy_and_some_of_their_professors_are_ripping/dufuo7g

D14BL0 1h

Amazon actually has a major problem right now with "authors" taking other people's materials and selling them as ebooks on the Amazon store.

My roommate had this really nice official guidebook for Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We don't know where it went, so I was looking for a new copy to order from Amazon. What I ended up finding where a ton of "guides" being sold as ebooks. After looking a bit further, it was pretty clear that these were just guides written up on places like GameFAQs and reformatted into ebooks, with the original author's information scraped out, and the stuff that is changed is riddled with spelling/grammatical errors.

It's super scummy and Amazon should really start doing something about it.

i wonder if anyone in the cbsi umbrella has contacted amazon or taken notice.
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That's a rather interesting concept... I wonder who the hell would even pay for something like that though.
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Those goddamn pieces of shit

Damn this site cant catch a break
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Im gonna tear their dicks off
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The FAQ writers could due whoever is doing this. They're all protected by copyright
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CJayC went after assholes like that in court. I dont know if SBallen will actually do anything or not, but CJayC stood up for us.
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Sparksfanboy posted...

ClunkerSlim posted...

Thats not cool. @sballen

This. Go forth, be the site's weapon of vengeance. Unleash the wrath of corporate lawyers and smite thine enemies.
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I believe that since the writers own the copyrights and not GameFAQs there would be little legally that GameFAQs could do.

Hmm, actually I found a help page about this

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/help/29-copyrights-trademarks-and-plagiarism

I FOUND A WEB SITE USING MY GUIDE WITHOUT PERMISSION. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Unfortunately, there are several web sites out there that browse through GameFAQs, take guides, and post them on their site without asking permission from the original authors. What they may fail to realize is that the FAQs are owned by their authors, and international copyright law does apply to each of them.

Now, keep in mind that GameFAQs has no legal authority to stop this activity. Only the original author of a FAQ can take action against copyright infringement.

We are not lawyers and cannot give you legal advice, but we do, however, recommend that you take the following tried and true steps when something like this occurs:

Keep a level head. This may be an accident or a mistake, or the web site may honestly not be aware of your rights in this matter. Many gaming sites are run by people who have no experience in any kind of legal issues, and they might not understand why you're upset. If you do want to make an announcement on a message board or other public forum to let others who may be in a similar situation know about it, be civil, and do not stoop to name-calling or threats.
Send the administrator of the site in question an e-mail politely demanding immediate removal of your work. Do not make any legal threats or personal insults; simply state the facts of the matter, and nothing more. Here is an example letter you are free to use, although the tone may be more harsh than you want to be:

To the editor/owner of (insert site name here):

It has come to my attention that you are hosting an unauthorized copy of my copyrighted work on your web site, located at this URL:

(insert URL of copied work here)

I am the legally recognized author of this file, and I have not granted your site permission to use my work in this manner. This is a violation of copyright, as well as my rights to control my own work. Although I have allowed my guide to be viewed for free, this does not mean that I am allowing it to be re-published without my permission. While you may not have been aware of this situation previously, you do appear to be the responsible party in this matter, and I am asking that you rectify the situation as soon as possible.

This is my demand that you remove my work from the location stated above, and any other locations under your control where my work might be found. Please ensure the removal my work from your site within the next 2 business days, and reply to this e-mail upon the removal of my guide.
If the person in charge of the web site refuses to respond or to take down your work, you can then use a much-hated but very useful law to help yourself: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, also known as the DMCA. A typical notification will consist of a faxed or mailed statement consisting of the following:
an electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright (or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf)
a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed and a description of the infringing activity
identification of the location where the original or an authorized copy of the copyrighted work exists (the URL)
identification of the URL or other specific location on this site where the material that you claim is infringing is located
your name, address, telephone number, and email address
a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf
At this point, if both the web site operators and their host refuse to remove your work, it is in your best interests to speak with a lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing. Once a company ignores a DMCA notice, they also share responsibility for the copyright infringement, and can become a party to any legal action you choose to take.

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I don't know which is more scummy. The content poachers, or the site that won't protect said content.
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I'm sure CBS shareholders would take kindly to this
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smh lamefaqs not protecting hard earned content

@sballen
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Now, keep in mind that GameFAQs has no legal authority to stop this activity. Only the original author of a FAQ can take action against copyright infringement.

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Error1355 posted...

Now, keep in mind that GameFAQs has no legal authority to stop this activity. Only the original author of a FAQ can take action against copyright infringement.

Did you really expect the posters here to treat you fairly?
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@Sparksfanboy posted...

That sounds like a whole heap of bullshit.

Why does it sound like bullshit? I mean hell the site even gives some steps on how a copyright holder can submit a DCMA notice to try and get something taken down.
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To be fair tons of FAQs start with the owner saying "I don't mind if you share this all over the place"

In fact I remember years ago reading an FAQ which started with the owner ranting about how no one can copy or share it without his approval for like 4 paragraphs. It was super weird and stuck out.
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Kombucha posted...

, it was pretty clear that these were just guides written up on places like GameFAQs and reformatted into ebooks, with the original author's information scraped out, and the stuff that is changed is riddled with spelling/grammatical errors.

that shit was a thing in early 2000's with physical books, i'm kinda surprised that it's still happened today where internet is easily accessible.
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ClunkerSlim posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

I don't know which is more scummy. The content poachers, or the site that won't protect said content.

No shit. WTF Error. You guys wont even protect submitted work? Then why the fuck would anyone submit anything to this place? You might as well be posting it directly to Amazon yourself.

I mean..why wouldn't you put it on amazon too if you're gonna take the time to write a guide
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after reading that help article i can understand the way it's structured. it's pretty much boilerplate/the norm if you think about it.

in the instance of the parent thread for what i linked, it was a case of a udemy user poaching videos from youtube and selling stolen content as courses on the udemy platform. when you upload something to youtube, you aren't realistically going to expect them to be your lawyer or provide legal support if your content is stolen. this is a pretty common standard. whether it should be i guess could be debated.

but the point is that the platforms making money off of stolen work are a problem. i think the real issue here is amazon is failing to even make an effort to curate or check their content. really as a company it's not in their financial interest to do this unless pressured, because they do make a cut for every bit of that stolen content sold. in the same way i think gamefaqs wouldn't want to pay for a legal team to represent every instance of stolen work posted to their platform, just like google wouldn't- it would be so prohibitively expensive it's just not palatable.

i still don't think it would hurt if someone sent out an informal communication to amazon just to let them know that it's an ongoing issue that they might want to look into.
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Seems like a weird thing for people to pay for. I mean I get why people buy physical guidebooks but why buy an e-book when there's this very site, Wikia pages and tons of youtube videos even on obscure games?
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Seitar posted...

Seems like a weird thing for people to pay for. I mean I get why people buy physical guidebooks but why buy an e-book when there's this very site, Wikia pages and tons of youtube videos even on obscure games?

A lot of suckers/its physical so it must be better.
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