The Wholesale Plagiarism of Obscure Sorrows
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A marketing agency plagiarized an author's book, added AI content, and outranked the official site.
Qontour, a San Francisco agency, built an unauthorized site copying John Koenig's entire 'Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows' book, replacing original art with DALL-E 2 images and adding an AI word generator using GPT-4. The site uses its own Amazon affiliate code and ranks higher than Koenig's official site on Google. Simon & Schuster filed DMCA takedowns with no effect. Koenig confirmed he had nothing to do with the site.
What commenters are saying
Many commenters condemn Qontour as thieves and call for stronger enforcement. Some note that the publisher's DMCA takedowns failed, arguing Google ignores notices from individual authors. A split emerges: some oppose the DMCA as flawed law but want it enforced equally, while others see copyright as legitimate protection against AI laundering. One commenter suggests suing Google directly for ignoring safe harbor protections.