Amazon’s Book Monopoly : A Threat to Freedom of Expression?

[AnemicOak]

Amazon’s Book Monopoly : A Threat to Freedom of Expression?
https://www.newamerica.org/open-mark...book-monopoly/

Amazon dominates the U.S. book market to a degree never before seen in America. This corporation dominates every key segment of the market. And this immense size gives Amazon unprecedented power to manipulate the flow of books – hence of information and ideas – between author and reader.

Last summer a group of authors made the case that Amazon’s actions constitute an abuse of its monopoly powers and threatens this vital marketplace of ideas. Amazon’s actions, they wrote, may already be affecting what authors write and say. The authors strongly urged antitrust regulators to take action, in what would be the most important antitrust case since Microsoft in the late 1990s.

Join New America’s Open Markets program for a discussion of Amazon’s monopoly over books and what it means for American readers and America’s democracy. Some of the nation’s best-known authors will discuss their personal experiences with Amazon. Antitrust lawyers and experts in Big Data and price discrimination will then discuss the larger effects of the corporation’s behavior, and whether the government should bring a case against Amazon.

Authors United to Host Amazon Discussion
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...iscussion.html

Novelist Douglas Preston, who founded the authors group critical of Amazon known as Authors United, has joined with the Authors Guild and the New America Foundation to host a discussion about the retailer’s power and influence in the book trade. The talk, called Amazon's Book Monopoly: A Threat to Freedom of Expression?, will be held at the New America Foundation’s office in Washington D.C., on January 27.

In a letter sent to potential attendees, Preston said positive things came out of a meeting that Authors Unlimited and the Authors Guild had with the Justice Department about antitrust concerns with Amazon. Preston wrote that “while Justice staff did not (and cannot) give us any indication of whether they would investigate, they took our concerns seriously.”

This talk, Preston explained, is to build on what came out of that meeting. Among those who will be featured in the discussion are authors Scott Turow and Susan Cheever; Smashwords founder Mark Coker; former 'New Republic' editor (and New America Foundation fellow) Franklin Foer; and William Morris Endeavor agent Eric Simonoff.

Preston said that the discussion in Washington is centered on "Amazon's enormous market power and the ways we believe it has misused that power to the detriment of authors and the book industry.”

[eschwartz]

What, again?

Hey, Mr. Preston! Nobody cared the last dozen times you opened your mouth, either!

[Cinisajoy]

Can you buy their books at Amazon?
If yes, then they either need to quit biting the hand that feeds them or pull their books from there.
And who or what is a Douglas Preston?

[susan_cassidy]

How is offering every book offered for sale by publishers and self-publishers a bad thing, or a monopoly? If other retailers don't offer as much, how is that Amazon's fault?

[eschwartz]

Nothing new here, moving along...

The only thing that interests me is, what specifically has happened that made Snowflakes Entitled feel the need to vomit again.

Here are a few more links:
J.A. Konrath's take
Nate @The Digital Reader


And Konrath has this brilliant line:

The public likes Amazon. Even if it were true that Amazon is planning to overthrow the government and replace the Bill of Rights with a guarantee of same day free shipping, its approval rating is so high that I don’t think most folks would care.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Can you buy their books at Amazon?
If yes, then they either need to quit biting the hand that feeds them or pull their books from there.
And who or what is a Douglas Preston?

One of my favorite authors.

[HarryT]

Do bookstores other than Amazon exist? Yes, therefore they are not a monopoly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do bookstores other than Amazon exist? Yes, therefore they are not a monopoly.

You could say Amazon is a monopoly because they are the only ones who sell KF8 and KFX eBooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You could say Amazon is a monopoly because they are the only ones who sell KF8 and KFX eBooks.

You could say that, but do you really feel an irresistible urge to say something so silly? I really wouldn't say it, if I were you.

[DiapDealer]

Anybody could say it.
Wouldn't make any more true.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You could say Amazon is a monopoly because they are the only ones who sell KF8 and KFX eBooks.

Apple are the only ones who sell FairPlay DRM'd eBooks

B&N are the only ones who sell their special flavor or Adobe DRM'd eBooks

Kobo are the only one's who sell kePub's


An exclusive format does not a monoploy make.

[ottdmk]

Sigh. It would be nice if they'd get their terminology straight. Amazon is not a monopoly. Their market dominance makes them close to a monopsony in book retailing, but they're not there yet either.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Nothing new here, moving along...

The only thing that interests me is, what specifically has happened that made Snowflakes Entitled feel the need to vomit again.

Here are a few more links:
J.A. Konrath's take
Nate @The Digital Reader


And Konrath has this brilliant line:

You do realize that with this post, cookies were not started yet. You delayed the cookies by an hour.

Barry and Joe were great as always.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You do realize that with this post, cookies were not started yet. You delayed the cookies by an hour.

Barry and Joe were great as always.

Was it worth the delay?

Now you can hold a public Konrath-reading with cookies.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Was it worth the delay?

Now you can hold a public Konrath-reading with cookies.

Yes it was though I do need off here to make the cookies.