Slashdot Mirror
Authors' Amazon Awareness
Geoffrey.landis writes "Many book lovers were surprised this week when Amazon.com removed books from the publisher Macmillan from the shelves (later restored), including such popular imprints as St. Martin's, Henry Holt, and the science fiction publisher Tor. But readers shouldn't have been surprised, according to the Author's Guild. The Author's Guild lists a history of earlier instances where Amazon stopped listing a publisher's books in order to pressure them to accept terms, dating back to early in 2008, when Amazon removed the 'buy' buttons for works from the British publisher Bloomsbury, representing such authors as William Boyd, Khaled Hosseini, and J.K. Rowling. In response, the Author's Guild has set up a service called Who Moved My Buy Button to alert authors when their books are removed from Amazon's lists."
Amazon's actions have generated ill-will on the parts of many authors, who — being authors — are only too happy to explain their viewpoints at length. Two such examples are Tobias Buckell's breakdown of why Amazon isn't the righteous defender of low-prices they claim to be and Charlie Stross's round-up of the situation.
Here's what you do: you drive over to their corporate office and make the receptionist suck your cock. Then make your way to their software development office and make the DRM dev team suck your cock. Then ride the elevator up to the C-level offices and force your way into Jeff Bezos' office and make him suck your cock.
Sure, you'll still have to deal with DRM, but at least you will have had your dick sucked. They can take your books away from you, but they can never take your past blowjobs.
There is nothing 'purist' about leaving Mom's basement once in awhile to buy a book, or better yet to go do the Library.