Amazon’s Chinese subsidiary Amazon.cn, formerly Joyo.com, is blatantly selling pirated games on its site in true Chinese style.
For $6 or so Amazon is selling a pack of DVDs containing dozens of PSP ISOs:
They helpfully warn that users will need to transfer the ISOs off the DVD and onto a PSP in order to play.
They also helpfully offer to bundle a variety of other discs packed with games of dubious legitimacy:
The volume of dodgy goods stocked leaves little doubt that this is no mere oversight of the kind which famously saw them selling rape simulators to the British.
Amazon’s determination to be Asia’s biggest seller of bootleg warez doesn’t end there – they also offer plenty of the Chinese knock-off hardware so beloved of the gaming press (although anyone looking for legitimate consoles will be hard pressed to find any on their site, strangely enough):
Wholesale piracy in China is nothing new, but for a major publicly traded US company to be so brazenly selling pirated games in China does seem beyond the pale.
Indeed, rather than busting small-time hawkers of bootleg discs in their own countries, it seems police in developed nations might do well to pay a visit to Amazon’s boardrooms, to say nothing of the affront to game publishers, busily fighting to stamp out piracy in the west only to have a major retailer blithely hawk ISOs of their games for pennies in China.
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Oh my.., I cannot imagine a future when China overtakes the US economically...
So much piracy will occur and will be rampant that no nation can curb it.
Amazon selling bootlegs? Ebay resellers do this for years everywhere and nobody stops them.
Such as... try to buy some non bootlegged anime OST on german eBay. Good luck.
Actually ebay has been sued before for not doing enough to stop sale of bootlegs, so it would be worse for Amazon who are actually selling the products directly.
Ebay might have been sued, but it sure didn't change anything. Not really a surprise, eBay makes huge profits with warez.
Amazon is not that different, for them it's a win-win situation. They profit, no matter if they sell the original or the copy.
You're right, the rulings of the most important cases were in favour of ebay. So, ebay and Amazon Marketplace are not liable for sale of bootlegs.
But, if Amazon was selling bootlegs directly, and not through marketplace, they might get in trouble, assuming the rights owner knew about it and bothered to take action.
Not might, will. The pretty much jacked a buttload of Capcom and Namco games, both companies which are Japanese. kind of funny now when this turns up at the height of the Breakdown of Chinese/Japanese relations.
Still, it just goes to show how low China has sunk. At the very least, normal people can download all of this stuff off the interweb. Y'know, FOR FREE.
I find hilarious that american's can buy any pirated products from China and then shipped to the states with no problems, while the official goods bought in Japan can only be shipped to the States if they don't weight more than 453g (16 freedom ounces).
What is wrong with the world?
China means FREEDOM not intellectual but pirating FREEEDOM!
Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! NOT!!!
There is no such thing as 'freedom'. There is only freedom from, and freedom to.
In china you have freedom *to* take someone-else's work and sell it as your own. In countries where copyright laws exist, you have freedom *from* taking your hard work and selling it as their own. In china you have freedom from being extradited to face your crimes against a foreigner. In *some* democratic countries you do not have freedom from being extradited to face your crimes against a foreigner (this is really dependent upon how 'nice' your respective countries are to each other).
In *most* democratic countries, you have freedom of speech and religion (including freedom *from* religion), and in lesser cases freedom from opposition and freedom from the government. In China you have no freedom of speech, you have no freedom of religion. You have no freedom from tyranny and no freedom from opposition by the government.
This is why anarchy doesn't work, because unless you are *incredibly* strong, there is no freedom from or freedom to, unless you *make* it that way.
anyone wondering if these are sold boy sony and others themselves? thay may not make much money off china but damnit they will try by any means necessary
We just need to start pirating Chinese games in return!!! ....oh wait.
Yes. China has the 'free' and 'dumb'.
Everything is 'free'. And everyone is too 'dumb' to come up with their own.
Meh, I have seen plenty of bootlegs on Amazon US.
Not new.
Ah, that remind me of trying to buy an original (let alone Official) Anime DVDs in Malaysia.
It's not that simple Schrobby. If you know reputable sellers in eBay, you can get authentic goods. Just don't do it crap-shoot style and do zero research. That leads to a lot of bad decisions with pirated goods.
That said, Amazon China truly seems extremely dubious.
For a culture so hell bent on disliking Japan and Japanese goods, they sure bend backwards just to pirate them en masse.
How will take overtake anything with products that cost a hundred times less than the US equivalent?
selling them two hundred times over
It's a good thing. Down with the RIAA!
I don't own a PSP, but I do bet more then half of you message posters that actually own a PSP are playing downloaded games.
Hypocrites.
sure, but the point is they didn't PROFIT off it.
To most there's a moral distinction between stealing bread to feed yourself, and stealing bread to stock your bakery.
And to most there's a moral distinction between stealing food to sustain yourself and stealing games for entertainment.
sorry they already overtake so long ago.
damn just damn.
china will pirate anything and i mean ANYTHING.
They haven't pirated democracy or free speech yet.
Democracy? lulz
BTW, they do have free spech in China. Theoretically. Just like here in the west.
Free speech can't be pirated because there are no longer any original copies...
In China you can talk freely only about foreigners. In the west only foreigners you can't talk freely about.
A "True Arranged" Free Speech, yes that's in China
Well, there is free speech but that doesnt mean you wont suffer consequences for saying something the goverment doesnt like. ^^
Some countries kill people that have a different opinion and some kill them in an economic sense (e.g. if they get fired out of their jobs like a teacher here in germany some years ago)
cant pirate something that dosen't exists like "democracy"
"true free speech"
"socialism"
and "soya meat"
You mean America.
I would think he means China.
An American company is selling it. But a person in China is pirating it. I'd also like to point out that a company doesn't represent a whole. If it did, that we'd have problems.
The Chinese invented gunpowder. not sure if they invented anything since. If a nation of copiers becomes the number one economy of the world then you can kiss off advancement. People wont inovate cuz the chinese will steel the technology. Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars on reaserch and developement if the new product is exclusive for less than 6 months?
Amazon's China branch is run and policed by people in China.
I'm pretty sure Artefact meant America. The number 1 region of unique IPs recorded on torrents is America. Close behind are Brazil and Germany.
Theres a big difference between a person buying something they didn't know was pirated vs. a person taking something they know was pirated and spreading it to others.
Yeah, what Char said. This article contained too much bias against Amazon's main branch. It's not as if the main office of Amazon goes through every item that gets listed by their Chinese subsidiary. I'm sure that once someone raises a big enough stink that the higher ups at Amazon take notice, they'll crack down on it.
nooo, he meant USA
not america, America its the whole not the hole
It's an american global player that sells it though, not some chinese letterbox company.
Free speech doesnt mean crap. Words can be easily ignored and are every day by every Government in the World.
The different terms we have for the different styles of Government are just measurements of how much of your speech they ignore. China's Government ignore pretty much everything including the rest of the World.
Yes and no. Threaten a government official's life and you'll get their attention.
To get China's attention, all you need to be is a university professor promoting democracy.
I've already seen fake eggs, only in China of course!
dont know why most of you complain. what's the diference between this and ps3 jailbreak? you're all yeah!! ps3 hack, lets buy one and start downloading games. but when the chinese offer this shit, you're all damn pirates. fuken hipocrytes.
Pirating is one thing, earning money by selling pirated goods another.
no, stealing still stealing. one way doesn't make it better than the other.
When you buy something pirated that's just like paying someone to steal it for you, while when you download/hack/pirate it your self that's just you doing the work yourself.
But when you pay for it, you're financing the Chinese. Besides, I don't believe in IP.
sadly most of the stuff you have in your home is made in china... watch out for lead poisoning.
I actually agree with Ciscotaku, after all where do you think that ps3 hack mostly come from?
If we, players buy and use ps3hack, it would be like saying that those chinese pirates that they are right and to continue.
Behind each an every game there is alot of work (atleast non-square-enix games ^^), that should be rewarded.
Says the pirate? Lol. As if you don't pirate shit. Especially anime.
i stoped paying for anime when i argued with the seller whom tried to rob me with a 2400$ pesos (like 2oo dollars)
Ruin explorers Ovas (original of course)
but on the web they were 39dollar+15 of shipping
so i buy them, and guess wut? never came, someone watching it elsewhere
my story is
i have 26 years old and started to get anime from torrents or watching them streamed only 2 years ago
i endured the most i could really
with all staggering prizes and shipping problems
seemed likethe best idea
tell me a better, cheaper, safer method and i will glady start doing things "right"
I guess it is all about the money
I bet they would even sell their freedom, rights, soul and anything else dear to them for the right price.