Pirated APs on Amazon?


Dungeon Magazine General Discussion

Shadow Lodge

While trolling around Amazon I found this Shackled City/ Age of Worms Which looks like a bogus product listing. Just thought I'd send it your way.


Sounds pretty bogus to me.. Especially this part:

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge.

A million books without charge? Yeah, right..

Scarab Sages

Page count: 24

They must be using a very tiny font :)

A total scam

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

We'll let Wizards know.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I'm kinda tempted to buy one and see what shows up.

Shadow Lodge

I guess it's WotC's problem now. I just don't like to see people getting scammed. Most likely it's a link to a bunch of torrents.

Thanks Vic.

The Exchange

I did a quick search for the "creator's" website. Searching there ultimately led to a page with the message:

Quote:
Sorry, we can't provide this edition to someone in your country for copyright or other reasons. However, you can try clicking on other editions or similar books. If that doesn't work, there is no need to write us since we don't deliver books by email or any other means. Sorry, we do understand how annoying it is to get a message like this!

Edit: They call themselves a 'book club'. I did a search for Lovecraft, Howard and Shakespeare, things that should be public domain. They all led to either the same page as above or a paypal payment page. I assume thins means most of them are collections assembled by other publishers.


Jeez people, can't you all read? It's clearly stated that this product is designed for the Dungeons. They obviously went through and took out the Dragons, and that's why it's so short.


I looked through the website and from the faqs it appears that this publisher simply edits and sells information directly from Wikipedia categories. So after searching for 'Dungeon Adventure Paths' on the site you can find the product for sale with a little description and an extract. Basically it appears that your $14.14 will get you all of the information available from this link.

I have no idea why anyone would pay for this and it seems a rather mad scheme! The reasoning appears to be that it's for people who want to read Wikipedia but don't enjoy looking at screens. But they also try to sell pdf copies, which seemingly would only be the wiki category migrated into a pdf! Madness...

Shadow Lodge

Worse, they try to get you to sign up for a subscription which is likely difficult to unsub from. pure yuck.

Liberty's Edge

What bothers me is that it is apparently pretty obvious what the company is doing yet Amazon allows it? I thought Amazon was pretty strict ...

Dark Archive

Marc Radle wrote:
What bothers me is that it is apparently pretty obvious what the company is doing yet Amazon allows it? I thought Amazon was pretty strict ...

I hate to say this out in public like this but.... AMAZON SUCKS!

Oh my. Where on earth did that come from. I don't know what came over me.

The Exchange

Evil Genius Prime wrote:
Marc Radle wrote:
What bothers me is that it is apparently pretty obvious what the company is doing yet Amazon allows it? I thought Amazon was pretty strict ...

I hate to say this out in public like this but.... AMAZON SUCKS!

Oh my. Where on earth did that come from. I don't know what came over me.

Meh, to each his own. I like Amazon. Great place to buy books or blu-rays.


Wolfthulhu wrote:
Meh, to each his own. I like Amazon. Great place to buy books or blu-rays.

+1


This is not just at Amazon. I have seen it appearing lately at many retail book sites.


Dungeon Adventure Paths: Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide, Adventure Path

I think my favorite part is that evidently "Adventure Path" is an Adventure Path, lol. English not good.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Marc Radle wrote:
What bothers me is that it is apparently pretty obvious what the company is doing yet Amazon allows it? I thought Amazon was pretty strict ...

Amazon, like many other stores out there, takes data feeds from distributors and mass adds them to their catalog. Without previewing them first, because, well, there is absolutely no way they can ever afford to check each and every single item that comes through the thousands of data feeds they get every day.

Does it mean they accepted this willingly? Yep, they take the feed. Does it mean they did it maliciously? Nope, they don't know it's there until someone notifies them. And then actions are taken when the requests come from the correct people.

Sovereign Court

Dhampir984 wrote:
Marc Radle wrote:
What bothers me is that it is apparently pretty obvious what the company is doing yet Amazon allows it? I thought Amazon was pretty strict ...

Amazon, like many other stores out there, takes data feeds from distributors and mass adds them to their catalog. Without previewing them first, because, well, there is absolutely no way they can ever afford to check each and every single item that comes through the thousands of data feeds they get every day.

Does it mean they accepted this willingly? Yep, they take the feed. Does it mean they did it maliciously? Nope, they don't know it's there until someone notifies them. And then actions are taken when the requests come from the correct people.

I like to think of it as a colossal data version of the out-of-control toy assembly line in Santa Claus the movie. There's no evil intent, certainly, but sometimes the operators of technology overestimate their ability to control harm. When data speeds by Amazon corporate as quickly as it does, it's hard to apply any sort of quality control. Ebay suffers the same liability, as my obviously fake Season 7 Chinese bootlegs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer demonstrate(I later learned from a friend that DVD wasn't even a common format at the time I placed the order, since China preferred VCD).


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Warforged Gardener wrote:
I like to think of it as a colossal data version of the out-of-control toy assembly line in Santa Claus the movie. There's no evil intent, certainly, but sometimes the operators of technology overestimate their ability to control harm. When data speeds by Amazon corporate as quickly as it does, it's hard to apply any sort of quality control. Ebay suffers the same liability, as my obviously fake Season 7 Chinese bootlegs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer demonstrate(I later learned from a friend that DVD wasn't even a common format at the time I placed the order, since China preferred VCD).

It's very much the out of control assembly line. THousands of data feeds with millions of pieces of info. Try to catch 1 random bad entry... It's just not truly feasible.

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