Condor Hero on the Kindle?

[George Isaacs]

And where do you see information that George Isaacs is stealing work and claiming to work with Jin Yong?

To the first question, no. Though I've been through here before as a lurker and it was here that I found out about what was going on (after I'd purchased a volume of LOTCH). That's why you see the one star review I posted on Amazon with my name on it.

[Dirt]

Maybe SPCNET can make Wuxia Translations a Members Only thread. Although, for all we know, it is a Member who is doing this.

[kidd]

I hope not, this is a huge betrayal of the spcnet community. It's such BS to steal the fan translations that our translators worked so hard on and sell it.

As George Isaacs himself stated, he's not the one stealing the material. I saw his one star comment in amazon pointing out that the publisher was stealing material from fans translations. That's why I wonder whether he's a fellow spcneter.

[athlee]

Da Bao must have thought that George Isaacs was the name of the publisher, which was what I thought too before I read George Isaac's post here and checked out the link for LOCH. Without clicking on the link, I automatically assigned the names that appear in this thread to RWX, Amazon and finally the publisher as there was no mentioned of any reviewers.

[whiteskwirl]

As George Isaacs himself stated, he's not the one stealing the material. I saw his one star comment in amazon pointing out that the publisher was stealing material from fans translations. That's why I wonder whether he's a fellow spcneter.

Likely not. If the stealer was a member here, then probably these works would have been sold before now. Also, anyone searching wuxia on Google is going to come here, as this place is really the only active place in English to discuss it. So it would be easy for anyone to stumble upon these translations.

[kidd]

As George Isaacs himself stated, he's not the one stealing the material. I saw his one star comment in amazon pointing out that the publisher was stealing material from fans translations. That's why I wonder whether he's a fellow spcneter.

Likely not. If the stealer was a member here, then probably these works would have been sold before now. Also, anyone searching wuxia on Google is going to come here, as this place is really the only active place in English to discuss it. So it would be easy for anyone to stumble upon these translations.

I repeat. George Isaacs is not the stealer. Never once did I imply, hint or state that he's the stealer. There's no doubt in my mind that he's not the stealer. He gave a review for the kindle book pointing out that the publisher profited from the work of the translators without permission. That's why I wonder whether he's a spcneter. I thought my post that you quoted was clear enough. How did you get the impression George Isaacs was the stealer (or I thought George Isaacs) when I explicitly said that he's not the stealer in the very statement you quoted?

I'll say it more clearly here if my earlier post is not clear enough. I wonder whether George Isaacs is a spcneter because he knew about the works being stolen work. The most likely people to know this are fellow spcneters, wuxiapedia readers or wuxiasociety members. UltraRob just started a thread pointing out the copyright theft and I saw a review pointing out this fact in Amazon. That's why I asked whether George Isaacs, the reviewer, is an spcneter.

I hope I'm clear enough now.

[whiteskwirl]

I repeat. George Isaacs is not the stealer. Never once did I imply, hint or state that he's the stealer. There's no doubt in my mind that he's not the stealer. He gave a review for the kindle book pointing out that the publisher profited from the work of the translators without permission. That's why I wonder whether he's a spcneter. I thought my post that you quoted was clear enough. How did you get the impression George Isaacs was the stealer (or I thought George Isaacs) when I explicitly said that he's not the stealer in the very statement you quoted?

I'll say it more clearly here if my earlier post is not clear enough. I wonder whether George Isaacs is a spcneter because he knew about the works being stolen work. The most likely people to know this are fellow spcneters, wuxiapedia readers or wuxiasociety members. UltraRob just started a thread pointing out the copyright theft and I saw a review pointing out this fact in Amazon. That's why I asked whether George Isaacs, the reviewer, is an spcneter.

I hope I'm clear enough now.

That's my bad. I meant to say that whoever stole it is likely not a member.

[kohchun]

Bad karma will befall thieves. Motherf**kers.....

[George Isaacs]

There's an incomplete version of Demi Gods and Semi Devils on the Kindle store as well, but not credited to Wenxue. Perhaps, this was a test run, to see if they could get away with it.
http://www.amazon.com/semi-gods-semi...5219428&sr=1-1

I emailed Graham Earnshaw and at his request sent samples of Wenxue's Book and Sword. He said he'd try to meet with Oxford University Press in HK on Friday and see what could be done.

My Amazon review was taken down and when asked why, they replied that it didn't follow their guidelines. Reviews should be about the quality of the product and what I wrote was better suited for a discussion forum.

No biggie. The ball's about to get rolling and I figure there's a tracable bank or Paypal account in the mix.

I just wonder if, with tens of thousands of these books sold through the store (and also on Amazon.co.uk), if Amazon will find themselves in yet another 1984 situation? Having to forcibly retract books from their customer's devices?

[George Isaacs]

Oops. I think I confused Amazon's ranking with number of copies sold.

[CFT]

There are plenty of Amazon reviews that have nothing to do with the quality of the product. They don't all get taken down. They are censoring. Anyway, one can still say it is an excellent translation but is copyright theft.

[baldy]

For those with kindle:

You can get these books in PDF format from fox's site (see under his signature)
You can read it as it is if you have Kindle 2 or 3; or convert it using Kindle's Personal Document Service (via Whispernet)
You can send an e-mail to "name"@free.kindle.com with "Subject: CONVERT" and attached the PDF file.
Then you can download the files via USB in a Kindle compatible format to the device(s).

See here on how to convert

[Single Whip]

I noticed how the negative reviews were deleted by Amazon. If Amazon did not take action, I have an idea of how to fight back. Foxs or RWX or the other translators of the Condor Trilogy can publish the work at Amazon kindle store also for free. Then when someone search for wuxia books they will see Wenxue's and SPCNet's. Naturally they will opt for the free version. Then we can all put positive reviews also.

[tape]

I noticed how the negative reviews were deleted by Amazon. If Amazon did not take action, I have an idea of how to fight back. Foxs or RWX or the other translators of the Condor Trilogy can publish the work at Amazon kindle store also for free. Then when someone search for wuxia books they will see Wenxue's and SPCNet's. Naturally they will opt for the free version. Then we can all put positive reviews also.

That is a great idea, but I am not sure on the legality of it. Since these are fan translations and did not get a direct okay from JY/his publishers, even if you "sell" it for free, putting it up on a site like Amazon might still be illegal depending on the regulations.

What this guy is doing is clearly illegal, but he is risking it for monetary gain. I don't know if someone would be willing to put themselves in legal jeopardy just to stop him. It kind of sucks you can only wait for Amazon to do something about it.

[whiteskwirl]

I noticed how the negative reviews were deleted by Amazon. If Amazon did not take action, I have an idea of how to fight back. Foxs or RWX or the other translators of the Condor Trilogy can publish the work at Amazon kindle store also for free. Then when someone search for wuxia books they will see Wenxue's and SPCNet's. Naturally they will opt for the free version. Then we can all put positive reviews also.

You can't publish on the Kindle for free.

[smurf120]

Has anyone started up threads on the Amazon forums to discuss this issue?

[UltraRob]

You can't publish on the Kindle for free.

But you can publish on Smashwords for free. Then it will get distributed to all the other eBook reader sites except Kindle, and it's also available in Kindle format on Smashwords.

The only issue would be that I wouldn't want to be the guy who did it when Jin Yong's lawyers eventually come looking. (And they probably will, eventually.)

Rob

[CFT]

Don't publish! What we do here is OK I think. It's non-commercial. More along the lines of commentary and criticism which should be allowed under copyright law.

[Ren Wo Xing]

This has been handled. I can no longer find the entries on Amazon. Thanks to everyone who helped and/or brought this to our attention!

______________________________________

Hi [deleted]:

Thank you for your message. Please be advised that we are in the process of removing the following Kindle titles from Amazon.com:

“Sword of the Yue Maiden” ASIN: B004EEP7H4
“The Book and The Sword book 1 of 2” ASIN: B004EEP7CY
“The Book and The Sword book 2 of 2” ASIN: B004EEP7EW
“Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber book 1 of 5” ASIN: B004H4XRCS
“Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber book 2 of 5” ASIN: B004H4XRDM
“Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber book 3 of 5” ASIN: B004H4XRF0
“Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber book 4 of 5” ASIN: B004GXBE5C
“Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber book 5 of 5” ASIN: B004GXBE5W
“The Smiling Proud Wanderer book 1 of 5” ASIN: B004IE9XBG
“The Smiling Proud Wanderer book 2 of 5” ASIN: B004IE9XAC
“The Smiling Proud Wanderer book 3 of 5” ASIN: B004IE9XD4
“The Smiling Proud Wanderer book 4 of 5” ASIN: B004IE9XDO
“The Smiling Proud Wanderer book 5 of 5” ASIN: B004IE9XJI
“Legend of Condor Heroes book 1 of 5” ASIN: B004G8QZEW
“Legend of Condor Heroes book 2 of 5” ASIN: B004G8QZGA
“Legend of Condor Heroes book 3 of 5” ASIN: B004GB163Y
“Legend of Condor Heroes book 4 of 5” ASIN: B004G8R014
“Legend of Condor Heroes book 5 of 5” ASIN: B004G8QZJW
“Return of the Condor Heroes book 1 of 5” ASIN: B004FPZ6LY
“Return of the Condor Heroes book 2 of 5” ASIN: B004FPZ6FU
“Return of the Condor Heroes book 3 of 5” ASIN: B004FPZ6HI
“Return of the Condor Heroes book 4 of 5” ASIN: B004FN2C8Q
“Return of the Condor Heroes book 5 of 5” ASIN: B004FN2C4A

It typically takes 2-3 days for a listing to disappear once it has been removed from our catalog. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.


Garth Skovgard

Copyright/Trademark Agent
Amazon.com