Amazon & Used Books II: Bezos Strikes Back

Posted by timothy on Monday April 15, 2002 @06:12AM from the eye-of-the-bookholder dept.

theodp writes: "Last week's call for authors to de-link Amazon from their sites has reportedly prompted Jeff Bezos to fire off a letter to all Amazon Marketplace sellers, asking them to help out by sending e-mail on Amazon's behalf in response to the Guild's call for Amazon to stop placing prominent used book ads on each title's main web entry and soliciting new books purchasers to resell their books through Amazon shortly after purchase. Bezos wants everyone to be 'super-clear' that Amazon.com is supportive of and good for authors, indicating that Amazon's steep discounting of new titles and royalty-less sales of used books are two examples of how Amazon helps the book industry and authors. Good to see Jeff's found a new cause, since it looks like he's done with up patent reform."

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Re:Whine, whine, whine... by Waffle+Iron · 2002-04-15 10:18 · Score: 2, Flamebait

Maybe I'm missing something. I thought that this was about books, you know, those paper-based thingies with little squiggles all over them that you probably had to buy en masse back in kawl-edge. Since when did either the author's guild or Bezos mention anything about electronic media?
Yes, you're missing something. I pointed out how the Amazon system is able to make even physical books somewhat similar to electronic media. Predictably, the authors are wining about "abuse" of book resale, and predictably, you respond that you've got a physical book, so it's not a problem.
I was trying to get past this logjam, which until now only seemed to apply to electronic media.