{"id":25445,"date":"2025-09-16T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/25445\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:30:08","slug":"because-amazon-wont-police-its-offerings-youre-getting-shafted-and-so-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/25445\/","title":{"rendered":"Because Amazon won\u2019t police its offerings, you\u2019re getting shafted (and so am I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends, <\/p>\n

I keep hearing from people who say they\u2019ve bought my book through Amazon but received something with empty pages or with what appears to be filled with AI crap.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want you to be defrauded. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my REAL BOOK, which you can get by ordering it at bookshop.org<\/a>, which supports local bookstores. <\/p>\n

\"Coming<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are two FAKE BOOKS marketed by Amazon: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the REAL MOVIE, directed by Elliot Kirschner and produced by Heather Lofthouse, about my last class at Berkeley, which you can find at a theater near you by clicking here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve repeatedly alerted Amazon to these frauds, but they\u2019ve done nothing. <\/p>\n

I phoned Amazon\u2019s customer service line and spoke with a nice man who said that Amazon would stop marketing the fake books if I could show that they infringed my copyright. \u201cDo you have proof that they\u2019re counterfeit?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes. My name is Robert Reich, and the cover of one of the fake books is exactly the same as is being used to market a popular movie about my last class at Berkeley. The title of the other is the same as my book Coming Up Short. In fact, Amazon is telling customers that my book and the fakes are \u2018frequently bought together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll pass this information along,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

I then asked how Amazon ensures that all the books it offers for sale are legitimate. He explained that Amazon requests all authors to \u201cvalidate\u201d their identities before it posts about them. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the supposed authors of these counterfeit books don\u2019t exist. I googled them and nothing is known about either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not my department,\u201d said the nice man. <\/p>\n

By the way, Amazon still hasn\u2019t taken down these fake books. <\/p>\n

Bottom line: Buy books at your local bookstore, or order through bookshop.org<\/a>, which supports local bookstores. <\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends, I keep hearing from people who say they\u2019ve bought my book through Amazon but received something with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-25445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}