Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Since you don't like the New York Times coverage, can you link to something on this in the Paris papers?
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Actually, not really: I mostly read Le Monde, but their articles are behind a partial paywall. But I can tell you coverage is just as biased, but for a different reason. France is immensely suspicious of major US companies meddling with sacrosanct culture, whether it be Amazon, Google or Apple. Worst, Hachette USA is a subsidiary of Hachette France, which belongs to Lagardère, a very powerful private group AND a family with strong political connections.
For those still interested and who can read French or want to Google translate, here is a link, but you'll only see part of the article unless you pay. Particularly amusing is the link between this fight and recent revelations about working conditions in Amazon's logistics department, which makes totally sense and is not biased at all
http://lemonde.fr/technologies/artic...47_651865.html
Edit: I should add that in France, books cannot be discounted by more than 5% by law, in order to protect both the special status of books as cultural items and small book stores. The government recently voted another law, dubbed the "anti-Amazon law" in the medias, by which no reseller was allowed to offer free delivery on books if they already applied the discount. This was obviously directed at the Amazon Prime program. Just to say, I am not saying the French establishment is biased against Amazon just to fit my POV on this matter, there is strong evidence!