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Originally Posted by 4691mls
I had no idea ebooks were sold on eBay. I guess I've been living under a rock....
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I used to buy used ppbks on what was called, what, HalfBay? Something like that?
I also did not know before today that ebooks were sold on eBay.
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Basically, eBay is all, "Shocked, shocked that someone could be selling pirated material on eBay!" In the meantime, happily taking their cut of illegal sales.
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Issy, to be fair to eBay and Amazon, et al: it's bloody difficult to be the honesty police. How can they force the issue? If I go to Macy's, and get some FGWPs, and want to resell those on eBay, who's going to police me, to ensure that they didn't fall off the back of a truck? How could it be proven? What, I have a receipt from Macy's? Is that good enough, even though FGWP aren't necessarily shown thereupon?
I don't blame either eBay or Amazon for the counterfeit, etc., property that shows up on their shores. It's impossible to police. The enormous appetite for "good deals" and uber-cheap prices, particularly for certain name-brand goods drives the grey market--and to solve that, you have to look to humanity itself. I've heard people speak equally dismissively and contemptously of the ebook-making firms that outsource to India for labor, as if they are doing "something evil," but when someone wants a print layout job, that not even a decade ago, cost $1600 USD, for $300, how the frack do they expect that to be done? Magic? Cauldrons and eye of newt? No--it's done by using laborers that will do the work for that kind of money.
Same exact thing when someone wants to buy a pair of "designer" jeans that retail for $400 for $80.00. How is the website to blame? What, they should turn up their noses, at "cheap" prices? So that some other website would feature that merchandise, instead? No no...the problem isn't the websites. It's the utter lack of honesty and integrity in the BUYERS. The websites simply service that need, and in terms of realistic logistics, I do not see how on earth they could ever police it themselves. I know that Amazon's removed products that I've reported--I can't speak to eBay.
Hitch