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Jeff Bezos Named Time Person of the Year
doomy writes "A pretty stunning story hit Associated Press's wire today. Apparently Jeff "king of cybercommerce" Bezos of Amazon.com fame would be named the Time Magazines's person of the year. The same wire states that Amazon was loosing millions of dollars while this award was given." I've stopped shopping at Amazon personally. Until they drop their lame patent stuff, I figure they don't want my business.
"But they're suing over a blah blah blah," you're gonna say. Yes, they are. But who are they suing? Barnes & Noble.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, the saying goes, and I agree. I don't like Barnes & Noble, and here's why:
- They tried to buy Ingram Book Company, a wholesale book retailer. This would mean that thousands of independent book stores (the kind I like) would be dependent on B&N (their competitor) for books.
- The American Booksellers Association and two dozen independent booksellers have filed suit against B&N, contending that B&N "engaged in a pattern and practice of soliciting, inducing, and receiving secret, discriminatory, and illegal terms from publishers and distributors."
- B&N open up huge stores in strip malls, which are institutions I cannot support. Amazon.com doesn't do this.
"Yes," you're gonna say, "but if Amazon wins, then they can sue anyone over this with precedent."But why would they? B&N is a direct competitor and tried to buy out Amazon.com's main supplier. Amazon would have filed suit against B&N for *anything*. Yes, this is a stupid lawsuit, and it's a stupid patent, and all the rest. Fix the sickness, not the symptoms: reform the Patent Office.
I guess what really bugs me is that everyone's getting themselves worked up into a frenzy over this and not something more important. Patent lawsuits don't kill people, nor do they give people cancer. This is corporate warfare and it doesn't involve individuals.
What's a better topic for us to get riled about? Shit, kids, take your pick:
- US Companies selling defective products overseas
- Mobil Oil involved in Indonesian massacres
- 4,000 babies die every day due to being bottle-fed, thanks to companies like Nestle
But no, we have our panties in a twist because big, bad Amazon.com is suing someone over a stupid patent.I'm willing to boycott them and *all* big companies if an independent company is there to provide the same services with minimal price impact.
So, instead of flaming me and calling me a lackey shill and anal consort of The Man, how about offering solutions? Fatbrain sells most books that I want (ie, all the books I've bought in the past month or so). That's good. Where's a socially-responsible place I can buy CDs from?
See, shopping at Whitey & The Man Bookstore in lieu of Amazon isn't good, it just provides yet another stupid company with incentive to continue their stupid tactics. If you're going to boycott Amazon.com for patent issues, you shouldn't jump in the lap of another fucked up company.
If you really want to fuck over Amazon, use their webpage to pick out books (based on user reviews, etc.), then buy the books at SociallyResponsibleBookstore.com. You get the community and the karma. Woo hoo.
So... what non-stupid online CD stores are there?
[BTW, I haven't read *any* comments offering alternatives to Amazon. You're never going to get a boycott to work if you don't offer alternatives.]
-- I can't think of anything witty to put here. Sorry.
Man (or Woman, or Thing) of the Year is generally given to the most influential person of the past year, positive or negative. Now, Bezos may be a hyper freak, but he has built up Amazon from the ground up into the Internet's first real Super Store, and proved to most of the brick-and-mortar types that e-commerce could really work. E-commerce, and hence Amazon and Bezos, have really revolutionized the way people think of doing business.
And so what if he's losing money... So was AOHell all those years, and now they're raking in the money hand over fist. As Garry Trudeau once said, "If you're not losing a lot of money, you're not being aggressive enough."
On a personal note, I know it's not what a lot of people here want to hear, but I almost won't shop at any place but Amazon. I've had really bad experiences with Barnes & Noble in the past, and while I haven't given Borders.com much of a try yet, they don't have the selection and variety of Amazon. So far I've been completely satisfied with Amazon's prices and customer service.
-- "God, Root, what is difference?" - Pitr, "User Friendly"
In other words, this nomination is a mixed blessing, at best.
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
CmdrTaco has stopped shopping at Amazon personally, yet still promotes buying books there in the books section.. Hmmm :)
While I generally don't hold "Time Magazine" in very high regard (being barely a step up from the tabloid), this sort of award reinforces my distaste for pop-news, particularly when it has anything to do with technology.
Now, of course Time magazine's strategy is to capitalize from this tech hype, so Bezos is an easy choice. Enough people will buy the magazine just because they envy the new computer-billionaires.
Let us consider Bezos' accomplishments:
1) Generating a huge, moneylosing web site to sell various products over the internet.
2) Convincing thousands of investors to hand over billions of dollars to support it.
3) Generating more baseless 'net-hype than anyone before him.
4) Deciding to do battle against competitors with stupid and obvious patents, rather than with thoughtful, innovative business strategies and by providing more value to their customers.
He's never created any value whatsoever for his stockholders, but he's certainly gotten them to convince others to invest - sounds like a big ponzi scheme to me.
When it's all said and done, it looks like their best engineered, most innovatively created, and best marketed product is..... their stock.
For this, I would suggest bestowing the first "Huckster of the year" award upon Bezos.