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The "it's just business" argument is as feeble as it gets. Running a protection racket is also "just business". Pushing dope is "just business". Having kids produce garments for 50 Cents/day is "just business". Publishers forming a cartel was also "just business".
Yet some business is not acceptable or illegal.
Call me old fashioned but I do expect a major bookseller to carry the books of major publishing houses. If I had to choose between Amazon and the publishing houses I'll choose the publishers any day of the week. Amazon is just a delivery platform that hasn't contributed any great book to literature. Yet with their grip on the market they can do a lot of damage.
They are just the typical ugly face of many new companies: hiding out in some tax shelter, mainly creating crappy, poorly paid jobs. If at some point some regulator or tax authority manages to grab them and to shake them down until the pips squeak I won't shed a tear. (And no, I have no interests in the publishing industry)
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