Agency stole bestselling author's book, used AI to relaunch as their own

San Francisco agency Qontour copied the full text of John Koenig's 'The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'—all 311 neologisms and the foreword—onto a site they built, added DALL·E 2 illustrations and a GPT-4 word generator. Koenig had no involvement. The domain differs from the original by one 'the,' and the footer admits they don't own the rights.

Why it matters: A copyright theft story that hits the exact fear creators have in the AI era: entire work cloned, AI-reskinned, and passed off as legitimate. All three HKR axes fire, with enough detail to back the claims. Not scoring higher because it's ultimately a copyright dispute report, ...