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Katie Jones Interviewed 596

Posted by michael from the think-of-the-children dept.
scubacuda writes "Greplaw has interviewed Katie Jones (of the real Katie.com). In addition to the details of the dispute regarding Penguin's 'branding' of the book Katie.com (which many /.ers 'reviewed'), she shares the details of her conversation with cyberlawyer Parry Aftab, how she believes Penguin's title change suggests that it thought it could steamroll her without recourse, and the tremendous amount of support the geek community has shown her." Ms. Aftab has several blogs. Ms. Aftab, if you contact us with a response to these allegations, Slashdot will publish your response (we've also written to your email address). Another reader notes: "Yesterday /. ran an article about the book Katie.com. Out of curiosity I just visited the Amazon.com website to see how many more reviews were on the website. Yesterday when I first checked there were over 300 reviews, most of them negative and the book scored only 2 stars total. Today, the book has 81 reviews with an average rating of 3 1/2 stars."
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Katie Jones Interviewed More

Katie Jones Interviewed

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  • Katie Jones should get paid (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stecoop ( 759508 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:00PM (#9899621) Journal
    Shouldn't Katie Jones get royalties from Penguin for using her domain name? After all, in the interview, she stated that Katie.com can't be used as Katie Jones bought it for. She had her resume and pictures of her family and now it might draw pedophiles; therefore, she had to remove the pictures and contact information. A lawsuit should be drawn against Penguin for damages against her domain name and royalties should be paid for that domain; after all Katie Jones freely and fairly bought the domain.
    • The problem is that she hadn't trademarked or copyrighted 'Katie.com'. That's the only reason that Penguin has any ground to stand on. If she had 'katie.com' copyrighted and/or trademarked, SHE could have sued THEM for using the title. Of course, how many of us think of trademarking our domain names on a regular basis? Especially a personal site?

      • Re:Katie Jones should get paid (Score:5, Insightful)

        by RazzleFrog ( 537054 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:16PM (#9899803)
        First of all it isn't penguin suing - it is Katie Tarbox's lawyer. Second you do not need to have a trademark to protect your domain name. Since katie.com the website existed long before katie.com the book there is no case here. No cybersquatting, no trademark violation, no copyright infringement, nothing.

        If anything - the real katie can trademark the name now if she was doing some sort of business and then just say she first used the name in business in 1996. There is no case here. It is 100% bullying.

      • IANAL, but I can read dammit.

        Is registration of my mark required? [uspto.gov]

        Copyright and Trademark are basically the same thing, at least in the US. UPTO does not need to grant you a trademark for you to have your asset trademarked. You can even use the little superscript TM if you wish. What they do say on their webpages is that _REGISTERED_ trademarks grant you additional rights, and should your trademark come in dispute I imagine it's an easier case. It's an added insurance for just such cases, but by

    • if her katie.com website is no longer usable (Score:5, Funny)

      by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:17PM (#9899808)
      for her intended purposes, then by all means she should do as one slashdotter suggested in the previous thread about this, that is, post shock photos of goatse for example, although tubgirl might be more appropriate in this instance, should the book's success really take off.

  • Mike Rowe (Score:5, Funny)

    by ParticleMan911 ( 688473 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:02PM (#9899641) Homepage
    I think Mike Rowe [mikerowesoft.com] and Katie should get together.
  • While I am sure that Katie Jones really appreciated the outpouring of support for her cause, I think that voting the book down was the wrong way to show your support. The book does little damage to Penguin, but does an immense amount of damage to the author of the book. The author did not perpetrate this crime, Penguin did.

    The author has been a victim once, let us not make her a victim again.

  • Amazon is censoring its reviews? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Greg Larkin ( 696202 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:04PM (#9899665) Homepage
    What is Amazon doing now - monitoring the traffic it gets to certain books and then removing reviews that contribute to a less than average rating? How do we explain the reduction in reviews from 300+ to 81 and the boost in the rating?
    • this has been going on for a long time at Amazon.

      Who actually trusts thos reviews?

    • Re:Amazon is censoring its reviews? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dave420 ( 699308 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:20PM (#9899850)
      Because those reviews are obviously from people who haven't read the book. I mean, the reviews are supposed to be feedback about the book, not about something else. They're also bound to be blatantly unobjective and biassed, which skews the rating of the book. /. fucked with amazon's data, and they unfucked it. What's wrong with that?

    • Re:Amazon is censoring - A simple questionaire (Score:4, Funny)

      by crem_d_genes ( 726860 ) * on Friday August 06, 2004 @02:41PM (#9901467)
      "You are about to review any Amazon book, or comment on a review. Please indicate which of the following is most accurate about yourself:

      (x) Gandhi took lessons from me.
      ( ) George Washington was a lightweight.
      ( ) I could pass a polygraph with a tack in my shoe.
      ( ) Waffle maker at the IHOP.
      ( ) Misson accomplished.
      ( ) I am not a crook.
      ( ) I'm an editor for Amazon book reviews.

      Your input is very valuable to us,
      Sincerely. The editorial staff at Amazon.

  • Ex Amazon Employee (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Foofoobar ( 318279 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:04PM (#9899669)
    I was with Amazon from 95-97 and helped build there buying dept and one of the things we fought against was marketing have direct control over reviews and stuff.

    After I left, they started removing bad reviews of books all the time... especially when they were overstocked and wanted to sell more. Amazon is not the friendly business it used to be and I try to purchase everything I can through alternate sources.

    • Re:Ex Amazon Employee (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:07PM (#9899704)
      actually, I wouldnt be surprised if amazon simply purged all 'reviews' entered yesterday during the several hours after slashdot posted the story. clearly, there's large probability the 'reviewers' didnt read the book beyond it's title, like most of the negative reviews to books by Al Franken or Anne Coulter.

    • Re:Ex Amazon Employee (Score:3, Insightful)

      by wayward ( 770747 )
      That's really interesting. There were a number of reviews that suggested that something in a book might not be factually accurate, and Amazon made all those reviews disappear. It was sort of Orwellian and made me have less confidence in Amazon.

  • Crapflood reviewers... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by heyitsme ( 472683 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:06PM (#9899689) Homepage
    A couple months ago some journalist made some disparaging remarks about Phish and Phish fans (phans). Those "phans" with internet connections found the journalist's book on Amazon (a cookbook I believe) and did the same thing they are doing to Katie T.'s book.

    It's a shame people do this... becuase actions like these don't gain any ground, and just end up leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

    • Re:Crapflood reviewers... (Score:5, Funny)

      by kooshvt ( 86122 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:11PM (#9899743)
      ... found the journalist's book on Amazon (a cookbook I believe) ... just end up leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth

      Was the cookbook that bad?

    • Re:Crapflood reviewers... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LeninZhiv ( 464864 ) * on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:14PM (#9899771)
      Although to the credit of slashdotters, the overwhelming majority of the one-star reviews given to katie.com were intelligent explanations of why, given the hypocritical conduct of the publisher, readers should steer clear of the title, not brainless flaming. Some even suggested other books for young adults which address internet safety instead.

      Not that that stopped amazon from pulling them all anyway...

  • Cyberlawyer? (Score:5, Funny)

    by frostman ( 302143 ) * on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:07PM (#9899695) Homepage Journal
    What exactly is a Cyberlawyer [blogger.com] anyway?

    Is that some kind of half-human, half-robot lawyer?

  • Identity Theft (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pirow ( 777891 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:08PM (#9899711)
    I find it amusing that there's a post in Parry Aftab's blog about Identity Theft Insurance [blogspot.com], yet she's helping with the theft of somebody's online identity.

  • Not that surprising (Score:4, Insightful)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:09PM (#9899715) Homepage
    "Yesterday /. ran an article about the book Katie.com. Out of curiosity I just visited the Amazon.com website to see how many more reviews were on the website. Yesterday when I first checked there were over 300 reviews, most of them negative and the book scored only 2 stars total. Today, the book has 81 reviews with an average rating of 3 1/2 stars."

    So what? Most of those negative reviews were posted because of the brouhaha with Penguin and the Katie.com domain; they didn't weigh in on the quality of the book itself. Hell, most of the reviews were from people who had never read the book. If Amazon didn't police their reviews for this kind of abuse, any two-bit asshat with a bone to pick could tank a perfectly good book's reputation with a few hours' work.

    • > any two-bit asshat with a bone to pick could tank a perfectly good book's reputation with a few hours' work

      You underestimate the abilities of your fellow /.ers. Few hours, indeed..

  • I don't think this is a matter of who owns katie.com but rather what right anyone has to publically display your web page, email address, home address, or phone number. IANAL but if Katie Jones' actual phone number had been used as the title of a book about sexual harassment, she would have every right to sue the publisher for any actual or potential harassment she herself might suffer. Same thing should apply to web sites.
  • The mistake we made was in giving negative reviews of the book that only talked about the domain name thing. What really needs to happen would be more one star reviews like the following I just spotted there:

    This book royally sucks, August 5, 2004

    A Kid's Review
    It is poorly written, contradictive, boring in all passages, and written by someone with a sick pendant for the perverse. I have seen better pieces of the litterature in the weekly "Garfield"-strip... and comparing this book to said comic, is even

  • Site getting slow (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:15PM (#9899790)
    Interview with Katie Jones of (the Real) Katie.com posted by scubacuda on Friday August 06, @01:13AM from the racketeering.com? dept.

    Copyright Katie Jones (the real Katie.com owner) shares with GrepLaw some of the details of the dispute with Penguin's "branding" of its book, Katie.com.

    Katie talks about her conversation with cyberlawyer Parry Aftab, how she believes Penguin's title change (from girl.com [then a porn site] to Katie.com) suggests that Penguin thought it could steamroll her without recourse, and the tremendous amount of support the geek community has shown her.

    Katie, you're involved in an interesting dispute over your domain, Katie.com. Tell us more.

    In a nutshell, in 2000 a book was published by the name of 'katie.com' - a story by a girl who was molested by a guy she met on the Internet. Katie.com the domain name belongs to me and the first I heard of the book was when I started to receive email from people thinking I was the author.

    And when did you first register your domain?

    My husband bought the domain for me as a gift in 1996. He registered one each for us (his is gareth.com) and we both felt we were extremely lucky to get our own names with a dot com extension at a time when they were being snapped up very quickly.

    So they could have known that Katie.com was registered to you?

    They must've known. Early publicity for the book stated that it was going to be called girl.com and at that time girl.com was a porn site. Suddenly it was changed. This is a clear indication that they knew the title of the book would be significant. I imagine that they thought I was a 'nobody' that they could steamroller me without recourse.

    How has the Penguin's "branding" of Katie.com restricted the use of your domain?

    I originally had links to my business, my resume, and also personal items such as photo's of my son and other family members. Seeing as my business is online chat / community development it was obviously not in my best interests to be linked to the subject matter of this book so I removed that. And of course, I didn't want people who were interested in the subject of pedophilia or molestation viewing pictures of my baby boy.

    The Register covered your dispute a few years ago. Anything in particular that made the issue resurface?

    I posted an update to my website http://www.katie.com after I had a phone call from Parry Aftab, a lawyer working with Katie Tarbox on a new project. The lawyer asked me to 'donate' my domain name to them, attempted to emotionally blackmail me into doing so, and when I refused then got quite nasty about it and told me things would 'only get worse' if I didn't. The update was picked up by the blog community and then the press.

    Have you ever talked to Katie Tarbox? Might she be able to do something about it, if she so wanted?

    Never. She's never approached me. I've read responses she's written to other people denying all responsibility and blaming Penguin. But she's continuing to work using the term 'katie.com' for publicity, and apparently about to launch materials for schools using the title too, so regardless of whether she had control over the title of the book (and I'm sure she must have to some extent) she could choose to put an end to this invasion of my privacy and use another marketing tactic, but she doesn't.

    Have any lawyers tried to steamroll you? (On your website, you mention an "aggressive lawyer" [and then link to Parry Aftab, the executive director of KatiesPlace.org who is working with Katie Tarbox])

    Yes, Parry Aftab called me ostensibly to write an article for 'Information Week'. It transpired during the conversation that she was working with Katie Tarbox on a new project, at which point I began to feel misled about the purpose of the call. She told me that I should donate the domain name to them, or redirect it to their new project/site. I politely refused and she continued to attempt to pe

  • 2 issues here... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by abkaiser ( 744418 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:16PM (#9899802) Homepage
    1) I emailed and received a response from Katie Tarbox yesterday:

    "I appreciate your thoughts and understand them completley. It is not posted on my web site, but this issue is between Katie Jones and Penguin Putnam. They own the name Katie.com as a published book and decided to call it that. I can do nothing in my power to change it. I would suggest if you would like your voice to be heard and a chance that something is done about it, direct your sympathy to Penguin Putnam."

    According to her, it's the publishers at fault here. Can anyone verify this?

    2) I like the reference to the "hacker movement" supporting Katie Jones. Perhaps we should start spreading the news a-la Kevin Mitnick? Start plastering "FREE KATIE.COM" stickers everywhere!

    • Re:2 issues here... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:25PM (#9899914) Homepage Journal

      According to her, it's the publishers at fault here. Can anyone verify this?

      I can un-verify it. She's the author of the book. Generally speaking the publisher clears the title with the author. If she didn't get the right to veto titles in her contract, then she's at fault just because she's clueless, it's kind of like accidentally shooting someone while checking to see if a gun is loaded. Only less violent.

    • Re:2 issues here... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:30PM (#9899969)
      According to her, it's the publishers at fault here. Can anyone verify this?

      It's Katie T's lawyer that is harassing Katie J, not Penguin's.

    • Re:2 issues here... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Coryoth ( 254751 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:54PM (#9900251) Homepage Journal
      Notably several people posted responses they got from here. They were all exactly that. I would suggest that it is a form response, probably prepared by her lawyer. To test that theory out, I sent an email that essentially said "I understand it's Penguin's fault, but you (presonally, and separate from Penguin) could always make an honest offer to buy the domain of Katie Jones". I have received no response to this - notable because most people that got responses got them promptly.

      Jedidiah.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:17PM (#9899811)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Bad Reviews Still There (Score:2, Informative)

    by Fringe ( 6096 )
    I just checked; the negative reviews are still there.

    Amazon has an odd sorting scheme, but if you click "view all reviews", you can then further sort by rating or by usefulness. Do the latter. Look for most useful... all are voted useful but one or two stars, mentioning the website bullying. Then click for least useful... those are the five-star ones focusing on the story BEFORE the bullying came out.

    You just have to RTF screen.

  • Write the Penguin Publishing execs. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nortcele ( 186941 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:20PM (#9899852) Homepage
    Here's what I sent.

    Subject: katie.com book and domain issue
    Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2004 12:30:14 -0600

    To: david.shanks@us.penguingroup.com, john.makinson@us.penguingroup.com,
    doug.whiteman@us.penguingroup.com, nigel.portwood@us.penguingroup.com,
    anthony.laurino@us.penguingroup.com,

    Gentlemen of the Penguin Group,

    After reading today about the katie.com disparity between the book
    and the internet domain, it appears that Penguin needs to admit an error
    and correct course. As an individual involved in the internet with my
    own "untrademarked" domains, I would be highly offended if the same
    were to happen to me.

    I expect that the internet community will rise to assist Katie Jones
    with financial obligations encountered in dealing with this situation.
    I for one would also help her if the opportunity arises. Losing
    goodwill with the internet community isn't something Penquin
    should desire. Please re-evaluate this.

    Thank you

  • so basically... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SQLz ( 564901 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:21PM (#9899872) Homepage Journal
    If Penguin was to sue the real katie, and win, then it would set a precedent that all you need to take over a domain name is write a book entitled with the particular domain name.

    Shit, I hope it happens because I already started work on my new novel, slashdot.org. Its novel filled with greed, power, lust, set in the computer hacker underground.

  • Donations for Katie Jones (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheFlyingGoat ( 161967 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:22PM (#9899876) Homepage Journal
    Katie Jones should set up a Paypal account linked from her website, where people could donate money to help offset her bandwidth and legal fees. If she donates the excess money to a charity, it'd still be clear she's not using the website for profit. If she donated to a victim's charity of some type, it would be a good gesture to show she supports the point of the book, just not the tactics involved. I'd definitely be willing to donate a few bucks to help Katie Jones out.

  • Another idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by StuckInSyrup ( 745480 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:22PM (#9899887)
    Maybe Katie.com should become a page, where domain hijacking victims can find help. I know that Katie is really pissed off by now, but on the other side, now she has some experience with this kind of stuff.

  • Donate to katie (Score:4, Interesting)

    by adamgeek ( 771380 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:27PM (#9899936) Homepage
    from what i found at the USPTO search [uspto.gov].. there is no trademark on katie.com. Katie needs to TM her domain (prior art back to 1996, remember), and then she will be the one with all the power. Of course, IANAL so what she really needs to do is consult a lawyer who knows about trademark law and this kind of stuff.

    I'm personally willing to donate money to help her (this kind of crap angers me soooo much) and I would encourage other /.'ers to reply saying they will as well. Yesterday her friend replied here saying he would post a paypal "donate to" link on her site if there was enough interest.. even $2 or $5 from a small percentage of the /.'ers who seem to care about this issue would be enough to turn the tide for her, i'd imagine. A lawyer is a wonderful thing (you should see all the traffic citations that don't appear on my record ;)

  • reviews (Score:5, Funny)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaaNO@SPAMSPAM.yahoo.com> on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:46PM (#9900142) Journal
    I dont know, I know it is a tenn book, but some of the reviews on that site, they were pretty bizzare. My personal favorite:

    "Thanks, September 18, 2002
    Reviewer: "karen588" (Grand Rapids, michgian) - See all my reviews
    Hi my name is karen and I am forteen years old, i like this book very very muchl, my freinds at school told me abowt this book and it taugt me how to rite into a chatroom on the interent and how to meet older man cuz all the boys in my school are boring and thye dont know how to treet a girl good. now I rite on a chatroom every day and i have meet many intresting and good looking men. and all because this book showed me how. I will be more careful then the riter of this book thogh when I meet this men in person, I will not make the same misstakes. I would like to meet an older man cuz then all the girls in my school will be jelous of me.
    "

  • Penguin knows it is screwed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ars-Fartsica ( 166957 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:47PM (#9900148)
    Penguin knows it is in deep caca here - this is why they are resorting to threat and scare tactics often and early. They know that if the real Katie retains a competent attorney, they are in big trouble and may even have to pull the book.

    Thankfully it looks like the ruse has failed and the true domain owner is not being scared off. A decent attorny would probably love the chance to tear into Penguin on this one.

  • From Parry Aftab's web site (Score:5, Interesting)

    by markov_chain ( 202465 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @12:48PM (#9900161)
    The following are a couple of paragraphs from her bio. I'm already dizzy.


    Since 1994, Parry has been leading online communities and creating places and opportunities for people to help each other online. Her first foray into providing online help, using unpaid expert volunteers, was when she created AOL's Legal Information Network's Legal Discussions. Hundreds of lawyers joined her to provide legal information, without charge, to people who visited their discussion boards. AOL's Legal Help model was soon replicated by Parry and her volunteers for Court TV's Legal Helpline, where the same volunteers would answer questions on the Web. You can read more about that from her intro to her first book.

    One thing led to another, and Parry became one of the first cyberlawyers in the world. She was also was hooked on the Internet and all its promise. But to deliver upon that promise, the Internet needed to be safe, private and secure, and Internet users needed a place and people they could turn to when they needed help online, or they found themselves being victimized.


    Imagine that. She uses AOL for a while in 94, and all of a sudden she is a "cyber expert" competent enough to decide for all of us that "the Internet" needs to be safe and private and whatever. It is enough to make an engineer's stomach turn inside out. What a repulsive, arrogant, slimy person. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if she were involved in creating "cyberlegislation." Ugh.

  • Sadly for Katie (Score:3, Informative)

    by denisbergeron ( 197036 ) <DenisBergeron@@@yahoo...com> on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:01PM (#9900322)
    Other people have the same problem with other .com want ot be. On exemple is "http://nissan.com/ [nissan.com] the owner mister Nissan from the west coat if I remember have the site from the beginning of the internet, and use the site to promote his services. The big corporation Nissan make then close the site.

  • Tell Penguin Publishing USA what you think (Score:4, Informative)

    by OYAHHH ( 322809 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:02PM (#9900329)
    Their customer service phone number in the US is:

    (800) 631-8571.

  • UPDATE: It's all over - Penguin changes book title (Score:5, Informative)

    by yoz ( 3735 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @01:57PM (#9900939) Homepage
    Plume Re-titles Book by Katie Tarbox A Girl's Life Online [penguinputnam.com] (PDF)

    (text reproduced below)

    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 ... In 2000, Dutton published a hardcover book
    called Katie.com by Katie Tarbox, an eye-opening account of one teenager's descent into
    the seductive world of the Internet. 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.
    The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely
    coincidental. 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.

    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. 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.

    "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    . 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. 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."

  • in context, a STUPID TITLE (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Antaeus Feldspar ( 118374 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @02:22PM (#9901190) Homepage
    You know, one thing hasn't been mentioned that I find extremely significant:

    Given the subject matter, "katie.com" is the frigging stupidest name possible for the book.

    The book is about Katie Tarbox being exploited by an "Internet predator" (really, a predator who chose to use the Internet -- it's necessary to make this distinction because there are feebs like Parry Aftab out there). The last impression that Katie T. and Penguin and self-proclaimed protector of children Parry Aftab should want to give is that Katie T. in any way, shape or form encouraged or prompted the exploitation.

    Yet, what is the meaning, the implication, of adding the ".com" extension (I mean, besides when it's being used for actual accuracy, which apparently Aftab and Penguin don't give two craps about)? Thanks to the whole dot-com hysteria, "dot-com" has come to mean in the public mind "something's for sale." pencils.com? Pencils for sale! hubcaps.com? Hubcaps for sale! girl.com? Girls for sale!

    So basically Penguin and Parry Aftab are fighting hard, and fighting dirty, for the right to use a title that implies Katie Tarbox put herself up for sale on the Internet. Great going, guys!

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