Vic Books closed down in January 2023, but its website and Twitter handle have risen from the dead. What’s going on?
On October 10 this year, the dormant Vic Books Twitter handle rose like Lazarus with the following message: “Vic Books will be returning soon – your beloved bookstore now lives online. Though the physical doors may be closed, our spirit and dedication to great reads endure. Welcome to the new chapter of Vic Books.”
The tweet was liked 61 times and retweeted 12 times, but given the beloved Wellington bookstore shut its doors on the Victoria University campus nearly two years ago, some followers required more information: “Hi. How is this happening? Who is behind this resurrection?” asked one Twitter (X) user.
The Vic Books handle, complete with a 90s-looking new logo (reminiscent of stained glass, with thick lines, a sun and moon in the background and an open book and two crossing pencils in the fore), answered, “A former student and businessperson who wanted to ensure the legacy lived on.”
So far, so mysterious. On October 26, another tweet: “We’re excited to announce that our new website, Vic Books, is now live! Dive into our collection of captivating reads, from bestsellers to hidden gems. Explore Kiwi literature, discover new favourites, and find your next great read.”
When the curious click through to vicbooks.co.nz they discover a website transformed: an unsettling photo (of a library-cum-lounge with a pumpkin-shaped pouffe and soft-glow lighting that would make Days of our Lives envious) is plonked on a flat teal background; an about page says that Vic Books started in 1975 and was for decades a local hub founded on a passion for literature. The Vic Books team always “strived to provide high-quality service and a welcoming atmosphere for everyone who walked through the doors. That will now continue online,” it reads. The header goes on to declare that vicbooks.co.nz is affiliated with Amazon, meaning any purchase link goes directly to the online giant. This new Vic Books website that directs sales away from local booksellers is a world away from the beloved, community-focused Vic Books that closed down in January 2023.
The “former student and businessperson” behind the takeover of vicbooks.co.nz and its Twitter handle is Steve Baron, who has what he calls a “hobby business” doing website design and SEO and whose previous experience in the book trade is working at his school library. He is based in New Zealand but declined to say where. “I saw the domain come up and thought, ‘I have great memories of that place, it was iconic,’” he said. “Then I looked up the domain online and saw it had a lot of traffic and thought gosh it could be gotten by a Russian porn website! So I thought I should get it to keep Vic Books alive.”
“There’s no business model,” laughs Baron when asked what his plan is. The website was briefly under maintenance earlier this week while Baron tried to work out how to change the Amazon affiliation from Amazon.com to Amazon.com.au, a shift that he says will make shipping cheaper. Once that part is sorted, Baron says he will try to promote New Zealand writers and do blog posts and “see where it takes me”. The site currently has one blog post on a New Zealand writer: Tina Makereti (published the evening of November 5, the day after The Spinoff spoke to Baron). The next blog post the website suggests is titled Bridgerton Books and is about the Julia Quinn novels on which the Netflix series is based. When The Spinoff ran the copy through an AI detection programme the result was “We are 100% confident that text is AI-generated.” Asked if he was using AI-generated blog entries, Baron declined to answer, saying “What we do with our business is our business.”
Asked about the response to the new website, Baron says, “There have been mixed feelings. Some people think a multibillionaire is trying to rip off the community and others think it’s nice.” To be clear, Baron is not a billionaire. So far, he says he’s made 72 cents from the Amazon affiliation but he is keen to make a go of it, even after the deputy chairperson of the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) contacted Baron to ask him to give the association the Twitter handle. Baron says he got the Twitter handle because it’s linked to the domain and Twitter emailed him. “My thoughts are that they [VUWSA Trust] gave it up [the domain] and aren’t using it and my intentions are good,” he says. “It could be turned into a Russian porn site and I’m not doing any harm.”
The deputy chairperson of the VUWSA Trust, Dave Guerin, says that while the trust did decide to give up the Vicbooks.co.nz domain and doesn’t have an issue with Baron using it (private information such as email databases were wiped when the business closed, and sales info wasn’t linked to the domain), he says the trust still owns the IP and the Twitter handle. Guerin has asked Baron twice to give them the changed password to the Twitter account. Guerin says that somebody, not from the VUWSA Trust, created a new email address, inquiries@vicbooks.co.nz, to request a new password and actively sought to take over the handle.
Guerin thinks that Baron has also taken over an old Vic Books Pinterest account that was last used in 2008. The VUWSA Trust still owns the @vicbooks Instagram account and @vicbooksnz Facebook page, while Baron appears to have set up a new Facebook page, @vicbookswellington, as well as a YouTube account, both of which are linked to from the website.
VUWSA Trust trustees are talking with their lawyer over what they can do next. Guerin says he would like to see the Twitter account taken back by the trust as it links to content that Vic Books (pre-Baron) created. “The trust doesn’t want to have anyone claiming an association with them, or with Vic Books or VUWSA when there isn’t any,” he said.
Trademark solicitor and IP lawyer Narly Kalupahana says that while the law of “passing off” – which is designed to present the infringement of IP and the riding on the coattails of a successful brand or business – has a very high bar and most likely wouldn’t apply in this case, there could be a case under Section 9 of the Fair Trading Act (“Misleading and deceptive conduct generally”). The question to ask, says Kalupahana, is whether it could be reasonably argued that the new owners of the domain are milking the reputation of the former business and causing confusion among customers who knew and trusted the old brand. VUWSA Trust does not own the trademark to Vic Books and is no longer trading in any way, which does make legal action more difficult, however.