After the infamous Google censorship ‘deal’ with China, it's now Amazon.com's turn.
An old regular customer visited me on Friday and told me an interesting story. He said he tried to order RO Winstedt's A History of Malaya from Amazon.com and was told that the book could not be delivered to a Malaysian address. He told me to try it for myself.
I already have my own copy of the book, but that night when I got home I tried to order the book from Amazon.com. They had 2 used copies at USD16.00 each published by Merican and Sons in 1986. I went through the motions of ordering the book. After I had put in the delivery address I got this window with a message in bold red:
*** We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to the country you selected. You can enter a different shipping address above, or you can remove the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0, then clicking
the Update button. ***
Rather interesting I thought, and does raise all sorts of questions. Is Amazon.com practising selective self-censorship, or are they working on 'instructions'. If so, from whom? Can we have a full list of the books that cannot be shipped to Malaysia? Where can we view it? How many other 'dodgy' countries do Amazon have on their list?
I have read RO Winstedt's A History of Malaya several times and although I do not agree with many of his conclusions and his somewhat condescending views, I cannot see reason why it should be banned in Malaysia. (This book was first published as Part 1, Volume X111 in March 1935 by the Malayan Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society.)
See image of Amazon.com Checkout page.
No used-book sold at Amazon.com can be shipped to Malaysia. Buying a new book is not the same as buying an old book from Amazon.com. So the problem may not be censorship. On this Amazon.com webpage, http://tinyurl.com/y5a88k, it is stated,
ReplyDeleteNote: non-U.S. buyers at Amazon Marketplace [used-book buyers] must be located in a country covered by Amazon.com Payments. Malaysia (and Singapore) is not covered.
Thank you for that clarification. With books getting banned left and right in the country now, I guess this bit made us a little jittery. Cheers.
ReplyDeletejust to pass on some info. hope it's of use. if anybody is interested to get second hand books , why not try http://www.alibris.com/. i've ordered quite a number of second hand books here. it's very reliable.
ReplyDeleteor www.abebooks.com which has never let me down ...
ReplyDeleteYou could also try contacting the Amazon seller directly, who might be able to offer a way around the block. We've managed for several customers.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Bulgaria and I have the same problem. I'm trying to buy some used books (Herbert Schildt) and it says the same :^)
ReplyDeleteIs there any way to buy these books, or not? I thought I won't have any problems with amazon.com, but it seems i was wrong!!!
if you buy it new, i don't think amazon.com has any prob with it... i'm thinking of buying one over the net, but would custom tear off the banned book on arrival? anyone has any experience?
ReplyDeletetry betterworld.com/book
they offer competitive shipping