Quote:
Originally Posted by dgatwood
True, but when you have a large market share, you're under a microscope. Anything you do that prevents competition becomes potentially problematic.
In this case, three things that Amazon has done, each of which is, when examined on its own, perfectly legal, conspire to make it essentially impossible to distribute the exact same book through other stores that you distribute through Amazon, simply because you can't use their tools to generate a MOBI for other stores, and you can't use anybody else's tools to generate a MOBI for Amazon's store.
So I would argue that the resulting combination of those policies effectively creates an exclusivity clause in Amazon's relationships with its vendors. Those are legal under many circumstances, but if you are a monopoly or a near-monopoly, they aren't. And the fact that you can sell a different product to other distributors (e.g. in EPUB format instead of MOBI) doesn't negate that.
Mind you, this isn't an open-and-shut antitrust violation, but it is enough of a grey area that Amazon should probably change their policies to stay well clear of the line.
Right now.
Actually, Amazon already limits freedom of expression. They ban pornography, for example. The only thing standing between them and other limits on free expression is that their current management believes in free expression to some degree. But that can turn on a dime. Just look at SCO for a great example of how a management change can turn a tech pioneer into a lawsuit engine, and you'll understand why it is important that no single company be responsible for three-quarters of all eBook sales.
Sure. The problem is that most censorship tends to be subtle and gradual. As long as there are only a few new people complaining about censorship every year, it is likely that no one would pay them much attention—"First, they came for the Socialists" and all that.
You misunderstand. I'm not saying that they're an enemy of free expression. I'm saying that the existence of any near-monopoly, no matter how benevolent it might be, is inherently a threat to free expression.
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First off, the exclusivity for vendors is completely the vendor's choice and has to be renewed every 90 days. Amazon offers a few perks to get vendors to go exclusive.
Secondly: what are you considering pornography? No, you can't get the triple x stuff but a quick search just told me you can get adult videos. And as far as books are concerned, there are only 239,500 in the erotica section. 115,173 are in Kindle Unlimited.
Also unless I go exclusive with Amazon, there is no reason, I can't upload my book to other distributors. Of course, it will be formatted to go with their particular store.
Now if I want to do Smashwords, I can do all three of the most common formats.