Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
The special characteristics of books, at Amazon.com, are:
1. They are expressions of speech
2. Amazon has a dominant market share, such as, in the case of eBooks, 65 percent in its home market
While #1 applies to multiple types of consumer goods sold by Amazon, I can only think of one other kind of consumer good Amazon sells, besides books, that possibly meets numbers 1 and 2 above. This is: Newspapers sold for reading on mobile devices. I don't know what market share Amazon has there, but it's big.
So, what happens if Amazon gets into a snit with News Corp./Harper Collins? Would they refuse to sell Kindle-platform News Corp. newspapers as they have done during past pricing disputes concerning Apple computers and Wusthof knives? I am confident Amazon executives have enough sense not to do that. Newspapers are supreme special snowflakes, even more than books. Powerful interests, in a democratic society, should, and generally do, refrain from suppressing their circulation.
Now, as I said, I think Amazon does treat books as special snowflakes and thus, quite properly, tones down its capitalist animal spirits a bit when it comes to pressuring publishers. The question, for me, is whether they have toned it down enough.
As a public company, Amazon has a responsibility not only to stockholders and customers and employees, but also to the broader public. One reflection of this is the existence of a board of directors that has several members with a non-profit background. It's proper for the authors to make a case to them, and for the directors to consider it seriously. |
Amazon isn't refusing to sell Hachette's books. They are refusing to warehouse their physical books without a signed contract. They still sell them, they just need to be ordered one purchase at a time from Hachette. This is a little slower than direct mailing from a local warehouse but you can still buy them. And why should it matter? People can live without a specific book for a week or even two without expiring.
Amazon isn't REFUSING to sell Hachette ebooks. Without a signed contract they have no right to do so. It's Hachette's fault if they refuse to sign the contract. Yell at them.