Keith Richards' 'Autopen' Autographed 'Life' Book is Making Signature-Hunting Rolling Stones Fan Wary

A Keith Richards fan is claiming the Rolling Stones guitarist "autopen" signed copies of his bestselling book Life -- having a machine duplicate his autograph -- instead of hand-signing them himself.

An Oct. 12 posting on the Stones fan site It's Only Rock 'n Roll forum by fan "trainarollin" claims two "certified document examiners" inspected an autograph from the Rolling Stones guitarist to see if it was authentic.

"After close inspection with high powered magnification, size, spacing, pen pressure, ink flow, etc. it was deemed an autopen signature," the fan wrote. The fan also included a photo of the alleged autopen signature.

An autopen is a machine used to replicate and reproduce someone's signature. The machine has been used by President Barack Obama to sign legislation into law. Recently Canadian author Margaret Atwood used a slightly different variation called a Longpen, which allowed video and audio conversation between author and fan while the signature was being done remotely.

The use of the autopenning isn't so much the problem as the perception that they were real and special autographed book copies.

"We've managed to get our hands on 50 autographed copies of the book and they are on sale now in the KeithRichards.com Store," said the original sales pitch on the Keith Richards site. "Head to the store and order your copy now, because once they're gone, they're gone!"

Although "trainarollin" was irked by the discovery, the copy wasn't priced higher due to the autograph.

"It only cost me the cover price and shipping, so it's not like I got ripped off, but let down," the fan wrote. "It was just misleading to drive traffic to their webstore. These situations make you think twice before ordering anything through the sites that claim are signed, etc."

Another post by the fan said there appeared to be "5 Autopen matrix patterns" used by the publisher.

"What's bothersome is that someone unsupervised can easily place photos, LP covers, etc under the robotic arm and later attempt to pass them off as the real deal," the fan added.

Richards promoted Life by doing a series of interviews with different outlets as well as some book signings, including one in London in November 2010. Different versions of Life are available on Richards' site, including paperback, hardcover and audio book editions.

As earlier reported, The Rolling Stones have confirmed a number of concert dates set for later this year with tickets for some shows on sale later this week. The dates begin at London's O2 Arena on Nov. 15 and Nov. 19 before heading to the Prudential Center on Dec. 13 and 15. The tour is dubbed "50 and Counting..." to celebrate their half-century anniversary.