I recently purchased a book that I was really looking forward to from Amazon and received a counterfeit version with the correct cover but complete nonsense inside. It wasn't the book I purchased at all just a scam. It was super frustrating and I returned it and will not be purchasing books from Amazon ever again, but I wonder what was even the purpose of the scam? Isn't everyone just going to get annoyed and return it? What would the seller even get out of this?
Amazon has a book piracy problem
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#42This is what copyright was actually for... Publishers would put out a book, it'd get popular then cut-rate copies would swamp the market. Copyright was done to protect the publisher from this sort of abuse (and secondarily the author, as the publisher was their only means of reaching an audience). This should be the top (and only IMO) priority of CC enforcement instead of going after sci-hub and the like.
IMO Safaribooksonline is the gold standard of content piracy. In the sense of how rampant it is.
Can you clarify what you mean by this? The platform formerly known as Safari Books is now O'Reilly Learning, and I have every reason to believe that it is all above-board, with proper licensing from all of the included publishers.
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#43If they got rid of marketplace sellers and actually got control over their supply chain then they might actually go up in people's opinion. However Amazon and AWS isn't about doing a good job, it's about doing a mediocre job and making everyone happy though apologies. And that's why I'm still using them. They are a good balance.
Oh, so that's why they don't have balance caps in AWS? It's true that apologies are a good balance.
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#44One of the suggestions to get a legit book is to visit a local bookstore -- I wonder for how many people that's a valid suggestion? My nearest bookstore is around 40 minutes away (which these days means it's around $5 in gas just to drive there), and it's a Barnes and Noble, not an independent store. Until a couple years ago I had an independent shop downtown, but they closed suddenly (before COVID)
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#45Amazon has a piracy/counterfeit problem. And has for a very long time. I have basically stopped buying there as much as possible. My current trend is to use them as a search engine then got to the companies site. At this point you might as well shop alibaba as thats where half the crap is from anyway.
Is it a problem though, when it's not affecting their business in any way?
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#46One of the suggestions to get a legit book is to visit a local bookstore -- I wonder for how many people that's a valid suggestion? My nearest bookstore is around 40 minutes away (which these days means it's around $5 in gas just to drive there), and it's a Barnes and Noble, not an independent store. Until a couple years ago I had an independent shop downtown, but they closed suddenly (before COVID)
And independent bookstore doesn’t even mean much to you because the whole reason to care that it’s independent is because it functions as a community space. All but a tiny sliver of the book profits are still getting slurped out of your community by the publisher anyway.
If it’s not more convenient or cheaper, and you’re not getting value from the space existing then you might as well just buy from Amazon.
It’s like some people got “buy local” hammered into their brains without any thought as to when doing so is actually beneficial.
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#47Amazon has shown time and time again that they don't care. They don't care about fake reviews, counterfeit products, cheap Chinese crap, their workforce, or anything really as long as customers keep on buying.
I wonder if they are jumping the shark? I intensely dislike the paid search results or sponsored recommendations. The nonsense-name brands that are either chinese or secretly amazon that prevent brand names from showing up (and many good brands ship counterfeits). The fake reviews. The popup "extended warranty" screens where if you close the tab/window... the item doesn't make it to your shopping basket. I remember w…
My general feeling is that commerce has jumped the shark. You can make so much more money with scamming, the honest businesses are few and far apart. And nigh impossible to identify.
It doesn't feel like a platform problem, more of a societal fabric unraveling.
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#48This is what copyright was actually for... Publishers would put out a book, it'd get popular then cut-rate copies would swamp the market. Copyright was done to protect the publisher from this sort of abuse (and secondarily the author, as the publisher was their only means of reaching an audience). This should be the top (and only IMO) priority of CC enforcement instead of going after sci-hub and the like.
IMO Safaribooksonline is the gold standard of content piracy. In the sense of how rampant it is.
What do you mean? Authors get paid when you view their content on Safari.
Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#49Amazon has a piracy/counterfeit problem. And has for a very long time. I have basically stopped buying there as much as possible. My current trend is to use them as a search engine then got to the companies site. At this point you might as well shop alibaba as thats where half the crap is from anyway.
With books, Amazon has become the opposite of a search engine for me. I have to use external resources to actually find the right titles, to enter them 1:1 into Amazon search to get to the books. Context based discovery has become next to impossible (which I used it before a lot for). Something must have changed in their indexing algorithm a while ago. Also many results are flooded with garbage, like some ridiculous…
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Re: Amazon has a book piracy problem
#50I like how that article’s thumbnail was generated by DALL-E lol.
I was going to use one with Jeff's face...