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Sting on Amazon Booksellers Aims To Weed Out Counterfeit Textbooks, But Small Sellers Getting Hurt (cnbc.com) 87

Amazon upended the book industry more than two decades ago by bringing sales onto the web. Now, during the heart of the holiday shopping season, the company is wreaking havoc on used booksellers who have come to rely on Amazon for customers. From a report: In the past two weeks, Amazon has suspended at least 20 used book merchants for allegedly selling one or more counterfeit textbooks. They all received the same generic email from Amazon informing them that their account had been "temporarily deactivated" and reminding them that "the sale of counterfeit products on Amazon is strictly prohibited."

[...] The crackdown on textbook sellers stands out at a time when Amazon is dramatically stepping up its broader anti-counterfeiting efforts, suspending third-party sellers across all its popular categories. Unlike most suspensions, which tend to occur after complaints from consumers or from brand owners who are monitoring the site for counterfeits, these booksellers got caught up in what appears to be a coordinated sting operation.

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Sting on Amazon Booksellers Aims To Weed Out Counterfeit Textbooks, But Small Sellers Getting Hurt

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    • Text books can cost $100+
      This isn't really on Amazon. They are covering their own ass with this.

      Its the text book publishers that are causing this. Why would I pay $100 for a book I need and required to have when I can get it for $50. Counterfeit or not.
      • This isn't really on Amazon. They are covering their own ass with this.

        I'm not so sure. Seems like the publishers could, if they chose, run the same game themselves and complain to amazon about sellers they felt were violating copyright.

        But if you read the article, at least one book was a one year old physics textbook. What college is going to be using that anymore? Sure doesn't seem like that book purchase was requested by a publisher, it was Amazon taking the mission of finding counterfeit textbooks t

        • I'm not so sure. Seems like the publishers could, if they chose, run the same game themselves and complain to amazon about sellers they felt were violating copyright.

          True, but I would bet money Amazon is doing this to save on legal fees in the long run.

      • actually, the claimed "counterfeit" in this issue is just real textbook by same publisher, printed for non-domestic market, because the publishers can use the "required for college" in the USA to screw over the domestic buyer by inflating price 4 times or more.

        easy fix for this, require the publisher to have the same price for U.S. citizen as lowest overseas market price. Time to cap this cartel in the knees

      • Re:Boohoo. (Score:4, Informative)

        by hazem ( 472289 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @05:48PM (#57800792) Journal

        Text books can cost $100+

        Often much more. This is why in the classes I teach, I specifically choose books published under licenses like the Creative Commons. And if those aren't available for what I need, I'll "recommend" old versions of text books as a resource (e.g. "if you need more practice exercises, see ch 5 of ___, which you can get at the library or for about $10 used). Nobody needs to buy a brand new $200 "Intro to Statistics for Business" book, especially since they'll probably never look at it again. I also tend to draw from published papers and even well-written blogs.

        I can create and assign my own problems and exam questions, so there's no need for rip-offs like Cengage.

        It's a little more work on my part, but much more satisfying and a lot better value for my students.

    • Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give them such market dominance after all?

      Amazon has been been under fire for making it too easy for vendors to use the platform to sell cheap knockoffs of popular brands. So now Amazon is the bad guy for trying to prevent this from happening?

  • What are the big US brands doing to the free internet?

    Selling a used book is now counterfeiting.
    Buying parts to repair a computer is now counterfeiting.
    No talking about the news.
    No reviews about movies scripts and the ability of an actor.
    No funny political memes.
    • 1. That is still covered under the first sale doctrine, but nobody has the money to fight it since the 1% have the majority of it.
      2. It is not. It is repairing. Apple just wants more and more money. Also what you get for buying something that cannot be repaired. That is one of the major problems cell phones have.
      3. You can talk about. Nothing preventing that. Its just that the news corp have decided to make it Red vs Blue ti get views and ad dollar. Being journalist are the last things those companies wan
  • by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @05:19PM (#57800608)
    Something bad was bound to happen to the folks who came up with the $300 textbook cabal.
  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday December 13, 2018 @05:22PM (#57800628)

    If you read through the article, one of the books was a used donated book ten years old.

    How can anyone say if a ten year old book is counterfeit? That alone seems pretty suspicious.

    It sure does end up looking like Amazon is simply shutting down people selling any used textbooks...

    If I were an Amazon seller no way would I ship anything to the address and person mentioned in the article, though probably they will just switch to a new name and fake address...

    • Amazon is most likely being handed a list of sellers by the publishing industry. Amazon on its own didn't go out on its own and investigate these book sellers.

      Now some books may have a cover torn off them, intended for return as unsold copies. But did anyone investigate that this was the case, comparing a deliberately torn off cover versus an actual used book with wear and tear?

      Also, some books make say "not for resale", but a label on a book is not necessarily enforceable legally. And there aren't enoug

  • Just to be clear, these are probably low cost copies of books printed in other countries where the copyright laws or marketed costs of these books are 1/10 to 1/20 of the price in the USA. And therefore not supposed to be imported into the USA. Or outright copies of USA textbooks, repackaged into paperback and sold by someone who doesn't have the license to do so.

    "Counterfeit" makes it sound like they have 3rd rate imitation equations or incorrect facts in them, written by some kids in a sweatshop in
    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Maybe, but there are actual counterfeit copies of popular text books out there. These are printed overseas without the publisher's permission, usually full of OCR errors and with shitty bindings. For example: a fake copy of The Art of Electronics [youtu.be] sent to EEVBlog by the real book's author. Here's another example a counterfeit copy of the DSM V [youtube.com] . Textbooks are expensive, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that pirated copies would start coming in from Asia.
    • Or outright copies of USA textbooks, repackaged into paperback and sold by someone who doesn't have the license to do so.

      I remember in graduate school a Taiwanese fellow student had a good business going, bringing counterfeit copies of textbooks back when he'd visit home (or have them shipped by his family) and sell them at a good price that was still a good profit for him. He explained it to me as the copyright enforcement in Taiwan was non-existent. They were printed on cheap crap paper and had pathetic bindings, but they were really cheap.

    • by novakyu ( 636495 )

      Here's my question: how much due diligence did they do, ensuring that they are not accidentally catching people selling legit international editions (published by someone properly licensed)? Those exist, and first-sale doctrine in those cases was upheld [arstechnica.com].

      • The first sale doctrine is considered a mortal enemy by the publishing industry, not to mention several other industries. The first sale doctrine gets in the way of profits, and if you get in the way of profits be prepared for a fight.

    • Do used bookstores do this? And did Amazon VERIFY this of just rely upon accusations from publishers? It all feels fishy.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    :)

  • All it takes is one student who knows how to use a copying machine!
  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...are supposed to put an end to this kind of deal between academic publishers, booksellers, and educational institutions that fleece students for $10's billions (that's not a typo) every year. In several studies, OER textbooks were shown to be of equal or higher quality than their commercial counterparts and institutions are already implementing "OER first" policies. Also, OER textbooks increase academic outcomes because more students have the books before or at the start of their courses and don't miss ou

  • Amazon is not cracking down on the weed in your textbooks.

  • Same is the thing that I've read so far somewhere else. But I was looking deep into the profession of Bookselling on Amazon [https] . And here your post stuck my mind.

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