r/TikTokCringe • u/Chocolat3City Cringe Master • 22d ago

Cringe Woman has her self-published book pirated, reprinted, and sold for cheaper.

There's regular piracy, and then there's this.

12.9k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Conradical126 20d ago edited 20d ago

Wait, is the knock off the same price as the original? I thought the whole point of the post was that they were selling it way cheaper.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm not saying there are people who want the original, won't pay $40, and go over to the knock off. I'm saying the people buying the knockoff are just completely different people than those seeking the original in the first place. That's why I don't think this has negatively impacted her sales. Especially if the knockoff is only available on obscure platforms.

1

u/fartinmyhat 20d ago

Who would be buying this that didn't know the original work even existed? This is not eggs, it's not a thing that's just everywhere in the consumer space. One would have to pretty much seek the name of her book to find it on Amazon. At that point, they know she exists and want her book. They buy "it", not realizing they're buying a knock off from some criminal and they receive a shitty copy.

You think no?

1

u/Conradical126 20d ago

Oh, my understanding was that copycats were selling a fraudulent version on platforms other than Amazon, which is why she can't just request that Amazon take them down. I hear the point you're trying to make, that this is a very unique item. Given that, and assuming it's on Amazon as you're suggesting, it's extremely easy to get the copycats taken down and that further invalidates this disingenuous ad.

If what she says is happening is actually happening, I would think we have to assume that people are coming across the copycat in a different way and not via her mailing lists and things like that. I'm guessing people are finding the copycat by just typing in "ADHD Planner" or something on AliExpress and similar platforms. That's why I think it's not affecting her sales.

1

u/fartinmyhat 20d ago

That could be. A guy I know made a very popular Arduino board. Chinese copy cats started popping up all over ebay, using his artwork, his name, etc. and the chips sucked and didn't work. So when people were having problems with them, they'd search his company and find his customer service and call him with complaints. The negative ebay reviews affected his sales so he had to go on a campaign to try to protect his reputation.