Authors call on FTC to investigate Amazon’s alleged monopoly in bookselling

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I'm not interested in public domain books so I wouldn't know about that. However, I was able to purchase books that Amazon put under their Curtis Brown Digital label back in 2014. The author died all the way back in 2003. I loved her books and would never had been able to purchase the books I had in paper now in ebook format if Amazon hadn't scooped them up.

If Disney and friends hadn't got copyright extended many of the books / authors you like would be PD, or PD in a few years. It should be Life + 25 or Life + 40, not the crazy system now. I'd bet there are loads of PD titles you'd enjoy.
Leslie Charteris died 30 years ago and after he became successful he wrote plots etc and employed Ghost Writers. IF that was done by a company it might extend copyright to life+90.

Amazon will certainly take Disney's viewpoint and oppose any sensible reform of copyright, which needs reformed. It's corporate greed and control, not recompensing creators.


The bit I bolded doesn't follow at all. Loads of out of print books / authors have been taken up by small publishers and sold at free (part of series) to 99c to $3.99 (or £ or €).

Your assertions have no logic. A monopolist is never good for either the customers, workers or content creators.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've never seen that in any contract for a house brand. One example is Costco whose Kirkland house brand batteries are made for it by Duracell and yet Duracell continues to sell those battery sizes under their own name. If nothing else, the courts are likely to get involved in deciding the legality of such a contract.

Maybe, but I wonder if it is universally true. On a golf forum, there is a lot of discussion of Kirkland golf balls, and I haven't seen a single post saying they are simply a rebrand of some other golf ball, or that any other golf ball (brand) is exactly the same physically.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Quoth

If Disney and friends hadn't got copyright extended many of the books / authors you like would be PD, or PD in a few years. It should be Life + 25 or Life + 40, not the crazy system now. I'd bet there are loads of PD titles you'd enjoy.
Leslie Charteris died 30 years ago and after he became successful he wrote plots etc and employed Ghost Writers. IF that was done by a company it might extend copyright to life+90.

Amazon will certainly take Disney's viewpoint and oppose any sensible reform of copyright, which needs reformed. It's corporate greed and control, not recompensing creators.


The bit I bolded doesn't follow at all. Loads of out of print books / authors have been taken up by small publishers and sold at free (part of series) to 99c to $3.99 (or £ or €).

Your assertions have no logic. A monopolist is never good for either the customers, workers or content creators.

Look, I don't worry about what corporations do, I know for the most part they are greedy evil entities. As of right now, your assertions don't have any logic either! The author I liked who died had been dead for years, but none of the other supposed small publishers picked them up. Amazon did, so I'm going with them!

The world has changed, if writers don't want to sell their souls to corps, then work for themselves and self-publish.

For all the doom and gloom, you all are moaning about, Amazon is NOT a monopoly, are they working their way toward it? Probably, but right now we still have plenty of choices of where we can get our books as I buy mine from Kobo.

When all the other options for purchasing books truly start dying, then I'll worry about it. Until then, I'm just going to keep reading!

The bottom line for ME, is the entity that has what I want, is getting my business, I don't worry or give a damn about anything else, I'm not here to save the world or the world of book publishing!

[Quoth]

You do not need 100% for the FTC to declare you a monopoly.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

Maybe, but I wonder if it is universally true. On a golf forum, there is a lot of discussion of Kirkland golf balls, and I haven't seen a single post saying they are simply a rebrand of some other golf ball, or that any other golf ball (brand) is exactly the same physically.

Check on Qingdao SM Parker for the company that manufactures Kirkland 3 piece golf balls. From what I saw, it used to operate under the Fantom name and manufactures balls and other equipment for multiple customers.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

Maybe, but I wonder if it is universally true. On a golf forum, there is a lot of discussion of Kirkland golf balls, and I haven't seen a single post saying they are simply a rebrand of some other golf ball, or that any other golf ball (brand) is exactly the same physically.

1) But there are plenty of alternatives to Kirkland golf balls.
2) "I haven't seen a single post saying they are simply a rebrand of some other golf ball" But that isn't evidence. Unless they have their own golf ball factory, there will be balls without Kirkland brand made by the same factory and likely identical. The world is also a much bigger place than the USA.

However all of that is irrelevant to the call to investigate Amazon, even if there was no alternative to Kirkland balls or they were genuinely a unique product only made the Kirkland brand owner.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

...right now we still have plenty of choices of where we can get our books as I buy mine from Kobo.

How many of those Leslie Charteris books have you been able to buy from Kobo?

Originally Posted by cfrizz

...I was able to purchase books that Amazon put under their Curtis Brown Digital label back in 2014. The author died all the way back in 2003. I loved her books and would never had been able to purchase the books I had in paper now in ebook format if Amazon hadn't scooped them up.

Unless they were put out by Open Road Media or Valencourt Books or any of the many other publishers who are also putting out the back catalogs of old or deceased authors as quickly as they can be digitized.

[Ken Maltby]

As long as Kindle/Amazon can prevent my converting the ebooks I purchase from them, into files that I can read on any of the devices I own, they are no longer able to sell me ebooks. This is disappointing as they have several of my favorite authors caught in their web.

It has been my hope that they will wake up and notice that they are missing a small but consistent portion of their ebook sales that were going to those of us who format shifted the ebooks we purchased.

Luck;
Ken

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Probably that Duracell gave them the best price/quality point? They don't buy and rebrand, that is all done at the factory.

The batteries at the local Ikea look exactly the same as when they were made by Varta though they are made in China these days.

Ikea makes some of the best AA/AAA rechargeable batteries.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Isn't there a NODRM branch/version/patch that allows stripping recent kfx (>2021).

I didn't know that DeDRM 10.0.9 (RC1) is able to strip KFX DRM.

It won't be long until Amazon deals with this (IMHO).

[theducks]

So does the Big 5.
Many started out as small publishers, then were sucked up into the behemoth .

Look at the bottom of most Amazon pages. Many of those were startups in years past.
This is common. If a profitable company looks like it has legs, many times the get bought.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by John F

I'm not sure I agree with your differences. If I like a particular House Brand, and no one else is selling the same thing, to me that is the same as an Amazon Imprint author.

I'm assuming that some house brands have contracts where the outsourced manufacturer cannot duplicate exactly the item.

In many cases, a house brand is just product (low cost variant?) with the Label of the house. 5 or 6 stores may have the same product (inside ) with their house label. Very common with consumer electronics. Different color, but the rest is the same.
My first e-reader Astak EzReader (a Jinke V5) was sold other places under their label

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Check on Qingdao SM Parker for the company that manufactures Kirkland 3 piece golf balls. From what I saw, it used to operate under the Fantom name and manufactures balls and other equipment for multiple customers.

Many companies with in house manufacturing may sell manufacturing services to keep their excess capacity busy making other peoples products (eg using customers molds, materials)

The Semi conductor industry now has Foundries for production runs (this is the reason for the 'chip shortage'. Orders were cancelled and the slot was lost. THEN everyone flooded back.). Way back when we made audio chips with a Delco label (tested to Delco specs). Sometimes these products were also sold under our P/N (if the contract allowed) . Business hates idle capacity

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by theducks

So does the Big 5.
Many started out as small publishers, then were sucked up into the behemoth .

Look at the bottom of most Amazon pages. Many of those were startups in years past.
This is common. If a profitable company looks like it has legs, many times the get bought.

PRECISELY!!! This is just business as usual. Stop worrying about stuff you have NO control over and will NOT change. Just shut up and read!

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

1) But there are plenty of alternatives to Kirkland golf balls.

And there are plenty of alternatives to Amazon authors.

2) "I haven't seen a single post saying they are simply a rebrand of some other golf ball" But that isn't evidence.

Sure, but it is a pretty strong indication. Golfers can be very picky about their golf balls, similar to how readers can be very picky about their authors. There is also a lot of analysis of golf ball design and performance. Just because you say they are rebranded or how other companies rebrand, is not evidence.