AMAZON Sues 1114 FIVERR Sellers

[misscrystal]

Amazon has been policing reviews in many ways lately. Some popular top rated reviewers have disappeared.

[Guest robinhawaii]

The point you miss is this is happening in Amazon’s “livingroom” not out on a street corner, or in the reviewers’ back yard–so it’s not a free speech issue.

If someone wants to write fake reviews, fine, but post them on a website you personally own or on the parent company’s website for the product being reviewed, not on a third party site.

[Guest robinhawaii]

Being sued and being arrested are two entirely different things. The first involves civil court, the second is criminal court. (There’s nothing wrong with being accurate even when you are being sarcastic).

[fastcopywriter]

Why did they disappear? Surely they had other gigs besides reviews, or did Fiverr deleted their entire accounts and not just their gigs?

[scriptoreximius]

And what if I hire someone to buy a book, read it, and give an honest review that is totally based on their own opinion?

How is it different than an independent author, which I am one, asking their friends and acquaintances to go give positive reviews for their book without even reading it? That happens all the time. So if your social circle is large you can get friends to give illegitimate reviews but you can’t hire someone and pay them money to give a legit review? That makes no sense.

And what about review swapping? If I agree to read someone’s book and review it and they agree to read and review mine and no money is exchanged is that considered a legitimate review?

[intuitiveeye]

@edume you are right and one of the challenges with this case will be if one of the buyers or third party can demonstrate that Fiverr was informed of these violations, even worst they have a helpdesk ticket number and did not do anything about it. Then the case will turn nasty and in that case Amazon may directly point the case at Fiverr as an enabler. There is 50% chance of such a development occurring.

[scriptoreximius]

You produce animated commercials that promote products. Have you ever tried those products? How do you know if the services they provide are good or are scams? Maybe you don’t care because you somehow find a paid five-star review to be different from what you do, but how different is it really?

Investing in penny stocks is about the worst investment you can make yet you made an advertisement for tradeprodigy.com. You’re trying to steer customers to their site with your commercial and are thereby giving a tacit endorsement of their product, aren’t you?

Like I said, I don’t see much of a difference between people selling a five-star review and what you do. And you charge a helluva lot more for your product than five measly bucks.

I’ve never been a seller at Fiverr, just a buyer, but it seems like Amazon is going after some really small fish in this lawsuit.

[scriptoreximius]

Many book reviewers on Fiverr are paying $10 a month so they are in the Amazon Kindle Unlimited program, where most self-published authors will offer their books for free to anyone who is a member of that program. You can have like 10 books out at once, I think. It’s kind of like a library.

Also, for a “verified review” on Amazon, the product has to be bought by the reviewer, so most of the Fiverr book reviewers will ask for an additional $5 gig to purchase like a $2.99 or $3.99 eBook if it’s not in Unlimited or free.

If they don’t promise to give 5-star reviews, I don’t see what the problem is if they read the book and give an honest review of it. They are being compensated for their time and effort that they put into reading and writing a review (which should add up to a heckuva lot more than 10 bucks).

[misscrystal]

I mean a few top Amazon reviewers who wrote and made video reviews on Amazon every week for years have disappeared from Amazon along with their reviews according to some reports I’ve read.

[fastcopywriter]

Amazon will find out that America’s First Amendment is for all kinds of speech, not just unpaid speech.

Amazon will also be exposed as a hypocritical company that tolerates fake reviews when they’re funny and writers that pay for reviews.

Anyone that Amazon sues can counter sue, if I was sitting in a jury and had to pick between a faceless corporation claiming victim-hood and Joe the Reviewer getting hassled of what is SOP in book publishing, I would side with Joe.

The reviewphobes will lose, Free Speech will win.

[writerrjh]

Telling me all these reviews are legit? They are funny, but if Amazon wants to attack their fake reviews then this would be a good place to start http://www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Cream/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK

[misscrystal]

It is legal to get paid to write reviews but you must DISCLOSE in the review you were paid for it, or received compensation in the form of free merchandise. And I highly recommend that you do this at this point to anyone writing paid reviews.

[edume]

@fastcopywriter There’s not much free speech these days. it’s been slowly taken away and we allowed it to happen to us.

[fastcopywriter]

Well, I’m a big supporter of FIRE
FIRE

FIRE - Defending individual rights in higher education.

Defending individual rights in higher education.

But not the ACLU, the ACLU only supports free speech when it suits them, when it doesn’t, they attack it.

[damedj]

well said! there are too much petty hypocritical restrictions just to frighten people over a lot of nonsense. It will keep the small minded folks busy to have a little ‘witch hunt’ on behalf of a monolithic company who are themselves unaccountable…

[Guest robinhawaii]

In my state, all of those ads have a disclaimer across the bottom of the video.

[tsweezey]

Not tolerating an economy predicated on knowingly misleading consumers isn’t a freedom of speech issue. And respectfully, I can use your Niemoller quote to support my position too.

[tsweezey]

Fiverr is an Israeli company anyway isn’t it? Not sure how that works in a US lawsuit. I don’t even think they have to honor a subpoena. Any attorneys here?

[tsweezey]

That is precisely what I wanted to know. Thank you.

[tsweezey]

It’s not entrapment. It would be if you solicited someone who didn’t provide these services, then ask them to write a fraudulent review for payment. But you can’t put out a sign that says “I write fraudulent content”, then someone takes you up on your offer… then claim entrapment.

[anigrams]

@writerrjh

While those reviews are funny, they are also of no help to the customer and should therefor be removed.

[misscrystal]

Thousands of readers who see humorous reviews vote them helpful.
For example an inexpensive T-shirt with a picture of 3 wolves on it has hundreds of humorous reviews of it. That T-shirt is one of the best selling articles of clothing on Amazon due to the humorous reviews, some of which have thousands of positive votes.
Humor can help sell and has made that cheap T-shirt a very hot item.

[anigrams]

Truth is helpful. Fake not so helpful.

[misscrystal]

Humorous reviews are helpful to lots of buyers.

[misscrystal]

Anyway Amazon has removed some sellers who got paid for reviews without disclosing that. And those reviews were not fake. They were often video reviews and were well done.