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Authors Guild To Members: De-link Amazon.com

Posted by chrisd on from the fascist-authors-guild dept.

theodp writes: "Angered by Amazon.com's practice of offering [prominently placed] used editions of relatively new titles, the Authors Guild is urging authors to replace Amazon.com links on their web sites with links to Barnesandnoble.com and BookSense.com. Amazon spokesperson Patty Smith insisted the policy really "ends up helping authors and publishers" although neither the author nor the publisher receives royalties from Amazon's used book sales, and Smith could not cite an author or genre helped by the availability of used editions. " CD: I'd imagine they don't want us to go to our local used book stores either? This is the second time they've tried to call Amazon to task for this.

3 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Are You Serious? by G-funk · · Score: 1, Troll

    They are not trying to restrict your rights in any way at all,

    YES THEY ARE. They are trying to restrict my right to know of a second-hand book for sale, they are trying to restrict the rights of the owner of said book to advertise their sale, and they are trying to restrict the right of amazon.com from providing a service between myself and the book owner for which they take a small fee.

    Sounds like they're tryint to infringe on more than my rights.

    --
    Send lawyers, guns, and money!
  2. Re:am I first? I don't care by flaw2 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Deep Throat Nine! See Major Kira splattered with splooge!

    I'd stay up at night to watch that.

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    ... ...
  3. -1, Troll, Offtopic by mblase · · Score: 1, Troll

    *sigh*

    When did our system get so unusable. When did it become "Acceptable" to pull this kind of shit ? I expect revolution at some point. I claim that our current system of laws is so complicated that it is not possible to spend even a single second of your life without breaking some law at some level of government.

    There's no "system" even discussed here. There's no "laws" being mentioned or even demanded by the Author's Guild to prevent Amazon.com from doing what they do. There's just a guild of writers who argues (incorrectly, IMO) that Amazon's approach hurts writers and publishers and therefore should be protested by linking to other online booksellers.

    Settle down. There's no call for a revolution here.