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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

#51

Post by benologist »

nkingsy wrote: post #46
thearn4 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that it's all come full-circle for me again too, when it comes to purchasing from Amazon. It seems that I can't even trust the "verified purchase" reviews anymore.

The practice of shipping empty boxes to shill reviewers is fairly widespread https://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazon-files-first-ever-suit-o... "According to the suit, the site operated by Gentile offers to provide fake “verified reviews” for a premium, telling the sellers that they can ship empty boxes to reviewers involved in the scheme, to trick Amazon into thinking that the product had actually been purchased."

They're not really tricking Amazon when Amazon is giving a conscienscious zero fucks about any of these things. This is all happening at a rate they must find acceptable or they'd be acting to reduce these problems to a level they do find acceptable.

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

#53

Post by pbhjpbhj »

1024core wrote: post #30

Back in the day, when song piracy was hot in the news, you'd hear of people claiming that each song pirated had cost the copyright own over $150K. Why can't Amazon be sued for $150K per book?

That only really worked because the defendants couldn't afford good counsel. That sort of fraudulent legal claim won't work against Amazon.

Besides which I think the courts did eventually move on to realistically valuing contributory infringement (15¢ perhaps instead of $150k).

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

#54

Post by pbhjpbhj »

BucketSort wrote: post #28
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…

No, Jeff Bezos needs more money. Don't touch his profits with regulations.

If you damage his profits we won't benefit from the trickle down. /s

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

#55

Post by MikeCapone »

alanfranzoni wrote: post #15
MikeCapone wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is eBay getting sued every time a counterfeit good is sold?

eBay has no warehouse. eBay has no printing service. But I'd say that eBay should offer a fake-reporting system (which AFAIK exists) and should report users engaging in such activities to police or other institutions. The problem with Amazon is that they seem not to take appropriate action. How can you not be held liable for printing books in an unauthorized fashion AND selling it from your warehouse?

I think it's a case of security being hard and an arms race. Kind of like Google and Facebook have to constantly run faster to stay in the same place against attackers, and sometimes attackers win a little more, and then they again get back on top.

Amazon sells almost 200bn of goods each year. Even if a tiny fraction of those are problematic and slip through the cracks, it'll seem like a lot to observers. Doubt they can get it down to zero, no system is perfect, and there are too many attackers trying to game the system.

It's a price to pay for all the benefits of the open platform model.

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

#56

Post by dspillett »

petilon wrote: post #45

I ordered a copy of Deep Learning [1] from Amazon last week. On Barnes & Noble [2] the book costs $76.80. On Amazon it is just $28.00. I received the book a couple of days ago. The pages look like it was printed using a low-resolution printer, and the ink color is uneven across pages. I am returning the book. Possible counterfeit, sold by a third party seller. On the other hand this book is also available free online…

> Maybe it is legal to print it and sell it?

The first entry in the FAQ doesn't directly address that issue but strongly suggests an answer, morally if not legally:

    Q: Can I get a PDF of this book?
    A: No, our contract with MIT Press forbids distribution of too easily copied electronic formats of the book.
I don't seen any obvious link to a licence that might confirm or contradict this impression, so if you need/want to know for sure you'll have to contact them to ask for clarification if you can't find it elsewhere.

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

#57

Post by howard941 »

mojomark wrote: post #13

Totally, this. As a case in point, my "Digital Image Processing and Analysis: Human and Computer Vision Applications with CVIPtools, Second Edition" text book stated right on the cover that the book was "Not for sale in the US" (or something to that effect). Seemed odd, then I read the intro in which the author was excited that he finally convinced the publisher to print in color. My book was not in color (super grea…

Understanding Digital Signal Processing (3rd ed) arrived with the back cover indicating that it's "authorized for sale only" in six countries south Asian countries listed. I fared better than you, the pages haven't yet fallen out and I beat the hell out of it...

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

#58

Post by gdulli »

ckastner wrote: post #4

The counterfeit and review manipulation issues have rendered Amazon unpleasant enough for me that buying local is something I've started to enjoy again. I trust the merchant to have performed some kind of vetting for merchandise sold on premise, and the price is often good or (interestingly enough) even better than on Amazon. Often enough local is still more expensive, but it beats browsing Amazon for an hour, siftin…

Browsing physical books is a lot more fun, too. Just looking at a shelf and picking something up and flipping through it. That's an experience you could never get on Amazon. Both in the sense of interacting with objects and also the discomfort of knowing that whatever the browse/search interface, the items you see are the results of "optimization".

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

#60

Post by Dylan16807 »

amluto wrote: post #34
pault wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Even a very cheap and simplified design can do that. I wouldn't say "a lot" at all, maybe a few percent of the cost at most. It's a corner that could possibly be cut, but it's not one of the bigger corners.

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