Publisher Renames 'Katie.com' 510
twigstamc420 writes "In an update to stories posted the previous two days on Slashdot, Penguin Putnam publishing has issued a press release stating that they have re-named the title of Katie.com to 'A Girl's Life Online'. Press release (pdf) found on their press page."
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Typical Face Saving -'Not Our Fault' Retreat (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, they might be the ones that said "huh.... katie.com is already in use.... Fuck it, we'll use it anyway!"
But they aren't the ones sending the lawyers after Katie Jones. Katie Tarbox, the author, is sending the lawayers after the other Katie.
I can almost forgive using katie.com. It is inexcusable for the author to send the lawyers after someone who has the legal rights to the domain.
Probably Amazon, not Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
This trend (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we should show our appreciation... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not often these things happen. Please take the time to thank Penguin. I suggest you email the writer of the Press Release, Brant Janeway at Brant.Janeway(at)US.PenguinGroup.com
I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing how grateful we all are.
cLive ;-)
Every effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I would have thought that "every effort" would have included going to the effort of not calling the book that in the first place.
Still, a small victory. Behold, Geek Power!
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:3, Insightful)
I also wonder how much of this was a result of the amazon.com reviews/rankings, and so on? If it was significant, slashdotting places that provide open reviews may be a viable way to instigate change in businesses whose practices we find questionable.
Re:Her own announement (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I'm just cynical but I doubt Katie T's lawyer would have pursued the domain name without the ok of Ms Tarbox. That makes her complicit in the attorney's actions. At this point it's just damage control.
Re:My new book (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't understand... (Score:3, Insightful)
The author of the book has her own "vanity" domain name, katieT.com [katiet.com]. Why the hell wouldn't you just use this for the title instead of dragging somebody else through all of this crap.
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:5, Insightful)
If this is true, I think the publisher was sadly mistaken. I don't think this will help book sales at all. People who read Slashdot won't be interested in this book.
On the other hand, slashdotters will long remember that Penguin acted in an unethical manner. Perhaps they might even avoid buying books from them.
I believe this is simply a case of a marketing department thinking that it can do what it wants, and getting caught by public opinion.
Re:New address (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
pdf contents (Score:5, Insightful)
In an effort to avoid an association between the book originally titled Katie.com and the website Katie.com, Plume and the author decide to make this title change. New York, New York, August 6, 2004
Can't resist the plug ("eye opening" indeed.)
After the book was released into the market, it was brought to Dutton's attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet.
Given that the original title "girl.com" was changed after they realized it was, at the time, a porn site I find it very hard to believe no one checked "katie.com" before release. I guess that sounds better than "We expected to bully katie.com away from Katie Jones, but all our efforts failed, including bringing out Jabba the Lawyer [aftab.com]. Worse, the backlash was costing us ratings on Amazon.com. So we're backing down."
The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely coincidental.
And very easy to check before release. Like they did with girl.com. Liars.
In an effort to avoid any association between the book and the site, when Plume issued the book in trade paperback in 2001, it printed on the copyright page that the author of Katie.com and events described in the book have no connection whatsoever with the website domain owner Katie Jones or her e-mail address.
Which means they knew this before release. Which means their previous statement that they didn't realize until after release is a lie.
Trena Keating, Editor-in-chief of Plume, said, "We have made every effort to clarify the fact that Plume's book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way associated with one another.
Yes, now they have finally made "every effort," which includes changing their book name.
In addition, it was erroneously reported recently that Plume had asked its attorney to attempt to buy the web site Katie.com from domain owner Katie Jones. This is absolutely not true. Ms. Jones confirms this point in a message currently posted on her web site.
I didn't hear that they wanted to buy it. I heard they tried to intimidate her into giving it to them. Big difference.
"We are not working in association with author Katie Tarbox or any other individual in an attempt to assume ownership of the domain name address www.katie.com. Of course, the personal views of the author are hers and do not represent Plume in any way. "Going forward, Plume and the author have decided to re-title this book A Girl's Life Online.
Great. Good job. Late, and chock full of spin and damage control, but good call.
This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet and how we can protect our children. We changed the title to keep focus on this issue. The newly titled book will be released next month.
More revenue opportunity! Everyone wins!
We have always taken this situation very seriously.
As evidenced by your ignoring it for 4 years?
And we hope that by making this title change, it will demonstrate just how dedicated Plume is to clarifying this matter."
Oh yearh. It's clear. You're afraid of slashbots! har har har
#### Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Boo
Re:Her own announement (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:5, Insightful)
But then they might also think "hey, penguin got the message, they're not so bad after all"
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Insightful)
Important distinction, that.
Your post proves the effectiveness of denying a related, but different charge in an effort to whitewash an entire event.
Be careful.
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great move. (Score:2, Insightful)
So, the only remaining question is: will Chubby Aftab apologize for the threats now, or wait until she's on O'Reilly next week?
Given her visible track record, I find it unlikely that she'll apologize to anyone for anything, because there's no money in that. This self-proclaimed angel of the internet [aftab.com] ought to look a little closer to home [teenangels.org] and pause a moment to consider where potential visitors will wind up [teenangels.com] if they simply enter teenangels in their browser's address bar. If ever she does, I'll bet you that instead of admitting her mistake she'll go after the owner of teenangels.com.
If only SCO.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously Penguin, Tarbox Inc. (see domain registration) ARE interested in making money, having a sucessful business even if people don't seem to like the book.
Re:Her own announement (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Her own announement (Score:5, Insightful)
Regarding the publisher's guilt - I don't think inexperience and ignorance could be an excuse even in 2000. The internet was not a new thing in 2000. The antitrust case for Internet Explorer + Windows was three years old. The ".com thing" was big news and big business - it was the height of the internet bubble. Furthermore, ignorance ceased to be an excuse the instant they found out about Katie J, and they COULD have found out about Katie J by typing the address in any browser.
A pox on all of them, I say.
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:5, Insightful)
The critical point that people are missing here is the lawyer that was doing the dirty work represents Katie Tarbox, not Penguin. Well guess what? When a lawyer represents you, they MUST do as you say. If they don't like it, they can leave, but they are not allowed to not listen to you. If you tell your lawyer to drop a lawsuit on your behalf, they must do so.
So Katie T. was laying when she claimed there was nothing she could do. On the contrary, she could tell her lawyer to back down. The book name is up to the publisher (though they always clear it with the author) but it was Katie's lawyer, not Penguin's, that was making the legal threats.
Basically from reading some stories about this, the post on katie.com, and Tarbox's responses, I get the feeling that Tarbox has become greedy and wants to milk her fame for all it's worth. Now there's nothing wrong with profiting from something like this. If oyu have a story people are willing to pay to hear, then good for you if you make money selling it. However I believe that for Tarbox, money is now the motivating factor, not protecting people, hence her agressive actions and deceptive information.
People really need to be careful about worshiping victims. When someone is a victim of something bad, a crime, natural disaster, disease, etc they need love and support. It does not, however, make them into a super hero. They still can be and can be come a bad person. As an example, take a drug dealer that gets a debilitating cancer. Well, that's a bad thing, and you certianly can feel sorry for them because of that, but it doesn't mean it's suddenly ok for them to be a drug dealer, one does not wash out or justify the other.
Re:An IM conversation with Katie Tarbox (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hold on a second.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:2, Insightful)
Unless KatieT knew that the publisher was planning to pull this (or she had a part in it ofc), I don't think she should be judged on their actions after the contract was signed.
Re:Her own announement (Score:3, Insightful)
When you have a lawyer (especially for the first time) and you don't understand the law, you feel obligated to listen to your lawyer. Before I understood that what I want is ultimately what should drive my decision, I let a lawyer convince me into behavior that I later regretted. It wasn't quite so public or bad but I understand how should could have been suggested into a course of action ("You're just protecting your name and this is how we do it corporately.")
Lawyers encourage you to be aggressive.
That Katie later withdrew her statements and apologized doesn't mean she was a meanie to begin with. Just like the social psychology studies, a person in a perceived position of power (a lawyer is certainly one) can affect your behavior.
I'm not saying Katie's behavior was right. Only that it is forgivable and she ultimately did the right thing. We should forgive her.
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:2, Insightful)
- "This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet (...) We changed the title to keep focus on this issue (...) We have always taken this situation very seriously. And we hope that by making this title change, it will demonstrate just how dedicated Plume is to clarifying this matter."
so it only took them 4 years to clarify it... dedicated indeed.
And a little more corporate bullshit for you:
- "After the book was released into the market, it was brought to Dutton's attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet."
Riiiiight... They decided to use a domain name as a title and nobody bothered to check if it was taken.
Good ass kicking
P.S. And everybody seems to disassociatie themselves from the Parry FATab. Where's her press release? Anyway, remember her name, the bitch will be back!
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:1, Insightful)
She made her future. Nobody forced her--unlike most rape victims (she's not even a victim--her coach caught her before the deed). She's just a skanky, obnoxious, bitch.
Re:The Power of Slashdot???? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not so much who chose the title as who's currently the asshole. Penguin just changed the name of the book; Tarbox has a creep of a lawyer who's harassing Katie Jones.
So currently it looks like Tarbox's lawyer is the ass here. If that doesn't reflect Tarbox, she needs a new lawyer.