Here is an article from the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) June 5 is World Anti-Counterfeiting Day (http://www.ipi.org/policy_blog/detail/june-5-is-world-anti-counterfeiting-day) It is a scary message counterfeiting of medications. Note the opening sentence abut the deaths in 2012 from a false medication for malaria treatment. Then, note that in some parts of the world about 1/3 of all medications are counterfeit.!
As the author indicates, there seems to be no limit to what can be counterfeited from fake brake pads to fake batteries. There are serious potential hazards and consequences in these forgeries — far worse than pirated CDs.
Here in the US, counterfeiting takes a back seat to patent infringements and copyright theft. At least, from a public awareness perspective that seems to be the case. But, maybe that low cost product on eBay or Amazon is not licensed and is suspect.
The old adage, if it looks too good to be true… it is too good to be true. Probably most of the books on Amazon and eBay are not legal. We have had experiences were our printed books were available for sale, but there were no physical copies of the book in distribution yet… Hmm…
At least, when you buy the ebook on Amazon in Kindle format you know that it is a legal copy and the majority of the payment goes to the creator/author, not to the pirates.
Minor edits: 12/17/2014