Steve Jobs Biography: China Pirates it, Japan Defaces it

Well, that didn’t take long. The official Steve Jobs biography has only been out a few days, and Chinese pirates are already selling shanzhai versions of the book in bookstores. Their covers resemble the official text, but according to this report on TechWeb, the actual text of the book is different.

Unsurprisingly, downloads claiming to be the official ebook version are also popping up on many Chinese portals, in English and in Chinese, and with varying degrees of authenticity. But we guess it’s a good reminder to those who might have forgotten: if you want the real version, go to respectable bookstores people.

Meanwhile just across the pond…

Judging A Book by Its Japanese Cover? (R. Martin)

A few bloggers have their drawers in a knot over what Japanese publisher Kodansha has done to the cover of the Steve Jobs biography (Note: I’m not linking to the bloggers with Amazon affiliate links). While the localized cover designs have varied slightly from country to country, the cover jacket in Japan is slightly… um… ‘busier.’

H.K. Murakami writes on his blog that Kodansha has ‘defaced’ the biography with its cover:

The editors have shown just how badly they are out of touch with Steve Jobs and his values. They have chosen to disrespect Steve Jobs and his beliefs in order to maximize the book’s sales.

I’m a pretty big fan of all things Apple, and while I think it’s pretty far from the clean design that you’d expect, I’m not sure its rant-worthy. But a blunder by Kodansha? Yeah, I think so. I’m certainly not a fan of the black book II (right).