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Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

arstechnica.com

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Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#31

Post by blunte »

Amazon has little incentive to stop selling counterfeit goods.

It is simply not reasonable to believe that they are not capable of accurately preventing counterfeit goods from surviving in their site. Remember, this is the same company run by the brilliant micromanaging CEO. Everything that happens within Amazon is known to him.

If an individual setup their own website and sold counterfeit goods, the feds would come down on them hard. So you have to wonder what keeps Amazon immune from being shut down for willfully breaking laws...

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#33

Post by sonnyblarney »

It's one thing for counterfeits to be found among all of the 3rd party resellers ... but this is just beyond pale.

I think NYC was wrong to kill 25K jobs on the general merits - but - if Bezos wanted the counterfeiting problem solved, it would be solved. Ergo - Bezos is a counterfeiter.

Think of all of the other 'competitive advantages' that Amazon has - now they use their 3rd party an in-house counterfeiters to screw other value chain members as well.

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#34

Post by amluto »

pault wrote: post #27
alexforster wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last two Amazon purchases ended up being counterfit, even after spending a ton of time trying to avoid counterfits. I'm still going to use my fake electric toothbrush heads and fake Apple 5W USB charger, but I'm not using Amazon anymore.

Careful with those fake chargers. They're known to catch fire.

And shock you or destroy your equipment. A lot of what makes real (UL/ETL listed) chargers expensive is making sure that line voltage stays adequately separated from the low voltage side.

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#35

Post by blunte »

slack3r wrote: post #6
cobookman wrote: post #2

How isnt Amazon liable for this / sued? If Walmart did the same there would be various lawsuits

Don't be ridiculous. It's better for technical books to be freely available for everyone to read. Think about it, it is more optimal for the world in the long run.

As long as the authors and publishers got paid, sure. But who pays them if the books are free?

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#36

Post by [deleted] »

leoc wrote: post #20
vorpalhex wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably liable, but it's also not intentional behavior which means less damages - so it's not worth being the first person to sue them. This is just Amazon being sloppy and not having any reasonable checks or controls on their print service.

The classic "control fraud" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_fraud strategy is to incentivise your subordinates to maximise revenues while "neglecting" to check that they aren't engaging in fraud to do it. Then you can protest your innocence when the fraud comes to light.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#37

Post by blunte »

djaychela wrote: post #9

Surely this should be an easy fix for them to be able to detect counterfeit books being created? If they are anything like other on demand self publishing platforms, you upload a pdf or similar file to create the book, and surely it's not beyond the wit of those at amazon to create an ml based system that would be able to detect similar files to those of legitimate books that they already carry and flag them to the l…

I can guarantee that Amazon has the brainpower to solve this problem. They just don't have any real incentive to.

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#38

Post by blunte »

dnautics wrote: post #18
pfarnsworth wrote: post #12

Amazon gets away with this because it's practically impossible for small business owners or authors to police their site. It's similar to Google, where they let counterfeits thrive, but real content creators get fake DMCA notices and shut down. I really hate to say this, but large companies like this need to be regulated via laws. There's simply no other choice. Having Amazon throw their hands up and say "There's not…

Why should large companies be regulated on this specific topic but not small companies? It's equally illegal activity.

Small companies are already regulated. If a mom and pop store got caught selling counterfeit goods, they would end up in court or shutdown.

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#39

Post by [deleted] »

leoc wrote: post #20
vorpalhex wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably liable, but it's also not intentional behavior which means less damages - so it's not worth being the first person to sue them. This is just Amazon being sloppy and not having any reasonable checks or controls on their print service.

The classic "control fraud" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_fraud strategy is to incentivise your subordinates to maximise revenues while "neglecting" to check that they aren't engaging in fraud to do it. Then you can protest your innocence when the fraud comes to light.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Caught Selling Counterfeits of Publisher’s Computer Books–Again

#40

Post by lotsofpulp »

leoc wrote: post #20
vorpalhex wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably liable, but it's also not intentional behavior which means less damages - so it's not worth being the first person to sue them. This is just Amazon being sloppy and not having any reasonable checks or controls on their print service.

The classic "control fraud" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_fraud strategy is to incentivise your subordinates to maximise revenues while "neglecting" to check that they aren't engaging in fraud to do it. Then you can protest your innocence when the fraud comes to light.

This is partly why business is done on the golf course. Plausible deniability is quite lucrative.
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