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Beware of Fake Books
Damien Maloney for The New York Times (books); Marcel Poncu/Shutterstock.com (sign)
Fake Orwell books that have sold on Amazon
If you were to order a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 from Amazon for your English class, you’d expect to receive the same text as everyone else—but there’s a chance you wouldn’t. The site doesn’t vet each title like a physical bookstore does, and in the past two years, the number of piracy and counterfeiting issues has increased tenfold, experts say. Many books—by Orwell and other authors—feature missing sections, different wordings, or jarring typos. (One 1984 reader, for example, said his copy used the word feces instead of faces.) Because the counterfeiters haven’t paid the author anything, their editions are generally the least expensive. Amazon has removed some illegitimate copies from its virtual shelves, but many are calling on the e-commerce giant to do more. “Once a week a counterfeit pops up,” says Bill Hamilton, the agent for the Orwell estate. “When will a company like Amazon take responsibility for the curation of the products passing through their hands?”