Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
I'm sorry but as soon as you put a price on it and toss it in a bargain bin it's a mere consumer good.
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Books are different because of the risk of censorship of ideas. If Amazon used it's market power to discourage sales of books with ideas Jeff Bezos dislikes, that would be a big problem to me.
But, while respecting it, I don't quite share the Authors United outrage. That's because Amazon's discouragement of buying many Hachette products is a business decision, not an ideological one. Exhibit A is
The Everything Store, a Hachette book that an Amazon spokesperson has denounced because of its content, and supposed disrespect to Mrs. Bezos. So how it is treated at Amazon.com? Well, at least tonight, the hardcover ships immediately, and the eBook price (US$9.99) is reasonable compared to others.
Take this you anti-specialness Amazon-lovers: Amazon itself treats books as special. If Amazon treated publishers the way it treats laptop manufacturers like Apple, the only way you could buy a Hachette title at Amazon would be through a third-party vendor.
Amazon would be treating Hachette way worse if its executives weren't thinking that books are special.