I think it’s a legitimate concern. Even though I agree with Sirtel that’s it’s the obligation of the seller to sell only legal editions, I also absolutely do not want to support pirates. If it’s a choice between a too-expensive legal edition and a cheap bootleg edition from the same seller, I’d will go without, even if morally (and this is up for debate) I’d be off the hook so long as the purveyor is legit.
To take the prime example, Amazon is rife with bootleg Kindle editions for sale. The bootleg copies can persist for years, even if only a cursory examination shows they’re pirated and they’ve been reported. So long as the rights’ holder isn’t involved, Amazon will look the other way.
However, it’s a good question and I admit I haven’t looked into it. I know not all the bootleg Kindle books have DRM; however, I don’t know if none of them do. If you want to avoid bootleg copies it might take a little dilegence. Most recently for me, it was obvious that the cheap Faulkners being sold by an Indian publisher for much less than the Random House editions are pirated.
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