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Reasons not to buy from Amazon

If you want to order a book (or something else), don't buy it from Amazon. Amazon harms its customers, as well as workers, the national treasury, and many others that it affects.

Here's a good (though long) overview of why Amazon's overall activity is harmful to society overall.

This page lists alternatives to Amazon for buying various kinds of products. These sites may share some of Amazon's unethical practices: identifying each custoimer and requiring per to run nonfree software (JavaSccript code sent to the browser). I refuse to do those things, so I do not use use any of those sites. But they may not be evil in some of the ways that Amazon is.

To avoid being the victim of digital injustice, buy from a physical store, paying cash, anonymously. That is what I do.

For videos, you can get a DVD. It may have DRM (always an injustice in itself), but at least there is free software to break the DRM on DVDs. However, it is morally better to get a non-oppressive copy through sharing.

For a printed book, order it directly from the publisher or through a local book store. A local independent book store lets me pay cash in advance to order a book, and not identify myself.

If you want to use a URL to identify a book, please don't use an Amazon page! Doing so promotes Amazon.

Robert Reich presents how Amazon uses its monopoly power to screw the independent sellers that find themselves effectively compelled to sell through Amazon -- and their customers too. The FTC is suing Amazon over this. Hooray for the FTC, but remember that Amazon surveillance is direct injustice to each customer, independent of its purely economic wrongs.

Here are other specific reasons — plenty of them.


Anticompetitive practices

Size

Sabotaging customers

Limiting the use of cash

Restricting and shafting customers

Censorship

Snooping

Exploiting workers mercilessly

Shafting others in the publishing world

Dodging taxes

Vendors

Other reasons


anticompetitive

Size

Sabotaging Customers

Limiting the use of Cash

Restricting and Shafting Customers

Censorship

Snooping

Exploiting workers mercilessly

Shafting others in the publishing world

Dodging taxes

Vendors

Other reasons


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Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted, provided this notice is preserved