It is amazing to think that it has been well over a year since Carly Z blew up the whole ‘MyPadMedia’ thing for Gear Diary (definitely worth a re-read!), and only a few months since her last reminder of how insidious these sites can be, but perhaps what is even more amazing is … these guys are still going! Even worse – they are branching out! As a reminder, here is what their home page looks like as of this morning:
Last night I was cleaning out my Gmail SPAM folder and saw something from ‘The Droid Library‘, and since it wasn’t one of the usual sorts of messages I’d expect to see in my junk mail I decided to preview it.
Looking at the title ‘Free Android Books’ might seem suspicious at first, but I had been involved in a large discussion on LinkedIn and a discussion forum about Android development methods and tools, and honestly thought that this might have been a helpful link from someone in those threads.
I quickly realized how naive that assumption was! Here is the text of the message:
Hi there,
The Droid Library is a brand new website which allows Android
owners to download unlimited eBooks, comic books, newspapers, and
magazines to any Android smartphone, tablet, computer, or e-Reader
in the world, absolutely free.We have over 1 million titles available, including bestsellers
and new releases, and all of them are compatible with every Android
device. Once you join, all eBooks are 100% free and yours to
keep for as long as you like.We are currently running a very special promotion where you can
get 20% off the one-time joining fee, just by using the
promotional code “GODROID” at the sign up page.Visit our website http://www.thedroidlibrary.com to check it out.
Thanks,
Ian Clarkson
The Droid Library
Sounds absolutely fantastic, right? Almost too good to be true?!? Well … look at the two images above – notice something? They look and read nearly identical! Do I have PROOF they are identical? No – but the extreme similarities in design and business model beg the question. And since one of the tactics used by MyPadMedia was to plant loads of ‘reviews’ and start threads everywhere on forums to give the appearance of wide coverage, I decided to check that angle … and to little surprise my results are shown below:
If you glance at these, you will see a couple of ‘reviews’, a coupon, and a few way-too-similar forum posts. If you dive into any of these things you will find almost robotic auto-posts: someone is spamming forums, and auto-generating ‘reviews’, all of which read mostly the same … and all of which provide few details and just point back to TheDroidLibrary and make sure to say it ‘looks legit’.
Next, I grabbed some text from one of the ‘testimonials’ on their site, removed only the words ‘Android Smartphone’ and ended up with … NovelsForFree! That site is shown below.
But wait … it gets even better!
I entered another testimonial and came up with TheNovelNetwork and BuyBooksForiPad! And looking at the Google search result listings, there are official looking ‘press releases’ dated pretty much every week from late 2010 all the way through the end of July.
Then there are the ‘testimonials’ themselves … such as one from recurring member “Carol R. Vasquez, San Diego, CA”
Your site is truly MIND-BLOWING! My Kindle is now filled with over 150+ novels that would have usually cost me $10 each, but thanks to you guys, it cost me nothing! Just this week I downloaded the entire Twilight series. I love it!
Your site is truly MIND-BLOWING! My Kindle is now filled with over 150+ novels that would have usually cost me $10 each, but thanks to you guys, it cost me nothing! Just this week I downloaded the whole Harry Potter series. I love it!
These are ostensibly two different quotes – since they are on different sites and highlight different book series! Yet it is very clear that they are just copy & paste answers. Want more proof? Another way-too similar site called ‘TheReadingSite‘ has pretty much the exact same thing going on but was posted in blog format rather than the usual front page. Recognize the name? Carly covered this newcomer earlier this summer! Here is one of the comments to the blog post – which theoretically is from “Philippine Lotto Results ” (yeah, I know), and sounds somehow familiar:
Your site is truly MIND-BLOWING! My Kindle is now filled with over 150+ novels that would have usually cost me $10 each, but thanks to you guys, it cost me nothing! Just this week I downloaded the whole Harry Potter series. I love it
Apparently Ms. Phillipine knows Carla Vasquez!
OK, enough clowning around with Google … the bottom line is that rather than clean up their act, it appears (I have not done research to speak authoritatively) that the folks behind MyPadMedia have simply branched out – or there are a series of copy-cat sites using the exact same tactics across the board.
I have kids who tear through books … I would LOVE if this was for real, if I could honestly stop paying ‘Agency Model’ (what I like to call Cartel Pricing) prices for books. Last week I paid $12.99 for the 50th Anniversary edition of Catch 22! I think I paid ~$2 for the paperback 30 years or so ago, and only bought the ebook as the paperback has disintegrated! And my wife bought the Jaycee Duggard story and The Help – add those all up and you at at $35, then toss on the latest George RR Martin and you are at $50! Pretty close to the $60 one-time fee these sites offer.
But think about it – who WOULDN’T want to grab the whole Harry Potter series and the whole Twilight series and the whole Lord of the Rings series in ebook form?!? If I went to the Kindle or Nook store and bought the whole Twilight and Lord of the Rings series I would be out $55! And, JK Rowling has famously NOT released her Harry Potter books in ebook form, and will only do so later this year via her Pottermore site. And even then you can be sure the combined set of seven will
So let me be clear:
- The Droid Library will NOT give you the whole JK Rowlong Harry Potter series and the whole Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and the whole J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series in ebook form for $59.99 plus unlimited access to other books shown such as Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tatoo series and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and other books shown on their web site.
- The Novel Network will NOT give you the whole JK Rowlong Harry Potter series and the whole Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and the whole J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series in ebook form for $59.99 plus unlimited access to other books shown such as Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tatoo series and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and other books shown on their web site.
- Buy Books For iPad will NOT give you the whole JK Rowlong Harry Potter series and the whole Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and the whole J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series in ebook form for $59.99 plus unlimited access to other books shown such as Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tatoo series and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and other books shown on their web site.
- The Reading Site will NOT give you the whole JK Rowlong Harry Potter series and the whole Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and the whole J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series in ebook form for $59.99 plus unlimited access to other books shown such as Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tatoo series and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and other books shown on their web site.
- MyPadMedia will NOT give you the whole JK Rowlong Harry Potter series and the whole Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and the whole J. R. R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings series in ebook form for $59.99 plus unlimited access to other books shown such as Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tatoo series and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and other books shown on their web site.
As for what these sites WILL give you … I cannot exactly say. I almost charged a membership, and then I read some terms in their agreement:
All material on the Site including without limitation all informational text, photographs, graphics, audio, video, messages, files, documents, images or other materials (collectively, the “Materials”), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, as well as all derivative works, is owned by The Droid Library or other parties that have licensed their material to The Droid Library and is protected by copyright, trademark and/or other intellectual property laws.
You agree not to display or use such marks without written permission from The Droid Library or the appropriate party.
This means that if I joined I would not be able to use screenshots of anything I found without possibly getting Gear Diary into trouble – and losing my $60! And it just isn’t worth it – we have seen exactly how MyPadMedia operates in the past: they never allow anyone insight to their operations, they have been caught stealing free feeds from other sites, and have liberally misrepresented the product that subscribers might expect to find.
As Carly said before, it is NOT a scam as properly defined: you were never promised the actual Harry Potter books by JK Rowling, so legally there is no lying going on. However, having the words ‘Harry Potter series’ and cover images from Twilight and books by Dan Brown and Stieg Larsson certainly convey an implied set of expectations to someone signing up.
Remember – if it looks too good to be true, it probably is! And while in music we have $9.99 a month ‘all you can eat’ music services such as Rdio, MOG and Spotify, there is nothing equivalent in the book world. Agency model pricing locks in higher prices for all retailers – and in that toxic environment where publishers see books as the scourge of their business, there is absolutely no way something like The Droid Library could operate as their testimonials imply … regardless of how much we wish it could.
Pingback: The Droid Library is actually pretty good.... - Android Forums
Pingback: The Droid Library is actually pretty good....
Pingback: The Droid Library is actually pretty good....
Pingback: Beware of what looks too good to be true « MetaPlume’s Blog
Pingback: Beware of what looks too good to be true « MetaPlume’s Blog