????皮布爾斯稱，“創作空間”有自己的行為準則，但這套準則非常籠統。實際上，不僅亞馬遜從未拒絕過皮布爾斯的作品，其他網絡零售商也從未向她提出任何質疑，甚至有一次，她提交了一本書，標題幾乎與已故瑞典驚悚小說家斯蒂格?拉赫松的國際暢銷作品完全雷同，也照樣蒙混過關。按照她的說法，她這本書在拉赫松的作品出版前就已經賣出了“上百本，甚至上千本”。但這并不是事實。拉赫松的書是2004年出版的，2008年才在美國發行。而她的書雖是2008年獲得版權，但直到2010年年中才在亞馬遜上推出。而拉赫松的書在這之前早就已在美國大賣了。一位網友給她的作品打了一星差評，同時留言說：“也許我會喜歡這個作者的下一本書——《我是玩火的女孩》（模仿拉赫松的另一部作品，《玩火女孩》，已在諷刺仿冒者——譯注）。”

????與《財富》雜志查看過的許多山寨之作一樣，沃辛頓的《斯蒂夫?喬布斯傳》排版拙劣。亞馬遜網站上可供預覽的前幾頁文字碩大無朋，與維基百科上介紹斯蒂夫?喬布斯的有關文字十分相似，封底文字也基本相同。亞馬遜網站上并無其他艾薩克?沃辛頓所著大作，而網站和書上也沒有這個作者的任何介紹。卡爾?丹尼爾斯看來也是個離群索居、一書成名的神奇作者。這兩位的書版權都屬于SWI Books公司。亞馬遜拒絕向《財富》雜志透露有關SWI的任何信息，也不肯表明自己是否還在銷售這家公司的其他作品。

????上周，美國司法部（the Department of Justice）起訴了蘋果公司（Apple）和五家出版商。據稱，蘋果和出版商合謀推高了電子書書價。此舉據說搶奪了亞馬遜的市場份額。

????無論對消費者還是對圖書出版業來說，山寨圖書都是一個日益嚴峻的大問題。自助出版物銷售公司Smashwords的創始人馬克?柯克表示，他經常收到完全仿冒的書，或是用網上內容東拼西湊的書。他的公司拒絕發行這類書籍。他說，這類書格式古怪，很容易看出是從別處剽竊的。不過，他常能在亞馬遜和其他網站上看到Smashwords拒絕銷售的山寨書。他說：“我很驚訝，亞馬遜怎么會讓這種書大行其道。炮制這些書的人明顯是想糊弄讀者。”

????譯者：清遠

????Peebles says CreateSpace has guidelines, but they are minimal. Not only has Amazon never rejected one of her books, Peebles says she's never even been questioned by the online retailer, not even about the one with a nearly identical title to the international bestseller by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. Peebles says her book, which she has sold "hundreds, maybe thousands" came out before Larsson's. It didn't. Larsson's book was first published in 2004, and released in the U.S. in 2008. Peebles' book has a 2008 copyright, but it wasn't released by Amazon until mid-2010, well after the Larsson book had become popular in the U.S. Says a reviewer who gives Peebles' book one star on Amazon, "Perhaps I will enjoy the author's next book, 'I am the Girl who Played with Fire.'"

????Worthington's Steve Jobs book, like many of the other apparent copycats that Fortune looked at, is oddly formatted. The text on the first few pages of the book, which is all that was available for preview on Amazon, is huge and is similar to the language on the Wikipedia page about Steve Jobs. The back cover of the book has the exact same text. There is no other book by Isaac Worthington for sale on Amazon, and neither the site nor the book has any information about the author. Karl Daniels also appears to be a reclusive one-book wonder. Both the Daniels book and the Worthington book are copyrighted SWI Books. Amazon declined to give Fortune any information about SWI or say whether Amazon sells any other books from the company on its site.

????Last week, the Department of Justice sued Apple (AAPL) and five book publishers. According to the suit, Apple and the book publishers conspired to push up the price of e-books. The moves were reportedly made to take market share away from Amazon.

????Spam books are a growing problem for consumers and the book industry. Mark Coker, who is the founder of a Smashwords, a distributor of self-published books, says he regularly receives books that are exact copies of other books, or a compilation of stuff that is readily available on the Internet. He says his company refuses to distribute these books. Coker says odd formatting is an easy tip-off that a book is copied from elsewhere. Nonetheless, he says he often sees books that his company has rejected show up on Amazon and elsewhere. "I'm surprised Amazon lets books like these go through," says Coker. "Whoever created these books are obviously trying to confuse consumers."