Thursday News: Popular French blogger sued, authors hope to solve the Amazon-Hachette dispute, a bookmark that “reminds” readers to finish a book, and a case of real life amnesia
Publishing NewsAmazon / amnesia / authors / Authors United / blogging / Google / Hachette / lawsuit / readers / reviews / technology19 Comments
French blogger fined over review’s Google search placing – This is super-crazy and super-scary. A French blogger who wrote a negative restaurant review was ruled against because she had a significant blog following and because the review placed too high in the Google rankings. The French judge who made this ruling focused on the article’s title, insisting that it be changed so that the phrase “the place to avoid” did not so readily appear in searches. The restaurant, located in Southwestern France, sued, with the owner claiming that “People can criticise, but there is a way of doing it – with respect. That was not the case here.” The decision was made as part of an emergency hearing and could still be challenged at a full hearing. However, the blogger, Caroline Doudet, said she will likely not appeal, because the process was already so hard on her (she had to defend herself).
“This decision creates a new crime of ‘being too highly ranked [on a search engine]’, or of having too great an influence’,” Ms Doudet told the BBC.
“What is perverse, is that we look for bloggers who are influential, but only if they are nice about people,” she added.
The judge told Ms Doudet to amend the title of the blog and to pay €1,500 ($2,000; £1,200) in damages to the restaurant, as well as €1,000 to cover the complainant’s costs. –BBC News
New Authors Group to Add Pressure to Amazon in Dispute With Hachette – A new authors group has formed, apparently for the purpose to trying to broker an end to the Amazon-Hachette contract dispute. Will they be able to change the situation in a positive way? Their first salvo will be an open letter published in the New York Times. Nate Hoffelder refers to a recent survey by the Codex Group that found only 60% of respondents knew about the dispute, and only 8% were buying fewer books as a result. I disagree with Hoffelder’s perception that the Times is primarily read within NYC, but at the same time I’m not confident that this group alone will have any real effect on the situation. Still, it will be interesting to see what they come up with and how it goes over. Clearly, something needs to happen, and it doesn’t look like it’s coming any time soon from the negotiators themselves.
Authors United initially came into existence as a result of the open letter originally written by Preston. “We feel strongly that no bookseller should block the sale of books or otherwise prevent or discourage customers from ordering or receiving the books they want,” the letter said, calling on Amazon to accede to Hachette.
The letter was passed around and signed by multiple authors, and the group now includes well-known names like Paul Auster, David Baldacci, Tracy Chevalier, Philip Pullman, Donna Tartt, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Mark Haddon, Sophie Hannah, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, and James Patterson. –The Digital Reader
Smart bookmark lets authors tweet at readers who have neglected their novel – Since it’s a little too late for April Fool’s, I’m guessing this horror is real. That’s right, folks, technology now exists that can “detect if readers haven’t opened their novel recently and tweets a reminder to pick it back up.” Called Tweet for a Read, the campaign surrounding this bookmark can be viewed from the link to this story, and while it’s pretty damn clever, in a creepy sort of way, all I can say is please god no.
Created by Brazil’s Penguin-Companhia publishing house, the bookmark is equipped with a light sensor, a timer and a miniature wifi-enabled computer. The light sensor detects when the book has been closed, and the timer keeps tabs on how long readers have neglected their novel. If they leave it for longer than a week, a tweet is sent from the writer’s account reminding them that they should start reading again. Each tweet is composed in the style of the author, or using relevant phrases from the book in question. –Springwise
Identification appeal launched for man who cannot remember his name – When someone sent me this story, I held on to it in the hopes it would have a follow-up, perhaps with identification of the man. And, just recently, family identified him. Given the popularity of amnesia stories in Romance, this real-life struggle might provide some helpful details of what actual victims of the condition suffer, how their family and friends are affected, and available or likely treatments.
A hospital has launched an appeal to identify a man who claims he cannot remember his own name. The man, whom doctors have named Robert, was found in a park in Peterborough apparently suffering from a severe case of amnesia. Nearly two months since he was found there has been no improvement in his condition.
He says he is not able to recall any details of his life including his name, age or where he is from.
“The last few weeks have been truly horrible. I go through so many different emotions. At times I am angry, frustrated, depressed, lost and confused. I just need to find out my name and I hope someone out there will recognise me and help,” he said. –The Guardian
Big “hell no!” to the bookmark. Creepy and invasive.
Things like this bookmark make me happy I never turn wifi on on my reader. Very creepy!
A physical bookmark is something a person would have to not only buy, but input/connect their Twitter info. So this sounds more like a reminder service for people who want it. And the tweets aren’t actually sent by the author from the sound of it.
When I first read the headline I thought it would be Amazon (or whichever company) releasing info to authors as to where persons x,y, and z are in a book and the actual author tweeting the reader if they felt they’d neglected their book too long or weren’t reading it fast enough. That was more scary to me as I was imagining how badly some authors could behave if given access to readers’ reading progress. It’s bad enough we are subjected to those “If you liked this book please rate it” notices at the end of digital books (a page I always remove in Calibre before sending books to my device). Can you just imagine if authors actually bugged you to finish a book you set aside? Yikes!
The French blogger ruling boggles my mind.
The French blogger ruling – just want to echo how scary it is . Twittering bookmark – not on Twitter, but still annoyed.
Given the bookmark seems completely voluntary to use, it doesn’t bother me. Not sure well something like that would work for someone like me though. I tend to stick my bookmark somewhere ahead of where I’m at so I don’t lose it. (Not that I’d buy it.)
I wonder if the bookmark also chirps to let you know where the hell you left your damned book this time.
@pooks: LOL My husband could use that one – in fact I’d buy it for him so I wouldn’t have to hear “honey have you seen the book I was reading?” again.
French court ruling: I don’t believe France has freedom of speech as part of the civil liberties protected by the constitution, so while it’s amazing (in a, what the eff? way), I view it more as a cautionary tale. It behooves us to know what laws apply to us.
The French blogger judgment is scary. Hopefully some other bloggers would choose to support her in appealing the decision.
As for the bookmark, while the physical bookmark is a voluntary thing, do publishers really want to tweet at readers about why they haven’t finished the book? I don’t think that it would be good marketing to have a reader respond with a tweet like: “I haven’t finished the book because it’s deadly boring and everything about it annoys me #wallbanger”. Given the reaction by some authors and publishers to what they perceive as “negative reviews”, can you imagine what would happen with something like this?
I can also foresee some marketing “whiz” at a large company like Amazon or the publishers believing that this is a great idea.
@azteclady: And…
A quick trip to Wikipedia disabused me of that notion–apparently there is some version of <e href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country#France"freedom of speech granted by the Declaration of Rights:
@azteclady: This is from France’s Diplomatic department regarding their policies on Freedom of Expression and Opinion:
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy-1/human-rights/freedom-of-expression/
@Lynnd: So what does this mean? That France has Freedom of Expression BUT only when someone isn’t feeling butthurt?
@MrsJoseph: That was pretty much my take. The article linked states that the blogger is not inclined to fight the ruling, because it was apparently pretty horrid for her. I hope other people–lawyers–offer to help her go all the way to a win, as per the law.
@azteclady: I agree. I really hope that someone helps her.
I think crowdsourcing is overused, but perhaps that French blogger could use it to fund her appeal of that idiotic ruling. I’m not sure that she’d be successful given some of the past rulings on privacy/free speech that I’ve seen, but at least she’d be able to push the fight a bit further. (And, btw, who’d want to eat at a restaurant that did this sort of thing? If I were a prospective diner, I’d feel better about them if they’d concentrate their efforts on their menu and service rather than hunting down individual people who said negative things about them.)
I would never want to eat at that restaurant because of what they did to that blogger. Very scary and awful.
I’m guessing the restaurant owners have never heard of the Streisand Effect. I’m guessing they’re about to become intimately acquainted with it.
What marketing genius thought that having bookmarks tweet at people would ever be a good thing? People don’t put down books they’re deeply enjoying, and leave them for a week. Sure, there is probably a small population of absent-minded readers who might appreciate the reminder, but the vast majority of readers? At least, the ones I’m acquainted with. Nope.
That French blogger decision is crazy!! So the judge didn’t have a problem with the blogger criticizing the restaurant or the owner or the service in the article, but drew the line at stating the name of the restaurant in the title?? This makes no sense.
And why in the heck are they awarding fees at this point before there has been a full hearing??
This type of decision by the judge doesn’t establish legal precedent. I am by no means a legal expert on either side of the Atlantic, but it’s kind of an emergency stopgap order type of thing. A judge can issue an immediate order to temporarily halt an activity seen to cause harm pending a full hearing. I’m not sure why monetary damages were also awarded here but as in some of the rulings that come through US courts, you can end up with some fairly random and arbitrary decisions in this type of case, particularly in small, local courts. (Although don’t get me started on some of the random and arbitrary decisions that have come down from our Supreme Court here.)
She should appeal, as the judge clearly didn’t understand the technical issues of the case, but all legal cases are stressful, so I can understand why she would want to just drop it, as a private individual wanting to get back to a normal life. It doesn’t establish precedent, though, so should not be a broader worry in that sense.
France does protect freedom of speech. (Although, as in Great Britain & Germany, important laws against “incitation à la haine” create limits that would not apply here as they are carefully worded to apply to questions of racism, etc., not one person criticizing another’s restaurant.)