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Amazon's AbeBooks backs down after booksellers stage global protest
- neonate 8y agoAnother article on this: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/technology/amazon-bookseller-protest-strike.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/technology/amazon-booksel... http://archive.is/T6ljj http://archive.is/T6ljj
- shittyadmin 8y agoMany of the books on that site are pirated reprints. Great way to get cheap textbooks, but it's not surprising that they would attempt to ban some of the countries often responsible for those.
- bubblethink 8y agoI don't think they are pirated per se. More likely, they are student/international editions.
- thrower123 8y agoI bought a copy of SICP from them, it definitely did not look pirated, but it was wikdly less expensive than a normal copy.
- chadash 8y agoCounterfeits are actually a very big issue in the textbook industry. Anyone who deals with used textbooks knows this and they need to be very careful to avoid legal action from publishers. Do a google image search on "counterfeit textbook examples" and you'll see how many of the counterfeits look pretty similar to the authentic books (often it's small things like coloring that give it away). Obviously textbooks get expensive, but the thing that makes textbook counterfeiting especially successful is that most consumers who get cheap counterfeits don't care. The content is usually the same and it's not a status symbol like an authentic Gucci bag. So as a consumer, there's really not much difference to you, especially if you got the book for cheap. Typically, counterfeits are lower quality, but someone who works in the industry once told me that he's seen counterfeits with higher quality printing than the originals, which makes the real books look like fakes!
- vkou 8y agoNot to mention that the actual consumers of the books - the students buying them - don't have any choice in book selection.
- nerpderp83 8y agoMany professional books these days have issues with registration, bleed, trimming, etc. The quality is quite poor, to the point where I have fatigue determining if a book is "legit" or not.
- kop316 8y agoI would replace "consumer" with "poor student who isn't given a choice on what textbook they can buy", and why they don't care makes a lot more sense. To me the greater issue is the highway robbery that is college textbooks. A lot of professors force the newest and don't care that a single one costs several hundred dollars, nevermind if the material is literally centuries old (e.g. calculus). If textbooks were a reasonable price, the counterfeit effect wouldn't hhappen.
- InitialLastName 8y agoWhen I was in engineering school, many people who weren't me would just torrent copies of the textbooks. Especially in the case where the book was only necessary for the problem sets, because there was much better presentation of the information available elsewhere.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago> The content is usually the same and it's not a status symbol like an authentic Gucci bag. If the content is the same, in what sense is the book a "counterfeit"? That's just a copy of the book.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y agoThe same way a pirated DVD movie that comes in an identical DVD jewel case to the original is considered counterfeit.
- astura 8y agoThere is actually a lot of pirated textbooks. https://booksrun.com/page/on-counterfeit-textbooks https://booksrun.com/page/on-counterfeit-textbooks International editions aren't really a "problem" because they are legal, pirated books are not.
- wyldfire 8y agoThey probably are a problem because of market segmentation (this has been a sticking point in other industries, at least). But piracy represents a larger problem.
- walterbell 8y agoThe U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of book resale, regardless of publisher's market segmentation.
- astura 8y agoNo, they are not a problem, nor is this a grey area, they are 1000% legal to buy and sell in the United States. Even importing books for the sole purpose of resale is legal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_Sons,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_So.... >Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 568 U.S. 519 (2013),[1] is a United States Supreme Court copyright decision in which the Court held, 6-3, that the first-sale doctrine applies to copies of copyrighted works lawfully made abroad.
- nkozyra 8y agoThere are lots but most of what abebooks has are international editions. You can buy some otherwise insanely expensive computer books for < $10 because they're Bangladesh editions.
- voltagex_ 8y agoYep: e.g. the hardback vs paperback versions of https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/computer-systems-a-programmers-perspective_david-r-ohallaron_randal-e-bryant/247389/#isbn=0137133367&idiq=15560579 https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/computer-systems-a-programmers... - note the different ISBNs.
- ro_sharp 8y agoBut it's also one of the best places to buy secondhand books that are rare and/or out of print.
- lintroller 8y agoI was able to find some of my college textbooks new or used in great condition for far cheaper than my bookstore at AbeBooks, including saving hundreds of dollars off books within my major if I purchased the international edition. Hate to see that opportunity removed as an option.
- aezell 8y agoI stopped using AbeBooks when I stopped using Amazon. ThriftBooks and BetterWorldBooks are good alternatives unless you are on AbeBooks for antiquarian books.
- devindotcom 8y agoAlibris is a good option too.
- btashton 8y agoYes! I buy technical books here from the Seattle Goodwill "store". If you are in Seattle you can let them know you want to pick it up and they will refund you the shipping and you can usually pick it the next morning.
- Amezarak 8y agoAbeBooks is a great resource for older and out of print books. Amazon itself is completely overrun with trash-quality fly-by-night POD and counterfeit publishers. Even when you do find a legitimate copy, it's often ludicrously overpriced. I buy a lot of antiquarian books, many of which are not just out of print, but in the public domain. YMMV.
- dredmorbius 8y agoPowell's, in Portland, OR, has an online arm. https://www.powells.com https://www.powells.com Local bookstores can typically order virtually anything.
- rinze 8y ago> Local bookstores can typically order virtually anything. This. Unless you're in the mindset that you need to buy something and you need to have it delivered now (why?), a local bookstore does the job. I typically order books on my closest one, all it takes is an e-mail or gasp I pass by and tell them what I want in person. Never failed.
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- kevindong 8y agoAbeBooks is a great place to buy the non-US versions of textbooks (which are almost always identical to the US version, but in grayscale rather than in color). For instance, on Amazon, the K&R C Programming book goes for $28.52 used, $61.74 new, or $28.70 for a one semester rental [0]. For a book that hasn't changed since 1988, these prices are absurd. While as on AbeBooks, the international edition goes for $10-11 [1]. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628 https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernig... [1]: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF-_-Advtab1-_-Results&ds=30&isbn=9780131103627&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&c...
- analogmemory 8y agoI bought two books for school from them that would have been normally $100 each, for like $30 each. The pages were as thin as a phone book, and had a Xerox quality. Basically pirate copy
- setquk 8y agoResults are somewhat variable yes. I’ve had reprinted scans turn up and totally trashed books. Success rate is about 3 in 5 though which isn’t bad considering the failures are quicky refunded. Some of the eBay sellers are better priced and have better overall outcomes though due to the very short span that hooky sellers last.
- anentropic 8y agoDon't mess with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers!