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Jack Thompson vs Amazon?
Zorglub writes "Feeling his book page at Amazon has been harassed by bad reviews, nasty tags, and a user-submitted vomit pic, anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson threatens to sue Amazon if the offending material isn't removed."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1414304420/103-17 36564-3760662?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v =glance
"Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke.
Nope. Having an opinion is officially a crime.
Amazon.com does claim reviews as its own property. There's a notice to that effect on the submissions page.
For those not in the know, here are some exchanges between netizens and Jack Thompson:
VG Cats v Jack Thompson
Penny-Arcade v Jack Thompson
a 14 Year Old v Jack Thompson
He was pwned terribly in each case.
First: yes, I really did read the book.
I decided to give this book a go after hearing that Thompson was actually suing Amazon over the reviews left here. Considering I already loathe Thompson for his consistent lies and self-serving press releases, and considering said lies and releases have him in ethical trouble, I was going in prejudiced. I really don't think that made a difference. The book is as rambling and nonsensical as many of Thompson's own statements. When obvious counterpoints to his zealous, frothing-at-the-mouth rage exist, he ignores them entirely (in the real world, he threatens legal action after committing slander. Gee, sounds familiar.)
Read this book over the hype, if you want. Yes, it will give Thompson some more money, and that's what he wants. It's worth it, though, because it exposes just how...well...insane he really is.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Even then, isn't it considered free speech?
Free Speech only applies to Governmental agencies/places/etc. Amazon.com is a private company who wholly owns the website (not sure about the comments disclaimer). It is up to them what does and does not reside on their private proporty. Even so, if Amazon.com did choose to remove the comments, nobody's rights would be violated.
I think your information is out of date. They used to claim ownership of the copyrights on reviews, but I don't think they do now. Here's some info from their conditions of use page: If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon.com and its affiliates a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon.com and its affiliates and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify Amazon.com or its affiliates for all claims resulting from content you supply. Amazon.com has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. Amazon.com takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.
I just went through the whole process of creating an account and writing a review, and looked carefully at all the legal stuff at every step along the way, and this licensing agreement really does seem to be the only thing you have to agree to as a reviewer. The reviewer continues to own the copyright, but grants Amazon the permanent right to use it.
I run a site that accepts user-submitted reviews of free books (see my sig), and I used to have warnings saying that users should not submit reviews that they'd already submitted to Amazon, because Amazon owned the copyrights. Recently, a user e-mailed me to say that my info was out of date, and he was right.
Find free books.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Oh, and yeah, it was just by "searching for" an IMG html tag.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
from what i understood, people were doing things like causing the book to be effectively linked to gay erotica on amazon. that's not "filing a review". RTFA.